My Budget was $200... That was a fail

[abdominousabel]

When I started buying my equipment, I figured I wasn't going to buy a kit, I was going to make it! but then i started calculating the cost, I was going to save to save about $10 if i make my fermentation buckets, so instead i just bought individual things to make a kit. I figured "well fermenters are forever so might as well get a carboy" and then I figure well one 6 and one 5 Gal won't hurt! Might as well get a bottling bucket with a spigot. You can't forget the sanitizer and the whirlfloc tablets! Better buy everything in bulk! I am a novice so let me get a beer recipe kit, but I want the tastiest looking one! It all came to be around $300 for my first batch gear. Now i find out about mashing and how i can not by DME/LME and save loads of money ($30 a batch) now i want to buy a mash tun with all the attachments such as the false bottom. I hear about the convenience of kegging so that's my next buy! wait! I need to keep it cool! Time to make a jockey box for parties and a keezer for home! I know I'm just going to find more and more.

HOW DO I STOP!!!! LMAO!

I know I'm going to definitely spend more than 1500 by the end of summer and have a bunch of batches kegged. Man my batches can't catch up with my excitement and the speed I want all these upgrades! I'm looking to buy equipment for beer I'm not even making soon or know how too.

This isn't a hobby, don't let anyone call it that. This is a science. I'm a Civil Engineer and I was surprised that I had to use Specific gravity, Flocculation for yeast starters, Henry's Law (How Gases Dissolve into water mixtures aka beer), and all these other things I'm too lazy to calculate. Thats why there's brew software, but in case of a improbably mad max apocalypse, it is good to know how to do all these calculations and how to brew beer most of all!!!

Okay I'm done ranting, I'm curious to other people's expectations vs reality when they first started.

 

[divrack]

Well, it can go that way. But considering the only beer I can get that's better than mine is like 6 bucks a can I figure there is a good saving still.

I added up my annual beer consumption cost and suddenly a couple Grand seemed quite reasonable!

 

[RPh_Guy]

I added up my annual beer consumption cost

Whoa! Warning! NEVER do this!

Don't know how much I've spent on beer or equipment and I don't want to know.
... Hey what's another 20 bucks for a hydrometer made specifically for reading final gravity? I need to have it. Oh and it's super fragile? Better get two, just in case.

 

[PADave]

Welcome to brewing! Once you fall down the hole, be prepared. I don't even want to know what I've spent, even though I could easily look at the homebrewing category in my quicken file. Just last years keezer build was over $1k itself.

 

[Sadu]

I think I've reached the bottom of the homebrewing hole. At a point where I'm completely happy with my setup and can just buy ingredients from here on, which are super cheap compared with buying beer. Gotta say that hole was a LOT deeper than expected though. Be in for a steep learning curve if you are expecting to save money with this hobby.

Kegs are the problem. God damn they are awesome, but they widen that hole by some margin.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

I think I've reached the bottom of the homebrewing hole. At a point where I'm completely happy with my setup and can just buy ingredients from here on, which are super cheap compared with buying beer. Gotta say that hole was a LOT deeper than expected though. Be in for a steep learning curve if you are expecting to save money with this hobby.

Kegs are the problem. God damn they are awesome, but they widen that hole by some margin.

I am 4x5 gallon batches in, with about $350 worth of gear, probably about $120 of ingredients. At what I pay for a beer, each batch is worth around $140. So at one level, I was ahead of break-even with that fourth batch.

The problem is that I want to 'reinvest the savings'.

 

[mongoose33]

Let me help you prepare for the final cost you'll have invested, so you can steel yourself for the ordeal:

$5000

There. I said it. Not everybody goes this route, of course, but your post indicates there is no intervention likely to be effective for you. And on top of that, you're an engineer, so you're genetically predisposed to constantly fiddle with things, and brewing is the ultimate in fiddle-ability.

************

My greatest regret, such as it is, was that I bought cheaply at the outset. I don't know how anyone can combat this effectively, as at the beginning we don't know if we'll like brewing, we don't necessarily see the need for various upgrades, we don't know everything we're going to want later....

I had somewhat more in my first kit, and I *did* go a bit higher than might be otherwise expected, but still was around $400. But as the bug bit and bit hard, things changed. From a single fermenter sitting in a dollar-store turkey pan to control temperature, I lucked into a refrigerator for a ferm chamber, started kegging, built my own keezer, added more kegging capacity, added various tools and meters (total dissolved solids meter, pH meter, high-quality digital thermometer, refractometer), RO water system, second dorm-size refrigerator for another ferm chamber, additional CO2 tanks and regulators, upgraded to a larger Spike kettle, upgraded to a Blichmann Hellfire burner, added 4 secondary regulators to the keezer, added a Blichmann Riptide pump, added all the camlock disconnect hardware necessary, bought more Bigmouth Bubbler fermenters, a TILT hydrometer, upgraded my gain mill to a Monster Mill 3 with American Aleworks motor....

....and now a 10-gallon Spike conical fermenter. Converted the freezer compartment of one ferm chamber refrigerator to provide glycol chilling for the temp control upgrade for the Spike conical......

Come to think of it....I'm not far away from that figure above.

All I'm saying is to get ready, because every time you see a way to get more efficient or produce better beer, you're going to want it.

 

[Sparkncode]

I considered homebrew a hobby when i started. Started with a basic kit then soon ended up buying stuff... sort of expected that like all hobbies.
At a certain point i decided to go all grain and to do that I built an eHERMS system.
I considered that a hobby project too. Satisified my other hobby of msking stuff.

Beer cost is one thing and hobby cost is another...

I save a lot on beer but could care less about what the equipment cost as thats a hobby expense lol.

Never bothered to work out when i would break even comparing beer cost to equipment and probably never will.

Overall homebrew is a cheap hobby, just ask someone into performance cars or boats.

I didnt get into homebrew just for beer cost but more focused on a new hobby.

 

[aprichman]

Brewing doesn't have to be too expensive -

•10 gallons boil kettle with thermometer, ball valve, and sight glass: $180 used

•Blichmann burner with leg extensions: $190

•PET carboy, air locks, hoses, etc.: $50

•Wilserbag and pulley: $20

•Chest freezer and home built temp controller: $200

•5 kegs, air distributor, CO2 tank, party taps: $350

All together around $1000 in equipment, probably a little more over the years.

I've probably made 45 batches so far. All together I save around $60 a batch compared to buying 6 or 12 packs. Probably saved $2000+ in beer so I'm up a little bit. I'm sure electricity, propane, etc. shave a bit off that.

 

[bronzdragon]

As long as you are not suffering in other areas of your life for the money, why not spend it on something you enjoy doing? I long past the price point that I would ever recover the money spent on brewing equipment with the amount of beer/wine that my wife and I drink. But you know what? I've been brewing for 20+ years and when I brew, that's all I'm doing. I'm running calculations, and working the equipment and listening to classic rock. I'm not at work, worrying about this or that, I'm just working on one thing ... making the best beer that I can, at that moment, with the wisdom, skill, preparation and ingredients that I have on hand. I stopped adding up, and my wife really doesn't worry about it. I brew on the weekend, and very rarely are the words "we're out of beer" spoken around my house.
/cheers and don't worry, have a home brew - /toast Charlie

 

[OpenSights]

Most of my equipment was bought off Craigslist. I think it was about 3 months into brewing when the guy at my LHBS said “You just got your first $50 reward!” So I had to ask how much I had to spend to reach that. $750. I’m guessing twice that on Craigslist?

Yeah, I don’t really want to know how much I’ve spent. I don’t look at brewing as trying to save or spend money, I look at it as a personal challenge and the enjoyment of learning. Just so happens to be rewarding at the same time.

Also it saves time at the grocery store returning cans and bottles.

 

[divrack]

Mine

Welcome to brewing! Once you fall down the hole, be prepared. I don't even want to know what I've spent, even though I could easily look at the homebrewing category in my quicken file. Just last years keezer build was over $1k itself.[/QUOTE
Mine was about a fiver

 

[boxboybrewing]

I've just now graduated from all grain 1 gallon batches to 2.5 gallon all grain batches. I don't know what I've spent so far, but I'm with those who say it's a fairly inexpensive hobby, it can save you money, but its SO DAMN SATISFYING to drink good beer you made yourself!

 

[JDXX1971]

HOW DO I STOP!!!! LMAO!

 

[Kent88]

I started with Mr. Beer kits and I almost have too many 1-gallon jugs for someone who has moved on to mostly 3 gallon batches. My lager fridge isn't big enough to hold a carboy larger than a 1-gallon. And now I'm considering making some 5-gallon sour beer batches.

Someday I hope I'll be kegging. For the amount of effort I spend cleaning bottles...

Still though, from what I can tell kegging isn't exactly a one time expense, there are carbon dioxide and nitrogen tanks to keep full, I assume that the plastic tubing needs to be changed every so often. Plus there is the kegerator/keezer that needs to be dedicated to just that.

 

[lootcorp]

Ah, the slippery slope...

I started with a $150 kit. Started with partial boils on an apartment stove and bottling. Got a bigger stock pot and started doing full boils. Then went to partial mash. Got a fridge for fermenting in and a few temp controllers. Got a turkey fryer kit, built a mashtun, and started all-grain. Got a proper SS kettle. Replaced the Corona mill with a decent mill. Added a pump. Started kegging. Got a chest freezer to store the kegs in. The whole time working through an endless procession of plastic buckets and crappy thermometers. Got a refractometer. Got a better propane burner. My wife bought me a new SS fermentor and mashtun. Replaced my aging kegs with nice new ones.

It doesn't end. However, it does plateau after a while. I have a few more upgrades I would consider but I'm pretty happy with my system right now.

You don't need all of the above to make good beer, but I enjoy constantly refining the process and improving the weak points in my system.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I think I've reached the bottom of the homebrewing hole. At a point where I'm completely happy with my setup and can just buy ingredients from here on, which are super cheap compared with buying beer. Gotta say that hole was a LOT deeper than expected though. Be in for a steep learning curve if you are expecting to save money with this hobby.

Kegs are the problem. God damn they are awesome, but they widen that hole by some margin.

Just order 4 more pinlocks for $120.
Brings me up to 14 kegs.
10 kegs sounds like enough but two are ball-lock and I keep them for filling at the craft brewery.

i'm at the point where I can do 10 gallons at a time so I have back-ups of a certain beer.
I do BIAB with a propane burner on my deck so my expense is less than typical 3 tier system but.....i'm building an e-biab in my basement this winter so more $$$$$.

However, I can say it costs me about $12-15 to brew 5 gallons of my regular beers at this point when i buy ingredients in bulk so eventually i'll be in the green.

 

[aprichman]

Yeah I mean even without reusing yeast or buying grain in bulk and milling myself it's pretty easy to save a lot compared to buying beer by the 6 or 12 pack.

In Oregon a 6 pack is going to be $8-15 and then there's a $0.60 deposit for the glass bottles or cans that I never bring back - that adds up really fast.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Yeah I mean even without reusing yeast or buying grain in bulk and milling myself it's pretty easy to save a lot compared to buying beer by the 6 or 12 pack.

In Oregon a 6 pack is going to be $8-15 and then there's a $0.60 deposit for the glass bottles or cans that I never bring back - that adds up really fast.

Around here in Buffalo one of the local micro brewerary's will fill a corny for $55.
Sometimes the local beer distributor has deals on sanke's for $30-$60 also.

still making my own gives me what I want.

 

[abdominousabel]

Just order 4 more pinlocks for $120.
Brings me up to 14 kegs.
10 kegs sounds like enough but two are ball-lock and I keep them for filling at the craft brewery.

What’s the difference between pin-lock and ball-lock? I see pin is usually cheaper. Which is best, I’m looking to start kegging

 

[lootcorp]

What’s the difference between pin-lock and ball-lock? I see pin is usually cheaper. Which is best, I’m looking to start kegging

I'd go with ball lock...I started with pin and it seems parts/kegs are a bit harder to find. I've since switched over.

 

[beernutz]

What’s the difference between pin-lock and ball-lock? I see pin is usually cheaper. Which is best, I’m looking to start kegging

Pin locks are wider and shorter and do not have pressure relief valves in their lids. Because they are less popular they typically are cheaper than ball locks. I have used pins for 25 years and they work fine.

 

[Pkrd]

I think I've reached the bottom of the homebrewing hole.

You obviously need a shiny need stainless steel computer controlled spade.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Dude......

Its not how much you spend, its that every time you drink a pint that you brewed yourself, you're NOT spending 5 or 6 bucks at the brewery.

So technically .......a corny keg drank by you at home is just like saving $200 - $240 every time. Minus the $20ish spent on ingredients of course

 

[universalfrost]

$200? thats a good start for your first order.. then you buy more and more and then you tell the misses that you only spent $200.....

i'm an engineer like you (mechanical and systems engineering degrees) and i just gave up on calculations and used the online calculators (kinda hard to figure out ABV when you had a six pack too many while brewing a batch and kegging the other batch out of a fermenter at the same time...).*just make sure to right down the FG...lol

 

[sillbeer]

I was enrolled in a grad systems engineering program but changed it to human factors with a minor in systems engineering. Who knows when I'll actually finish.

As far as equipment. I'm on my 3rd and probably final setup. Look into an electric 220v indoor setup. I bought my kettles used so I saved a lot off of new stuff. I still have easily over $2k in equipment but it's how I like it and it should last forever. Of course I need to motorize my grain mill, pick up 2 more kegs, have a ventilation hood installed, and build a nicer keezer/coffin. I don't know if the list ever really stops.