So, went to pick up a growler of Rogue yesterday

We often like to wonder if brewing is cheaper than buying, well you want to buy hoppy micro American Pales it's not even close. I don't need to do the math to know the PTE clone I got @ $66 total from AHB is cheaper than $19.51 per growler you have to spend by the time you buy the beer, the growler and pay tax.

At $66 bucks yielding about 10 growlers that's $6.60 each. Yeah, less than 1/3rd the price.

I spent so much time and care on my PTE clone which came out great I don't want to plow through it. But good god.

 

Craft beer is super expensive!! I was shell-shocked when I grabbed a six pack of Stone Ruination and it cost $18. I was sure they made a mistake. It was delicious though and worth every dollar!! With that said, next time I'll brew a clone.

 

is that like canadian monies or what? All those prices are about double than here.

 

USD. I live in the Boston area.

 

Using that logic you must include the price of all of your equipment you used to brew the clone.

How much was the beer alone?

 

I covered the price of my equipment years ago. I'm working on "free" equipment now so I don't have to add it in right. Just the price of ingredients and propane.

 

what about your time, amigo? surely that's worth something.

yrs-
Evan!

 

Time is free if you enjoy what you're doing. ;0)

 

"Hobby time" doesn't count. I don't get paid when I watch football.

 

I agree with that, of course, it just doesn't work very well in your mathematical comparison. I'm building on kikshaaz's logic, here. Saving dough was definitely one of the reasons I got into homebrewing and, like you, I don't "price" my time when I figure out how much my beer costs.

yrs-
Evan!

 

Equipment is about $19-$20 a batch for me. Time is where you can kill yourself. If you're doing all grain you could be 5-6 hours brew day, then 1 hour bottling, and another hour here or there checking gravities, racking, cleaning etc. At $10/hour I'd be adding $70-$80 to my cost.

But it's a hobby, so I don't.

BTW for equipment I added everything I used and figured I'd get 20 batches out of all of it.

 

My extract brews I produced for about $1 per 12oz bottle, which is the going rate for most microbrews here. My first AG cost about $0.75 per bottle.

I agree that time is free, especially if I'm brewing instead of cleaning the house. On the other hand, equipment isn't free. I'm not sure I'll ever make back the cost of equipment.

 

Ok so what was the cost of the Rogue beer alone???

 

$13.99 + tax for half gallon.

 

I think its pretty hard to justify a complaint against the cost of commercial beer vs homebrew. They have so many costs we don't or, for the sake of effect, choose not to include in the price of our own that it is just not fair. Apples to Apples, Homebrew is so much more expensive per batch it is scary.

 

What's the cost of the Rogue beer once you back out labor and heating costs?

 

$20 equipment + $66 ingredients +$2 heating = $88 / 5 gallons / 2 growlers per gallon = $8.80 per growler.

I'm just saying micro seems so unaffordable.

 

Did you pick up the half gallon of American Amber?

I bought one on Sunday, and it came out to $14.23 or something close to that.

I was kind of shocked until I really looked at the prices of the pints near it. $7 $8 pints...there was even a pint going for just under $15.

When you consider that a half gallon is 2 ounces under 3 full pints, I didnt think the going price was too ungodly horrible.

I'm buying a few more half gallons today

 

Half gallon = 64 ozs
3 pints = 48 ozs

 

How do you spend $66 per batch. extract I assume but still. I just ordered ingredients for 2 separate IPA's w/ 6 oz hops and they cost less than $25 each.

 

That's some crazy math!

 

wait till you pay for a growler of Pliny the Younger.... oh wait, they sold out in like a day. They were somewhere in the region of $36.

Matt up north is in the area and posted about it.


on a side note, the ram brewery a NW brewpub use to have half price growler fills on Tuesday I think, once you had the growler ($6 I think) the 1/2 price fills were $3.50 Makes college students that like good beer happy

 

The $66 was for the PTE clone from AHB.

 

Seems quite a bit much. Alot much. Yea if I had to pay those prices I would think its not worth it too. I mean wow, thats like 3 batches.

 

I can make just about any beer including 8 ounces of hops for $20. IfI use a pound (in a 5 gallon batch) that puts me at about $32 max. You have to start shopping around for ingredients. You're paying way too much for kits.

 

Hops from hopsdirect. 3 lbs cost me $35. You can't afford not to do that. If your paying $3/oz thats paid off in only 12 oz. And they sent me 56 oz. $35/56 = $.60/oz. 1 pound equals $9.60. My grain bill for a 7.2% IPA was like 17 bucks from BMW. So say $20 for PTE. Thats $30 plus yeast for the same kit. Agreed you gotta shop around. You probably spent a lot more just on the pound of hops in that kit than I spent on 3+ lbs from hopsdirect.

 

Imperial Pints. 22 ounces.

3 X 22 =66

 

Grain or extract?

 

An imperial pint is a unit of measurement equivalent to 20 fluid ounces, 568 milliliters, or 1.2 US pints.

 

See, this is why I cant remember this crap.

Why cant we just stick to bottles that are excatly on with a certain measurement. Not plus or minus a few ounces. Sheesh.

Thanks for correcting me though, I was under the impression that an Imperial Pint was a full 22 ounces.

 

I think all beer should be served in 1 measuring unit. Then we could all just get along and worry about drinking.

 

I have a buddy who was harassing me for paying $16 for a sixer of small batch 471. Then he said, "Says the guy who pays $2.50 for a glass of Mich light at the bar..."

 

I love the 471!

 

Yeah, I sure didn't feel like it was money wasted!:rockin:

 

An imperial pint is actually 19.2 US OZ, or 20 Imperial OZ