Cost of a brew.

[david_42]

I'm looking forward to getting the new garage built. As part of the project, I'll be putting in a 200 gallon propane tank. That's for water heating, a new dryer, heat in the old garage and brewing! Propane is around $1/gallon delivered.

Nothing like burning $40K and feeling good about saving a few bucks.

Next year I should get a useful amount of hops. I planted eight rhisomes last April, four came up and I got all of three flowers in 2005. But, I'm thirty miles from the major hop growing areas in Oregon, so I should do better in 2006.

 

[Beermaker]

I have been kicking around the idea of getting a prpane tank delivered here. 250 gallon size or so. Can I legally add an attachment to fill small bottles off of it, or just keep it hard pipied into the garage? Curious. Also, I do buy bulk hops also. Usually 7-10 lbs at a time. I keep them in the freezer, and dole them out to club members if needed also. I also buy the small dry yeast packets for around .50, and keep them around in case a stick a primary. Seems to help out. There are all kinds of little money saving tips. You can buy all kinds of specialty grain on E-bay. Hell, for whats its worth, if you get a fewe buddies together, you can order a pallet (42 - 50 lb sacks) of grain. Shipping is lowered for the bulk rates. We are about to get a pallet delivered here for our club. We all pitch in and split the grain. Saves a lot of $$$$$ that way, but it will only work if you brew A-LOT! Oh yea, ask some of the guys here if they have leftovers to get rid of. Better to sell it cheap to someone who will use it, then to let it set around and go bad.....just my .02.

 

[AllHoppedUp]

I live in the boonies - no HB supply shops around - and therefore end up paying about $10 shipping on my extract kits. That raises the cost per beer (for a 5 gal. batch) by nearly 20 cents! The kit itself is usually about $30 so that works out to about $0.75 per beer for me. I don't lose sleep over it though because a)it's more about the finished product than saving money for me and b)it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than buying micro at the store.

Hey BeeGee, where are you buying your propane? If you use those tank exchange systems you're paying way too much for propane. Take your empties to someplace that can refill them and you'll pay a lot less. I usually end up paying about $8 for 5 gallons of propane.


AHU

 

[DrewsBrews]

Depends on where you live. Up here in Washington, home of the tax gouge, I paid just shy of $14 to have my new tank filled. I only save a buck or two refilling instead of doing a swap. I suppose it won't cost as much the next time since it's hard to completely empty a tank and the rediculously over-inflated fuel prices are coming down. (crisis... what crisis?! - Exxon just reported record profits over $9billion )

 

[The Happy Mug]

At my local homebrew shop, the beer of the month is usually less than 25 bucks. My favorite kits run 30 bucks each.

 

[autoferret]

At my HB store they do AG recipes that they have for 20-35 bucks depending on the brew.

 

[Orfy]

My first AG and the cost with buying bulk is.

4kg pale malt £4
500g spec malt £2
Dry yeast £1
3oz hops £3

£10 compared to £19 for extract.

 

[Blaine]

Mine run at about $25 at the moment as I'm constantly buying different hops and yeast as im trying to copy styles but normally a bit cheaper say 20 bucks.

 

[Genghis77]

I come in just around $25 for 5 gallons with mainly kits, yeast and a little additional hops. Stouts a little higher, about $30.

 

[Shambolic]

I'm now spending about $40 Australian (~$30 US) per batch, doing extract +specialty grain batches with a fair bit of hops. That also includes buying spring water to brew with though...

The cheapest you can get a slab (carton, case, whatever...) of good beer here is just over $40, and from 1 batch I get well more than two slabs, so I figure I'm still doing okay.

 

[usmcruz]

Switch To All Grain Its Cheaper!!!

 

[casebrew]

Yup, all grain is cheaper. My Brown Rye cost me $17 for everything but propane. 7# of 2-row @.79 saved me $5, using tap water saves too- I'm glad to find a way to make tap water drinkable. Seems the 'impuritys' are just what the yeast needs. All of my equipment came from the swap meet, burner from a wall heater, bottles from the dumpsters, all ingredients from Home Brew Mart here in San Diego- and they usually throw in the 4 oz sampler of any of 8 Micro/HB on taps...

 

[casebrew]

AAaand, refill your propane bottle at a tool rental place. Last time it was $2 gal, four gallon in a tank, $8 or 2/16. Versus $24 each exchanged....

 

[Beer Snob]

Hmmm..... guess I never really thought of it because the comparison is all off. I mean... ok... I found here that it cost $1.50 a bottle. Compared to what? Mass produced stuff...... Compared to a lot of "garbage" out there? How does your beer compare to what you would normally drink I guess is a good question... if you normally drink Bud and you find it by the case at $7 you are going to be VERY DISAPOINTED when looking at how much its costing you. And this does not even include the time and effort involved in this entire process.

Beer: Cherries in the wheat

Wheat DME (3lb)..............12
What Extract(3.3lb)..........13
Cherry Puree (can)...........13
Dextrin(8oz)....................2.50
White labs Yeast............ 7.50
Cane Sugar for bottling.... 2.50
Perle Hops... 2 oz... (?)....3.50
--------------------------------------
$54.00

Only thing left I need is bottles... have caps. This first time around I was lucky because I found all of my equipment. The only big thing I needed was the glass carboys (got one 5 and one 6.5 ... could have gone ten bucks cheaper with the bucket... but I like to see the action)

If I get 36 bottles thats $1.50 a bottle.

 

[dr. follis]

i would say for a basic brew, roughly 25-30 for ingredients depending on if i am repitching yeast from a previous batch. most expensive is probably around 50 -60 for five gallons of high gravity beer. but usually that yields a small beer around 5.5abv.

 

[tundra45]

Hello everyone. I have been all-grain brewing since 1997. Thousands of dollars spent on upgrades to equipment and the brewing facility. My breweing area is a dedicated 12'x20' room in my basement with sinks, restaurant exhaust hood, refrigeration, storage, etc.

My ingredient cost breakdown for all-grain 11-gallon batches:

$15/sack domestic base ($0.30/lb x 18 lb x .75 use factor = $4.05/batch)
$18/sack premium base ($0.36/lb x 4 lb = $1.44/batch)
$24/sack import pils ($0.48/lb x 20 lb x .25 use factor = $2.40/batch)
Specialty malts ($1.50/lb x 2.5 lb = $3.75/batch)
Home grown hops - free x .5 use factor = $0
Bulk hops $10-12/lb (~$0.69/oz x 6 oz x .5 use factor = $2.07/batch)
$6 liquid yeast lasts two batches ($3/batch x .5 use factor = $1.50)
Slurry from microbrewery- free x .5 use factor = $0
Finings/nutrients/sanitizer/DME/dextrose/etc. ($2.50/batch)
Propane usage ~1.5 gal/batch x $2.09/gal ($3.14/batch)
Water treatment- filters, acid/salts if needed ($1.00/batch)
CO2 ($1.00/batch)

Total on average
$22.85 for an 11-gallon batch (115 bottles at about $0.20/bottle)

Add your overhead and time and costs soar to about $20/bottle |

Steve
Stevenson, WA

 

[Spoonta]

between 20 and 30 i had 1 go up to 40 and the handbrake all most killed me

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

It looks like I'm right in there with everyone else here. Not counting the initial outlay for equipment, I think mine costs around $30 for 5 gal. I buy 6-6 gal. of water and a 20lb. bag of ice for each batch. Also, it seems like every time I go to the store to pick up ingredients for a new batch I need at least one other supply such as bottle caps, sanitizer, etc.

Still, we are making beer that is comparable with imports and super-premiums in the store. At about $15 a case we are making our beer for about the same price as a 12 pack of a good import. Not bad, eh?

 

[kaptain_karma]

I usually spend $40-$50 a batch, but since I've started fairly recently, some of that is reusable equipment and additives, and I almost always have leftover specialty grains around to throw in another beer they might go with just for sh'ts 'n giggles.