some of these kits cost $30-$40 each. Thats a little more than half price for store bought beer. Plus the time and effort make brewing at home not that much of a money saver.
Considering the kind of beer I buy (when I buy) it costs me usually 16 bucks for either a 4 pack (Dogfish Head) or 14 for a 6 pack of a Bell's Beer, of 5 bucks for a 22 ouncer of a Rogue Beer...30-40 bucks for TWO CASES OF FANTASTIC AND FRESH BEER is not really that much.
If I buy one 6 pack (for ease let's say it cost 13 bucks) that means that a case of 24 beers would be $52 bucks...For 2.5 gallons of beer.
5 gallons of really good beer at that price would be $104.00
So to me 30-40 bucks for a kit that makes a beer on par, if not better than most of the craft beers in the store, though not cheap, is still a better bargain than buying 2 cases of the same beer...
(I've done a side by side taste test, with people, of my Rogue Deadguy Clone side by side with the real thing, and mine always comes out ahead...A 22 ounce bomber of Rogue Dead Guy sells locally for $5.95)
There are 640 fluid ounces in a 5 gallon batch....
640 fluid ounces of Rogue Dead Guy would cost me 172.55 +Without the 10 cent/bottle deposite I would be paying for 2 cases.
Having said that, If I make my own recipes Ala cart with extract w/grains then it is even cheaper at my lhbs than the premade kits, especially if I have built up a supply of hops over times, as well as a yeast bank...
By brewing allgrain the same recipes can cost me around 15 dollars a batch....By brewing small 2.5 gallon AG batches on my stovetop...I've had 2.5 gallon batches cost me $9.95, and for twice that I get 2 different cases of beers..
AND I enjoy brewing, and thinking about brewing, spending time with other people who are as passionate about good beer and food as I am...both in my area AND online here...AND to me spending a 6-8 hour day brewing
Isn't a waste of time...It's doing something that I love, and that is more precious to me than then money I spend on recipes and gadgets.....
You won't get much sympathy/help here if you wanna just make cheap swill to get plastered with, which kind of sounds like it by some of your posts...if that's the case go buy a couple of cases of whatever Anheiser Busch is deep discounting these days. Take a look at some of the threads around here and you'll see that people like that usually just get run off...
If you want to make Great Beer, you will get plenty of help....If you like to DIY or want to cut some costs, like how I mentioned there are plenty of threads around here, a lot of us like to find bargains, and make our own beer....
But not at the sacrifice of quality and taste. We leave that to the likes of Budweiser.....