Bringing Costs Down...

[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.

 

[Calder]

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.

What size batches are you making? 10 x 32 ozs is less than 3 gallons.

Larger batches should provide some savings.

I'm anal about my costs, and have recorded everything I have bought, hops, pots, grain, hoses, sanitizer, caps, etc. The only costs I have not captured is electricity, water (tap water), and plain sugar.

I partial mash/partial boil. After over 7,000 bottles (12 ozs), my average cost per bottle (including equipment) is 50 cents. Average cost of consumables per bottle is 36 cents. My average OG is 1.059.

I agree with everyone:

- Buy in bulk (grains, extract, and hops) and reuse yeast.
- Look out for sales, some are pretty good deals.
- Buy bottles with beer in them.

 

[nutty_gnome]

Practical methods to cut the cost of beer:
1 - Set up your brewing equipment and stick with it for a year. Stop buying doo-dads and gee-gaws that may or may not help. If you can make beer with what you have already, stick with it. Don't go chasing waterfalls... just brew.
2 - Brew inexpensive beers so that when you want that crazy high gravity vanilla coffee brew, you have the chops to pull it off. Go all grain BIAB and make numerous low gravity beers that mature fast so you can drink 'em and move on to more brews. Whats so bad about that? Drink more, brew more, & save money.
3 - I don't believe in ordering grains in bulk (e.g. 50lb sacks) for several reasons. Find an online store or an LHBS that will sell you what you need pre-crushed for your recipes. And then order 3 brew-days worth at a time. See the next one about hops.
4 - Buy hops in bulk (at least 4 oz packs). Low grav beers dont use as many hops.... coincidence or coins if your pocket?
5 - Your multiple brews of low gravity beers will yield an excellent opportunity to reuse yeast. Get 3 or morebrews for the cost of one yeast packet (dry or liquid) and save.

10 bucks a bottle should not be standard. Focus on what you can do without spending money and you'll be surprised at what you can get for the money you didn't have to spend.

 

[Btaz]

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.

Reuse bottles. That's 40% of the cost. Find ways to get free shipping. That's another 20%. Now you are at $4 per 32oz or $1.50 per 12oz which is much more reasonable. Next look to lower ingredient cost by bulk buying and other recommendations posted

 

[1975brewer]

When I was brewing with LME I always bought 33lb growlers. This would get your cost for LME to about $2 per lb before shipping cost. I bought them local so I had no shipping cost.

 

[Chadwick]

This thread has gotten out of control, and reason. Seriously, has the cost of bottles become so darned important to the cost of brewing beer? Has it come to this? Is this the damning factor in making beer cheaply? If it is for you, then you are doing it wrong. Plain and simple, if your cost of bottles is hindering you, then you are doing it wrong.

I'm sorry. To those that cannot obtain bottles cheaply, I'm sorry. If you cannot collect or salvage bottles from either yourself or friends, I'm sorry. Brewing your own beer might become a bit more expensive a hobby for you. Instead of having people supply you good bottles for free, you will now have to save bottles from craft beer. Salvageable bottles are any beer bottles that are amber and not-twist-top. Save those. They are what you need.

 

[soccerdad]

I always bought 33lb growlers.

Must be damn hard to pour from

 

[mdbrewer1]

This thread has gotten out of control, and reason. Seriously, has the cost of bottles become so darned important to the cost of brewing beer? Has it come to this? Is this the damning factor in making beer cheaply? If it is for you, then you are doing it wrong. Plain and simple, if your cost of bottles is hindering you, then you are doing it wrong.

I'm sorry. To those that cannot obtain bottles cheaply, I'm sorry. If you cannot collect or salvage bottles from either yourself or friends, I'm sorry. Brewing your own beer might become a bit more expensive a hobby for you. Instead of having people supply you good bottles for free, you will now have to save bottles from craft beer. Salvageable bottles are any beer bottles that are amber and not-twist-top. Save those. They are what you need.

Did you bother reading his post about local beer options? Sounds like there is cheaper local brew, which might not come with reusable bottles or imported craft beer that is ridiculously expensive and often skunked. The cost of those is more expensive than new bottles.

Not everyone is in the same situation as you.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Did you bother reading his post about local beer options? Sounds like there is cheaper local brew, which might not come with reusable bottles or imported craft beer that is ridiculously expensive and often skunked. The cost of those is more expensive than new bottles.

Not everyone is in the same situation as you.

Perhaps I missed this? The only mention I see refers to "local brewing stores", and not local beer bottles.

I think the major cost is the OP's choosing to use very expensive, yet nice resealable and reusable ez-cap swing top liter bottles. I see no mention of the availability of local used bottles.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Perhaps I missed this? The only mention I see refers to "local brewing stores", and not local beer bottles.

I think the major cost is the OP's choosing to use very expensive, yet nice resealable and reusable ez-cap swing top liter bottles. I see no mention of the availability of local used bottles.

I might have misunderstood him, but post #39 lists his commercial beer options. Based on the massive price difference, I'm guessing the local beer is twist-off bottles. If those are reusable, then that would be a good option at about half of what he paid for new ones.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Well crud, I apologize. I see at the bottom of that post that those cheaper ones would be an option. Still, the tone the post I quoted was unnecessarily harsh. We don't all have access to good, reasonably priced beer in reusable bottles

 

[Dawgchad]

Thanks everyone! A million good ideas!

 

[Kirkwooder]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, is to grow your own hops. I planted 4 of my most used varieties of hops and end up with over a pound of each every year. They are really easy to grow, and can even be done in barrels cut in half. If you have the space, give it a shot. I even trade my excess hops for malt grain from some other local brewers.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Well crud

My bad....didn't realize you were referring to post 39 and not the OP.

In summary, lowest cost comes from bulk grain and hops, and reusing yeast. If you can source the grain and hops at the right price, homebrew can be rather inexpensive.

 

[mdbrewer1]

My bad....didn't realize you were referring to post 39 and not the OP.

In summary, lowest cost comes from bulk grain and hops, and reusing yeast. If you can source the grain and hops at the right price, homebrew can be rather inexpensive.

Agreed.

I'd add that bottles, at least until he can get a good stockpile, are going to cost a bit. Sounds like there is no getting around it. The good news is that once he reaches a sufficient quantity, that will no longer be an added cost per batch.

 

[Owly055]

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

I'm a regular customer, and I also do a lot of little things to help his business along, help him on occasion with electrical or mechanical issues, deliver kegs to customers on occasion when a customer in my area (30 miles away) needs a keg or two and I happen to be there. I've gotten him started on brewing beer vinegar from expired beer, and am advising him and helping somewhat on getting him up and running producing kombucha with the idea of eventually producing it commercially. I don't really do a lot, but enough that he likes to keep me happy. He sometimes just gives me a sack of malt.... others times he sells it to me at cost. As a home brewer it's a win win situation.

H.W.

 

[xfjfyuj]

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!

 

[Owly055]

You can take cost reduction to the extremes..... growing your own barley and malting it, and growing your own hops. Barley is $12 per bushel (48 pounds) a the elevator......if you live in an area where malting barley is grown.......though any barley will malt, and feed barley is half or less. Home malting is not a difficult or expensive process and doesn't take a lot of expensive equipment, and has added an interesting and fun new dimension to home brewing for an increasing number of home brewers. Most grains can be malted. You need to get beyond the grocery store and look at livestock feed stores, and grain elevators. Where I live, a great deal of grain is grown...... I could easily buy wheat, barley, rye, quinoa, etc from local elevators or from friends and neighbors. Most people who've ventured beyond the city have seen grain elevators....most elevators both buy and sell grain as well as shipping.


H.W.

 

[bondra76]

If you like cider, it's also a great point to start from for eventual beer brewers. You don't need a pot, don't need a propane burner. It's just juice and yeast into a carboy. I made a few beer batches and stepped back to cider last summer and it really helped me understand yeast and fermentation.

 

[Hamaki]

You can take cost reduction to the extremes..... growing your own barley and malting it, and growing your own hops. Barley is $12 per bushel (48 pounds) a the elevator......if you live in an area where malting barley is grown.......though any barley will malt, and feed barley is half or less. Home malting is not a difficult or expensive process and doesn't take a lot of expensive equipment, and has added an interesting and fun new dimension to home brewing for an increasing number of home brewers. Most grains can be malted. You need to get beyond the grocery store and look at livestock feed stores, and grain elevators. Where I live, a great deal of grain is grown...... I could easily buy wheat, barley, rye, quinoa, etc from local elevators or from friends and neighbors. Most people who've ventured beyond the city have seen grain elevators....most elevators both buy and sell grain as well as shipping.


H.W.

I was not able to malt my own barley at a cost lower than buying in bulk. The barley I started with was about 40 cents a pound but my energy costs for drying & kilning were on the order of 70 to 80 cents a pound. The largest batch I could feasibly malt & kiln was about 18 lb. Many of the batches I tried either became moldy while sprouting or did not yield well. Results were by no means predictable on my small scale. It was a fun experiment, however.

 

[BobBailey]

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?

MoreBeer offers free shipping on orders over $59. Buying ingredients separately instead of kits saves a little. Re-using craft brew bottles . After the initial investment, all grain brewing is much less expensive. Buying ingredients in bulk, especially hops.

As for yeast, If you brew beers over about 1.053 OG, dry yeast is about the same cost as liquid since you need 2 packets. Harvesting yeast can save you money. After the initial investment for a stir plate and large flask, making starters from liquid yeast can save money if you are pitching the proper amount of yeast. I make starters 100 billinn cells larger than needed and save the excess to make a starter for my next batch. You can easily get 5 batches from a vial of yeast and about 3 lbs. of DME. Cost-wise this is less than a packet of most dry yeasts.


As for liquid vs. dry yeast.