lower priced ingredient kits

Why not make your own Blonde Ale?

Try this recipe:
(prices are from Morebeer)
6 lbs of ultra light LME-13.80
.5 lbs crystal 15L - 0.78
.5 lbs Victory - .85
1 once of Willamette- 2.00
nottingham dry yeast- 1.65

That is $19.08 for 5 gallons with an OG of 1.047

One of the tricks to saving on shipping is to purchase as many kits at one time as you can, that way you only pay shipping once. Most of the reputable online shops have flat rate shipping, or free shipping if you spend over a certain amount.

My LHBS has Brewer's Best brand (I think that's the name) kits ranging from $22 to $35 per kit (depending on the style of beer). Looks like a decent price compared to online?

brown_dog_us said:

Why not make your own Blonde Ale?

Try this recipe:
(prices are from Morebeer)
6 lbs of ultra light LME-13.80
.5 lbs crystal 15L - 0.78
.5 lbs Victory - .85
1 once of Willamette- 2.00
nottingham dry yeast- 1.65

That is $19.08 for 5 gallons with an OG of 1.047

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Interesting point, normally self made recipes are more expensive than just buying a kit. I will take that into account thanks alot.

brown_dog_us said:

Why not make your own Blonde Ale?

Try this recipe:
(prices are from Morebeer)
6 lbs of ultra light LME-13.80
.5 lbs crystal 15L - 0.78
.5 lbs Victory - .85
1 once of Willamette- 2.00
nottingham dry yeast- 1.65

That is $19.08 for 5 gallons with an OG of 1.047

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sounds like a good recipe to me, and excellent price to. hey what can i say i'm on a budget but i like good beer. i'm not one of those people who can forget about how much i spend on a batch. i'm currently buying quarter kegs from the brewery for $56, 75 cents a beer.

Eves said:

With 10+% sales tax + gas money to drive to a LHBS + prices that are no better than online stores I find that its hard to not shop online.

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10% !! where do you live? Remind me not to move there.

Patton191 said:

My problem with midwest is the shipping and they give muntons for dry yeast on almost every kit. From what I have read munton's doesn't seem to be a great dry yeast.

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That is why I bought several packets of US-05 with my order from them. Now I use the muntons for soda.

dotknott said:

10% !! where do you live? Remind me not to move there.

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The closest LHBS to me is in the city of Chicago. IL sales tax + Cook sales county tax + Chicago sales tax = 10+% sales tax. Not sure if its true but some have said that the city of Chicago now has the highest sales tax in the country. Sadly even if I shop outside of the city and even the county sales tax is still not far from 10%.

I'd much rather prefer to shop locally but with all the extra costs involved in shopping locally it is just way cheaper for me to buy online. Though I am positive if a LHBS were to open closer to me (or even on my way home from work) I'd still throw 'some' business their way. Nothing quite like being able to run out to pick up a kit/ingredient on the spur of the moment.


EDIT: With regards to the question of whether or not you can build your own beer cheaper than kits... I think if you were to mimic a kit by buying separately you'd have a harder time buying for less. Now if you come up with your own brew I think you could save some money...just as that Blond Ale recipe showed.

And lets not forget partial or AG brewing. If you happen to have the equipment to do even partial mash brewing you could probably save some money going that route. 5 lbs of grain can account for ~50% of your fermentables in a 5gal batch and yet costs way less than extract that would account for that same amount of fermentables.

Lastly...if you're a fan of hoppy brews then hops make up a good chunk of the cost of beer. I mean even if the hop shortage is coming to an end stores might decide not to lower their hop prices in this economy. Try growing your own hops if you can.

Patton191 said:

From every website I have searched morebeer seems to be the cheapest, if you want to brew one of the 5 beers they have in the 50c section. $22-23 including yeast seems to be the best I have found. Austin homebrew has kits in that range, but without yeast.

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I could have just listed the 25 or so beers that were the same or less than More Beers only 5 kits. But there are a lot of customers that already have yeast so without yeast there are about 120 in that price range. Sure beats 5.

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

I use Austin Homebrew Supply too, They have some $.50 beer too, and flat rate shipping. I also hit up the store any time I am up in the area. My LHBS is just not that good here, and that is crazy cause of the business that goes to Austin from San Antonio

Eves said:

The closest LHBS to me is in the city of Chicago. IL sales tax + Cook sales county tax + Chicago sales tax = 10+% sales tax. Not sure if its true but some have said that the city of Chicago now has the highest sales tax in the country. Sadly even if I shop outside of the city and even the county sales tax is still not far from 10%.

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Wow, I work in retail here in RI, and I get a LOT of people from Mass. complaining about the 7% we have in RI over the 5% they have in Mass. People gripe, but if they really cared, they would go to New Hampshire, where there is no sales tax. I can't even begin to imagine having to pay 10%... is it on all sales? here, we have no tax on groceries and clothes, 7% on most other sales except an additional 1.5% on food service.

Eves said:

Lastly...if you're a fan of hoppy brews then hops make up a good chunk of the cost of beer. I mean even if the hop shortage is coming to an end stores might decide not to lower their hop prices in this economy. Try growing your own hops if you can.

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I'm just getting into this "hobby" and I'm already planning to add hops to my container garden this year. I don't know that it will really suspend my reliance on the LHBS, but it will allow me to keep a small supply of my own.

Like almost anything I grown in my garden, it won't keep me from having to go to the grocery store, but it does cut back on what I have to buy when I do go.

dotknott said:

Wow, I work in retail here in RI, and I get a LOT of people from Mass. complaining about the 7% we have in RI over the 5% they have in Mass. People gripe, but if they really cared, they would go to New Hampshire, where there is no sales tax. I can't even begin to imagine having to pay 10%... is it on all sales? here, we have no tax on groceries and clothes, 7% on most other sales except an additional 1.5% on food service.

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I am not really sure how the sales tax is broken down in IL (you'd think I would have a clue after living there most of my life). However, I am pretty sure that sales tax on food is slightly lower than the sales tax on everything else.