Commercial hydromel recipe

[mabbas]

Hello,
I own a small brewery, and I was thinking very seriously about making hydromel meads as a product, but the honey price is high even in bulk; a ton of beer costs me 1/4 of the price of 5% hydromel.
Would it be a good idea to use half the amount of honey and top the rest of SG with dextrose?

 

[Maylar]

No. A hydromel is light on honey flavor as it is.

 

[madscientist451]

You need 1lb of honey to make a gallon of 5% hydromel. If you buy Dutch Gold Wildflower honey for $159 for a 60 lb bucket, your honey cost will be about $.34 a pint. If you sell it for $6 a pint, you're looking at a pretty good margin; you can't make that work? Note the above price doesn't include shipping so maybe your honey cost is $.50 a pint?
So how much does the grain and hops cost for your average beer?

 

[Teufelhunde]

You need 1lb of honey to make a gallon of 5% hydromel. If you buy Dutch Gold Wildflower honey for $159 for a 60 lb bucket, your honey cost will be about $.34 a pint. If you sell it for $6 a pint, you're looking at a pretty good margin; you can't make that work? Note the above price doesn't include shipping so maybe your honey cost is $.50 a pint?
So how much does the grain and hops cost for your average beer?

I'm not trying to quarrel with your figures or stir the pot, but please remember his other expenses. I do not know his business and his costs, but off the top of my head, there is:

Real estate to do the brewing in
Electricity/and or gas to be able to see and do the brewing
Labor costs, and if it is a one man show, that labor has a cost as well
Insurance for the building, liability insurance for the product, unemployment insurance for employees
Health insurance and other benefits for employees
Administrative overhead costs for the business
Advertising

That likely only half of what he needs to account for in his margin, but you get the idea....I guess my point is that there is more than just buy low, sell high to account for.

YMMV

Lon

 

[madscientist451]

The OP stated that it was the ingredient cost he was concerned about and wanted to substitute something cheaper. Most of the overhead costs remain the same if he makes mead or chooses not to. You can turn around a hydromel in 4 weeks which is longer than a simple ale, so you'd have some extended inventory costs and you'd need an extra tank and labor, but he didn't mention those things so they are not really relevant.
If, as he says, his beer ingredients are 1/4 of a hydromel, then the beer ingredients per pint is about 13 cents. So to make about the same margin he could charge $.37 more for a pint of the hydromel and his margin over ingredient cost would be the same. It would be better to round it up and charge $.50 to or a dollar a pint more, and people would accept that.

 

[mabbas]

You need 1lb of honey to make a gallon of 5% hydromel. If you buy Dutch Gold Wildflower honey for $159 for a 60 lb bucket, your honey cost will be about $.34 a pint. If you sell it for $6 a pint, you're looking at a pretty good margin; you can't make that work? Note the above price doesn't include shipping so maybe your honey cost is $.50 a pint?
So how much does the grain and hops cost for your average beer?

I'm not trying to quarrel with your figures or stir the pot, but please remember his other expenses. I do not know his business and his costs, but off the top of my head, there is:

Real estate to do the brewing in
Electricity/and or gas to be able to see and do the brewing
Labor costs, and if it is a one man show, that labor has a cost as well
Insurance for the building, liability insurance for the product, unemployment insurance for employees
Health insurance and other benefits for employees
Administrative overhead costs for the business
Advertising

That likely only half of what he needs to account for in his margin, but you get the idea....I guess my point is that there is more than just buy low, sell high to account for.

YMMV

Lon

add 32% tax on alcohols , and I my brewery is located in china , honey here cost around 300 USD for 60lbs

 

[mabbas]

The OP stated that it was the ingredient cost he was concerned about and wanted to substitute something cheaper. Most of the overhead costs remain the same if he makes mead or chooses not to. You can turn around a hydromel in 4 weeks which is longer than a simple ale, so you'd have some extended inventory costs and you'd need an extra tank and labor, but he didn't mention those things so they are not really relevant.
If, as he says, his beer ingredients are 1/4 of a hydromel, then the beer ingredients per pint is about 13 cents. So to make about the same margin he could charge $.37 more for a pint of the hydromel and his margin over ingredient cost would be the same. It would be better to round it up and charge $.50 to or a dollar a pint more, and people would accept that.

yes , aside from fruit cost is high too , an ale would take 14 days at most , and extra 2 days if I dry hop with cannon .

 

[Dan O]

add 32% tax on alcohols , and I my brewery is located in china , honey here cost around 300 USD for 60lbs

I pay about the same for 60 lbs ( 5 US gallons), depending on the variety of honey

 

[CKuhns]

Deleted, miss read the OPs question.

Please ignore the ramblings of this madman.

 

[Dan O]

Deleted, miss read the OPs question.

Please ignore the ramblings of this madman.

Ahh.

 

[Maylar]

Will he have to deal with the notorious "Chinese honey" syndrome as well?

 

[Dan O]

Will he have to deal with the notorious "Chinese honey" syndrome as well?

Seems so