Bringing Costs Down...

[Dawgchad]

I was NEVER of the opinion that brewing my own beer would make it less expensive, but I really wasn't expecting the costs to be so high.

Currently, with extract and partial grain brewing, and bottling to 32oz EZ cap bottles, I am seeing a per bottle cost of around $10.

Now, I live in the middle of nowhere (1 hour drive to nearest brewing retailer) and I know that ordering everything on line is 20% of my cost (shipping)...$2 a bottle.

I also know that right now I need to buy bottles for all my beer, and that is running about $3.33 per bottle. This will drop significantly when I build up a good store and rotation of bottles.

BUT what would be some of your recommendations for saving cost?

Is Wyeast worth the $5 increase over dry for instance?

What is the best and least expensive online retailer?

What are some tricks you have used to save money?

 

[brewmax25]

Some ways to save costs would be
-reusing yeast by harvesting from a previous brew. When you get really good at it you can even start to save yeast I'm the fridge
-buy bulk grains or other ingredients.
-what size batches are you brewing ? You may find that your cost goes down of you brew a little bit more.

Dry yeast is good stuff, but I've always had great results with liquid yeast. If you want to compare though. Try us05 or another simple neutral ale strain.

 

[mdbrewer1]

I was NEVER of the opinion that brewing my own beer would make it less expensive, but I really wasn't expecting the costs to be so high.

Currently, with extract and partial grain brewing, and bottling to 32oz EZ cap bottles, I am seeing a per bottle cost of around $10.

Now, I live in the middle of nowhere (1 hour drive to nearest brewing retailer) and I know that ordering everything on line is 20% of my cost (shipping)...$2 a bottle.

I also know that right now I need to buy bottles for all my beer, and that is running about $3.33 per bottle. This will drop significantly when I build up a good store and rotation of bottles.

BUT what would be some of your recommendations for saving cost?

Is Wyeast worth the $5 increase over dry for instance?

What is the best and least expensive online retailer?

What are some tricks you have used to save money?

That bottle cost and shipping cost are really driving the price up. Even still, that still leaves you with about $5 each in ingredient cost.

Can you give an example recipe and the price you're paying for extract, grains, and hops?

To save cost you can buy enough ingredients for multiple batches to spread out the shipping costs. You can also look at sites like morebeer that offer free shipping on most reasonable-sized items (doesn't work on things like sacks of grain or large pieces of equipment) when you spend $59 or more.

Harvesting yeast will save you money. Either making oversized starters and saving some of the excess or washing yeast after the batch is finished will allow you to spread out that cost over multiple batches.

Not making large amounts of Star San each time you brew and bottle will save money too. A lot of people reuse their Star San over multiple batches. As long as the pH remains under 3, it is still effective.

If you're using PBW, you can switch to Oxiclean Free.

Those are several off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others as well.

 

[rodwha]

For bottles I clean and remove the labels from craft beers. The cost of new bottles is about what a 12 pack of Bud costs so I'm spending a few dollars on good beer!

Extracts will always cost more. Get acquainted with partial mashing (~1/2 extract and 1/2 mashing grains). If you can hold the temp steady you are doing good, though you'll also need to learn a little about the water too.

Learn to keep a strain of yeast going with starters. The easier way to do this is to make a larger starter and save the additional portion. Instead of 1 qt and 1/4 of DME I used 1.5 qts and 6 oz of DME. You can also do this with dry yeast after you rehydrated it. Or you can go the washing trub route.

I have been using MoreBeer for a few years now. Their prices (overall order) is fairly comparable to others, but they offer free shipping (takes 1-3 days longer) on orders over $59 (mine or $70-110). Free shipping makes all the difference to me, and waiting a few days means nothing to me.

I now have a grain mill which gives me the freedom to keep portions of unmilled grains and saves me maybe a quarter per bag of grains.

I like Star-San which keeps for quite some time.

 

[BuffaloJohn]

Other cost savings to pursue might include:
Switching to all grain
invest in kegging
choose recipes that have more common ingredients
add adjuncts to lift alcohol content (this is at the cost of quality)

 

[soccerdad]

At $10 a bottle you must be amortizing every single cost in there from equipment to energy to ingredients to bottles. I tend to think of the capital expense (all equipment) separate from the actual beer cost. I may have as much as $1000 invested in equipment, but I have produced over 2000 bottles of beer, so even if I added that in, I would add 50 cents to each bottle - and that cost declines with every batch - UNTIL I buy a new piece of equipment. I have never paid for a bottle so that is certainly a difference between my calculating cost and others calculating cost. A far as ingredients, I don't think I have ever paid $50 for a 5G kit, but I may have come close (Palmer's Elevenses kit from NB). Even at $50, if I get 50 bottles from 5G I am at $1 a bottle. Most of my beers are less. I use dry yeast almost exclusively, but more from convenience than cost.

 

[aprichman]

$10 for a 32oz? Are you brewing gold nuggets and sapphires?

 

[darylwoodman]

I recruit all of my neighbors to save their bottles. Drop them into a mash tun with warm water and PBW for a few hours and the labels peel off by themselves. I then run them in the dishwasher and put them in a plastic container once clean (I spray the container with Star-San to get it nice and clean).
I make my own yeast slants. I don't like re-using yeast, it can change. So once I pitch, I just dip my flamed DIY inoculation loop into the packet and grab some little buggers and put them on a slant. They grow up nicely, and I can store them for over a year. This does require some up front cost--the most being a stir plate. You can save $7 - $14 per batch this way.
Dry yeast is a great way to go too. I love Safale US-05 dry packets. In fact, I keep one in the brewery just in case my starter gets contaminated. They don't clear up like some of the higher flocculating strains though.
You can buy hops from hopsdirect.com, but I've never tried this.
What size batches are you creating?

 

[JJ900]

make sure you are on several suppliers email lists, NB, midwest etc. so that you frequently see their sales. E.g. NB had one recently that was $20 off of each of three extract kits.

 

[Hamaki]

I've never bought new, unused bottles. Only re-used those from commercial beers I buy & drink. There are costs associated with cleaning & sanitizing the bottles but nothing like $3.33 each!

I also live 1 hour+ from any LHBS so I make it a point to buy in bulk. Base malts are $1 a pound or less and hops are much less expensive this way also. I also save and re-use yeast, maybe a half dozen times before I dump it.

Most of my beers probably cost something like $30 or $40 per 5 gallon batch, including the energy required to brew & ferment. This works out to less than $1 per bottle. If it cost me $10 a bottle there's no way I could support the habit.

 

[Dawgchad]

All great ideas. I am going to try first to increase my batch size. I think I can do that by by as much at a 1/3 right now, as I was brewing conservative at first and didn't want to over do it.

The MoreBeer free shipping is a big suggestion. I had not come across them yet. With my average order exceeding $59 I wish I had found them sooner.

 

[Dawgchad]

At $10 a bottle you must be amortizing every single cost in there from equipment to energy to ingredients to bottles. .

Cost only includes ingredients ($40 a batch), Bottles ($40 a batch), and shipping ($20 a batch). I get about 10 32OZ bottles per batch. Hence $10 a bottle.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Three suggestions (that have already been raised) but they cut my costs DRAMATICALLY:

-Reuse craft bottles. If you've got a bar or a bottle shop that does tastings nearby, they're often willing to part with bottles for free. You'll just have to clean and delable them. And then reuse your empties when you're done with em.
-Buy in bulk. You can buy extract in bulk, but it's easier to do with grain. Where grains by the pound are usually ~$2 per pound at my LHBS (a little less for base malt, a little more for specialty malts), but buying base malt in bulk cuts it to to 1.35 or so, and saves me $5-10 per batch. Buying hops it's even more dramatic. Difference between varieties, but they're usually 50% cheaper if you buy by the pound. Which especially if you brew hoppy beers can save you a boatload.
-Repitch yeast. This thread has a good explanation on how to harvest yeast https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/ , and then use Mr. Malty's figures for repitching harvested slurry to tell you how much you need.. Depending on what yeasts you use, top cropping is also an option. I do both depending on my needs. But you can take one smack pack, and get multiple batches out of it. I'll often brew a session beer initially, and from that batch I'll repitch into a bigger beer and a second session beer. Then from the second session beer I'll repeat the process, and then again. I'll go up to 5 generations (you can go further, but you will get some mutation over time). But from one pack of yeast, I get as many as 9 batches.

 

[darylwoodman]

I agree with kegging too. It's more upfront cost, but it saves more on time than cost.

 

[Chadwick]

I actually do save money brewing. I'm able to do this because I brew BIG beers more often than not. I also BIAB. If I was doing extract brewing I could not come out ahead. As it stands now, I typically have $30 invested in a batch of barleywine that would cost me over about $15 per 4-pack to buy.

The math is easy to work out.
If I purchased 48 bottles of barleywine at a cost of $15 per four the cost for 48 bottles would be $180
Make it myself - cost = $30-40

I make about 8 batches of this stuff a year. At a savings of $140 per batch over the cost of buying it, I save about $1120 per year brewing my own. I have about $500 invested in my equipment, so it paid for itself within the first year.

EDIT: I should have mentioned that I also reuse bottles. I use Sierra Nevada bottles. These are good durable bottles. I've only had one bottle chip in three years of reusing the bottles I have now. And that one that chipped did so because of a mistake I made. So my bottle cost isn't something I consider a cost. Friends have happily rinsed out their SN bottles and saved them for me. I have more than enough right now to have 8 batches bottled at any given time.

I order my hops in bulk from a hop farm online.

I order my grains in bulk (10lb packages) from Morebeer online.

I often make my own crystal malt and roasted malt at home.

 

[rodwha]

I don't account for the cost of my equipment. My typical brews cost me about $10/12 pack. These run from 5.2-6.5% ABV. I do partial mashes.

 

[chickypad]

Cost only includes ingredients ($40 a batch), Bottles ($40 a batch), and shipping ($20 a batch). I get about 10 32OZ bottles per batch. Hence $10 a bottle.

I think we were a little mislead by the $10 "a bottle" when you are talking about liter bottles. Paying that much for bottles seems crazy to me, but even if you like them isn't that a one time cost? Eliminate the shipping with morebeer and that's 60% of your cost right there without doing anything else. Since it sounds like you're doing small batches the next thing I'd consider is going BIAB all grain. As others have mentioned extract is usually the most expensive part of the recipe, especially if you are harvesting yeast.

 

[dude3516]

Jeeeez. Didn't realize partial extract was so expensive. Ingredients on my MOST expensive beer hits $40, and that's all grain, vanilla beans, cocounut, and a few other things. My standard wheat is like $22 (including wyeast slap pack)

 

[Ski12568]

Hops by the pound are definitely cheaper

 

[rodwha]

Figuring up roughly what my 5.5 gal rye pale ale would cost (I'm buying some things in bulk) if it were all I was ordering and my cost minus Star-San and bottles (and shipping) is $32.49, though I'm left with 1/2 lb of crystal malts.

3 lbs LME $8.55
3 lbs 2-row $4.17
3 lbs rye $6.87
1 lb crystal $1.49
2 oz hops $2.79
US-05 $3.49
3 hop bags $2.25
50 bottle caps $1.79
corn sugar $1.09
total = $32.49

I would need a few more caps, but I buy mine in a larger bag (200). I also used 2 different crystal malts for complexity. And my hop schedule doesn't reflect this accurately but it does use 2 oz. I also buy corn sugar in bulk. This recipe will cost me much less though, and I'd guess I'd be under $30 easily.

This s a 5.5% ABV beer with 36 IBU's.

 

[IslandLizard]

I see some false accounting there, as was pointed out already. Very good suggestions are being offered.

Sure my first 5 gallon batch of beer came out around $10-12 a bottle (12 oz), steadily dropping with each consecutive batch. Then my 4th batch rose it to $20 a bottle, because I bought more equipment. Then later we enjoyed $30 pints for a while because I started kegging. How about a $100 first pour from that snazzy stainless Perlick tap? No beer tasted that good before.

First, you must exclude capital expenses (e.g., equipment, reusable bottles) from ingredients and consumables. Those last 2 are your variable expenses you encounter for each batch of beer you make. To minimize those, shop around for price (including shipping), buy larger quantities, use discounts, different methods (e.g., partial mash, split boils, all grain), instead of buying kits source your own ingredients, join group or bulk buys in your area, buy hops by the pound or half pound, not by the ounce.

 

[1977Brewer]

I seriously have no clue why anyone in the first world would buy bottles. Ever. If I exclude the fact that they were full of beer, my bottles cost about $1.50 each. I have a stockpile of four cases ready to de label, sanitize and fill.

 

[Owly055]

There's not much you can do to save bottle costs except gathering used bottles, buy a capper and caps.

I buy my grain in 50 pound sacks from a local microbrewer at $20 per sack. There is absolutely no reason not to buy dry yeast, in fact it's probably the best choice.... assuming it's stored properly. I use dry yeast, and harvest the krausen from most of my brews... A simple matter of ladling the krausen of the top of the beer with a sterile ladle, and pouring it into a jar.... also sterile. I also buy my hops by the pound from Yakima hops.....but you have to know what you want. They often have discounted hops for as little as $9 per pound. I have my favorites like Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Hallertau, Mosaic, Northern Brewer, and Willamette. I intend to buy a pound of a blend called Zythos..... an excellent well balanced blend. The biggest up front cost was the BC barley crusher, but it saved a LOT of money and has paid for itself more than once. I have about a dollar a gallon into my beer including grain, specialty grains, and yeast.......... You can't count the cost of the bottles because you reuse them. The biggest cost savings is finding a cheap source of grain. If you don't have a LHBS, make friends with a microbrewer.

H.W.

 

[secondbase]

Going to echo some ideas already.

Going Partial Mash will be a good one. It's really not a scary or challenging thing. Next time, convert your recipe into half grain, half extract. I'm able to mash 10 pounds of grain comfortably in my 5 gallon brew kettle using the BIAB method. I've gone up to 13 pounds, but didn't get great efficiency. The cost of grain vs extract will astound you.

Buy hops by the pound. Got a favorite bittering hop? Use a lot of simcoe? Get it by the pound. I bought a cheap food saver off amazon for like $30 and I vaccuum seal my hops and store them in my freezer.

Reusing yeast is a big one. I realize this isn't practical for all applications, but you can get a lot of uses out of one vial of yeast. Just make sure you are keeping proper sanitization throughout your process and you'll be fine.

 

[Hamaki]

There's not much you can do to save bottle costs except gathering used bottles, buy a capper and caps.

I buy my grain in 50 pound sacks from a local microbrewer at $20 per sack. There is absolutely no reason not to buy dry yeast, in fact it's probably the best choice.... assuming it's stored properly. I use dry yeast, and harvest the krausen from most of my brews... A simple matter of ladling the krausen of the top of the beer with a sterile ladle, and pouring it into a jar.... also sterile. I also buy my hops by the pound from Yakima hops.....but you have to know what you want. They often have discounted hops for as little as $9 per pound. I have my favorites like Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Hallertau, Mosaic, Northern Brewer, and Willamette. I intend to buy a pound of a blend called Zythos..... an excellent well balanced blend. The biggest up front cost was the BC barley crusher, but it saved a LOT of money and has paid for itself more than once. I have about a dollar a gallon into my beer including grain, specialty grains, and yeast.......... You can't count the cost of the bottles because you reuse them. The biggest cost savings is finding a cheap source of grain. If you don't have a LHBS, make friends with a microbrewer.

H.W.

$20 a sack!?! Helluva deal!

 

[IslandLizard]

$20 a sack!?! Helluva deal!

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. That's a keeper.

 

[Dawgchad]

3 lbs LME $8.55

That right there stood out to me! That HALF the price I find it at.

 

[soccerdad]

Really - best I can do for 50# 2 row is about $45

 

[Owly055]

Really - best I can do for 50# 2 row is about $45

$20 per sack is what he pays by the pallet.....I make it worth his while to pass it along at cost. The 2 row is produced 200 miles away, and a supplier runs a route to all the microbreweries......

H.W.

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

All good suggestions. I would just repeat the advice to subscribe to various suppliers (I'm subscribed to Northern Brewer, Midwest, MoreBeer, Austin HBS, Great Fermentations, LOVE2BREW, and probably some others) so you get an email when they have a sale (usually they are just for a day or 2). Great Fermentations recently had a $1 flat rate shipping deal with no minimum purchase. And their prices were low (6.5 gal ale pail was like $8 or 9). Can't beat that.

 

[Zwerski]

To get started, I bought empty bottles from a home brewer off Craigslist whose collection had gotten out if hand. That was 24 clean bombers for $5 plus free caps. Since then I have not purchased bottles and still have never bought new ones. A local beer bar/retailer lets me take away any empty bombers plus empty boxes whenever I wish. I just need to stop by and be willing to sort them out. Keeps their trips to recycling bin down and I get good bottles for free when needed.
I'm also lucky enough to work with another home brewer so when online deals pop up for things we need, we can do a larger order to get the purchase deal or save on shipping. We also occasionally share equipment and split batches that we sometimes brew together.

 

[Hamaki]

$20 per sack is what he pays by the pallet.....I make it worth his while to pass it along at cost. The 2 row is produced 200 miles away, and a supplier runs a route to all the microbreweries......

H.W.

Curious what you mean by making it "worth his while to pass it along at cost"...
ipe:

 

[Jupapabear]

I'll make it worth your while to send me a sack at cost plus shipping. And a return shipment of brew of course!

 

[rodwha]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rodwha View Post
3 lbs LME $8.55
That right there stood out to me! That HALF the price I find it at.

What are you paying?

That's LME from a smaller California place. It's slightly cheaper than the Briess LME, but not by much. Check out MoreBeer's extract prices.

 

[bondra76]

Bookmark Homebrew Finds - I check that site 3 or 4 times a day

And register your email on Brew Deals

You'll get all the E-Bay, NB, Midwest, etc. deals in slimmed down versions.

Also for ANYTHING bought from Amazon, check the Tracktor - https://thetracktor.com
You can copy paste any Amazon link into that and it will give you price history. Don't fall for the "Amazon Lightning Deals". I have found that Amazon jacks up the price 2-3 days beforehand and then lowers it for the "Lightning Deal".....Tracktor will give you all this info.

 

[vincentAlpha]

I live in St. John's which has 3 brew shops not too far away from me. That being said the prices they charge are pretty nuts to the point it is almost cheaper to order in from 3000km away so I try to avoid buying much if anything local unless the price is right. I save money by washing any yeast outside EC1118 since it is ~$1 for me, I stick to Nottingham anyway so this doesn't hold me back. Buying in bulk is also a pretty big cost saver, even more so if you go all grain since I can get malt for about $1/lb if I buy a sack of it (1/2-1/3 what I pay if I buy loose out here). Personally if you had a few hour drive ahead of you to get homebrew stuff I'd make the switch to all-grain if only cause it gives you a fair bit more flexibility on what you can make with base ingredients (eg. you can order a sack or 2 of 2-Row and make your own crystal and roasted malts all from the base malt) and pick a few hops you like and order them by the lb from the brew store or online. If you can try and split them with another brewer so you can widen the amount you buy without winding up with enough hops to sink a ship. Heck if you know a brewing friend who wants to get a bulk of stuff then see about splitting shipping or fuel costs.

 

[Brew_G]

There's been a lot of good feedback already, so I'll just add that, for me, I've definitely saved money (not including overhead costs for BIAB equipment) on each batch I've made so far. I have a spreadsheet that I use to see how much I'm actually paying per five-gallon brewday. I don't have it in me, but I think I paid about $17 for my last, a 1.060 Centennial APA.

My costs have been shaved by a few things:

- I harvested yeast from a six pack of Two Hearted and use starters to both prep for my upcoming batch and to save a good slurry for my next
- I bought 50 and 55 lb bags of base malt (2-row and MO) for just over $1/lb
- I bought hops online (Farmhouse Brewing Supply) for 60% of the cost for the same hole at my local LHBS
- Bottles are reused from craft beers I and my friends have drunk over the last few months

Once I started tracking this, I realized that it doesn't take much to brew quality beer for fairly low cost. Good luck in getting things figured out!

 

[masskrug]

I didn't read every post in this thread, but here are my cost saving tips. I strive for $1.25 per liter.
I buy 1 liter carbonated water bottles from the grocery store and reuse them (.99 each). No caps or capper to buy.
I wash my yeast from batch to batch. Usually Safale-05, not the expensive stuff.
Buy my hops by the pound.
Buy a 50lb sack of grain and store it in Home Depot Buckets.
Use my own water and adjust it with salts and minerals.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I order enough ingredients to do 6 batches at a time. This helps the cost remain about the same. I also have an additional shipping cost to get it shipped to me via partial sea container. I pay about $1/lb for that. So when you add the costs of ingredients, LPG, some bottled water I average about $2.50/Liter which is only $.08 more than a can/bottle of local beer at the grocery or almost 50% of a beer at the watering hole.

Imported beer (Blue Moon, Belgian Ales, IPAs) here costs $5.65+ per 16oz bottle. These are typically skunked as they were not shipped with proper temperature controls. I have given up on buying these and now that I am homebrewing I have no need for them.

My homebrew: $2.50/L
Local beer: $0.75/16oz bottle (grocery store)
Local beer: $1.50/L bottle (grocery store)
Local beer: $1.50/16oz bottle (restaurant/bar)
Imported beer: $5.65+/16oz bottle

If I was in the US, my cost per liter would be $1.75 (this is with DME + Specialty grains). If I went all grain, I am sure that the cost would go down even more (after buying the additional All grain gear). I cut my costs by almost $9/batch by ordering the ingredients separately (Ritebrew) vs buying pre-made kits (AHS). I can get local 1L bottles for $1.50 each (with beer inside) and still come out ahead (buy them by the case and they come with a plastic crate to carry them in).

 

[ulnpiper]

I got started doing all grain, and would recommend going that route. As everyone has said, buy grain and hops in bulk.

I've recently calculated the average cost across five 5 gallon brews, because I wanted to plan my bulk purchases. A porter, 2 batches of Rye Pale Ale and 2 batches of Zombie Dust Clone (uses a lot of Citra hops).

Average cost per pint (using kegging) is $0.72/pint. That includes buying yeast. If I was to reuse yeast, it would bring it down to around $0.60/pint.

Of course, this doesn't include the cost of all the equipment, which I probably have about $1,300 invested. Since I've just completed batch number 15, that works out to $2.16/pint. I try not to think about that part.