Best way to cut ingredient costs?

[Barley-Davidson]

If you compare to pub prices it's pretty easy to "save money" brewing. Conversly, if you compare to purchasing BMC you're going to have a tough time. I compare to packaged microbrews, since I drink my homebrew at home, and haven't stopped going to the pub (although I don't go that often).

I think the only way to calculate a "break even" point is vs. the cost of comparable commercial beer.

To clarify my above point, you can use other metheds of comparison for specific equipment. For example, if you want a grain mill you would divide the cost of the mill by the savings per pound of grain when you purchase in bulk, letting you know how many pounds of grain you need to mill for the grain mill to pay for itself.

Good thing it's a hobby, if I included labor in any cost calculations I don't think there'd be any savings.

 

[RadicalEd]

Sorry, orfy, I was going off of your second option for "C", AG vs extract. That was pretty much the conversation as I saw it, the cost savings of AG vs extract.

But yeah, HB vs commercial really isn't much of a contest. Even vs BMC, 2 cases costs $30 where I live, so a carefully planned extract can even beat it. Labor non withstanding .

 

[mward]

If you compare to pub prices it's pretty easy to "save money" brewing.

Yeah and don't forget paying for a DUI if you go to the pub a lot. Homebrew is TONS cheaper!

 

[veggiess]

Gotcha. Buying in bulk is what saves you money. If you just bought the kit ingredients separately, it'd cost you $1-2 more per batch.

Not always. A lot of time they charge you for things you don't need, like a grain bag, or the irish moss and priming sugar. I don't consider having a container of irish moss on hand or a large bag of priming sugar "buying in bulk", and I have rarely seen a kit cost less than the ingredients separately (at least at my LHBS-Midwest & Northern). Only once in a while have I noticed a savings at Northern if you are looking at the cost of the Wyeast. Just my $.02!

 

[Grimsawyer]

I just skimmed through this thread a bit, so i might be repeating alot here... Go all grain. The amount of cash you are spending making beer will be saved in less than a year. Grab 2 coolers and search this site for mashtun conversion, you will wonder why you diddn't earlier. Get a STURDY turkey fryer base and grab a keg out of your local scrap yard. $35 here in Salem OR. Cut the top out and you have a CHEAP @$$ boil kettle that can do up to 13 gallon full boils. No problem doing 6-7 gallon boils. You don't need to do any fancy welding and putting on ball valves... if you are going for cheap, this is the way. Treat it as you would your kettle on the stove, just, it's outside. A grain mill is also essential!!! instead of paying as much for DME as you do for 1.5 batches of beer you can get a 55 pound bag of grain that will do 5 batches of 5% beer at 5 gallons(most likely 5.5- 6 percent once you figure out your equipment) for only $35!!!! Buy hops online. WWW.FRESHOPS.COM is actually where MY homebew shop gets alot of their hops. I loaded up my shopping cart on that site with FOUR POUNDS of hops and it was only $48.96!!!!! that's pounds, 64 ounces of hops for under fifty bucks!!! if you used 8oz per batch of beer that's 8 batches of beer!!! six bucks a batch for hops(8 oz) $7.00 each batch for your base malt(at 75% brewhouse effeciency that's 5.9% abv, people who mill their own grains end up closer to 85%, that would be 6.7%) for a total of $13.00 a batch plus the cost of yeast(FREE If you re-use) and specialty grains. So, if I wanted to brew a batch of beer and I was just going to toss in 2 lbs of specialty grains, assuming they are $1.60/lb and i had some yeast left over for $16.20 I could brew a 6.7%abv beer that I had used 8 oz of hops in... beats the HELL out of 55-65 bucks for a batch of brew my friend. You can pick up coolers at wallmart for 15-25 bucks that will do you just fine! I converted a cooler with a copper pipe manifold for $5(it was cheesey, but it was CHEAP and it WORKED!!!) The equipment is a bit spendy, but as much as you are spending if you were planning on $50 each week for brewing but had the equipment you would save $30 bucks a week... Big picture that would be a savings of $1560.00 every year!!! I hope my long-winded post was helpful! Happy Brewing!!!:rockin: