Cost of Home Brewing

[Someguyinahat]

I always hear (and read) that home brewing is cheaper than just buying beer. However, I have found that the kits I use that make five gallons would cost me about the same as just buying the same amount (of good beer). I'm paying between 40-70 dollars per kit (depending on alcohol content). Am I getting ripped off? Is it cheaper to buy ingredients separately instead of a kit? Or is the whole "it's cheaper to home brew" just a myth?

 

[Wakadaka]

40-70 for a kit seems pretty steep. Once you buy bulk hops, and go all grain and reuse yeast, prices drop significantly.

Where are you buying your kits from?

 

[Firebat138]

I just did a batch of DIPA recently and spent about 55 bucks on the kit... THe local brew store sells one of their DIPA's for $12/growler... SO thats $24 a gallon x 5 = $120.00. SO yeah, that saved me a bunch, plus if I start all grain, I cut my cost in half

 

[nefarious_1_]

There have been a lot of discussions on this topic. Do a quick search and you'll find numerous answers.

Personally, I think it costs about the same, especially when you factor in equipment. AG brewing is quite a bit cheaper though, since malt extract is so expensive. But if you buy in bulk, it cuts cost quite a bit. Trouble is storing it...

Anyway, take my advice, do a search.

 

[WhiskeyR]

The biggest difference I find is that now I'm buying beer for all my friends, too.

 

[rizomee]

But theres nothing like a good homebrew

 

[Firebat138]

correct, We got all of our equipment for free... Hand me downs... But think of it as an adventure. I love drinking MY beer... my hops are 12 feet tall now and cant wait to start a brew with my own...

 

[jamesampm]

Rememberits a hobby. Just from reading online it wont save you much in the U.S. but in Canada you save a bit.
the canned kits are more expensive than buying ingredients as well.

 

[DD2000GT]

If you buy Keystone or other cheap beer - you usually are better just continuing if cost is the driving factor. As you said, you buy "good beer" which I am "ass"uming is the $7 - $10 a six pack craft beer selection - then home brewing will indeed save you money over that.

You say you are paying $40 - $70 a kit? Seems really high to me. I am an all grain brewer and most kits with ~6% ABV runs me less than $20. Last extract kit ran me $30 or so for the same style, so it appears your costs are a little high wherever you are buying.

 

[MikeinCT]

To save money I believe that you have to go all-grain. But regardless of the ingrediants it is fun and interesting.

 

[Cape Brewing]

I can say with some confidence that no one I know (and I'm in a pretty large HBC) brews to save money.

With equipment, the inevitable upgrades, the eventual kegerators, etc... I would guess fewer than 1% ultimately SAVE money by brewing their own beer.

That's not why folks do it.

 

[grace1760]

My extract kits have cost $30-$45, from LHBS and also AHS. The higher gravity ones run into the $50-$60+ range.

The way I see it, after investing all this money into equipment, I have to brew lots of batches to recoup some of those costs...which is exactly what I plan on doing.

 

[BradleyBrew]

You don't actually have to go completely to all grain to save a ton of money. A few months ago I bought a 5 gallon "water" style igloo cooler and mash about 75% of my grains and still use my 6 gallon stock pot. $25.00 invest saves me about $10 per batch and the beer is much better.

 

[TotemWolf]

I make 5 gal batches, that comes out to 50 bottles. I All-grain, and buy my ingreditents in bulk when I can. I also harvest my yeast. Excluding equipment of course, I spend $15 for a lawnmower beer to $40 for a big beer like an Old Ale or Barleywine.

That's $0.30 to as high as $1.00 I'll say.

The average Porter or IPA cost me about $20 a batch.

That's $2.40 a six pack. Not bad.


Now having said all that I don't care about the cost of the beer. I'm doing it for the pleasure of the hobby. The more I can save the more I can spend.

 

[Beezy]

Extract kits seem way over priced but really its the extract itself. I decided just to go AG right away to avoid this but buying grain by the pound I think its going to be a bit less than 30 bucks for a basic hefewiezen. Not quite the savings I was hoping for but next Ill get a crusher and buy bulk. If you save your yeast too Id imagine you can do a basic 5 gal for 15 or so. Then you are saving some. I didn't really get into it to save money though. Thats just what I tell the wife. I got into it to learn more about beer. Its also nice to always have beer in the fridge too. I only worry about not getting to drink as much craft brew but I suppose the local homebrew meetups make up for it a bit.

 

[beergolf]

You are not going to save money on most beers. I guess it depends on the brew. If you are making something like a big Belgian then you may save some, but I do it because I like brewing.

I get great stisfaction drinking something I made. Thinking up a recipe and having it turn out great is a good feeling.If I save a couple of bucks then that is an extra, but I don't do it to save money.

 

[Someguyinahat]

Thanks everyone! I definitely love brewing and will continue to brew for brewing's sake. I buy my kits from a home brew stores in CT. I just had heard time and time again that home brewing was cheaper than purchasing beer already made. When I started brewing I did the math and found it to be about the same price so I thought I must have been doing something wrong. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I hope to go all grain someday but I don't think I'm ready for it yet.

 

[gclay]

I can get extract kits from Zellers for $16, and Coopers for $22 from my lhbs

 

[Beezy]

Yeah Coop is 19 at my shop and the Muntons is even cheaper but tbh I never even considered making those.

 

[alestateyall]

Brewing is a fun past time. If you don't enjoy it, buying beer will always be a better value. If you do enjoy it, then the cost is a fairly minor issue.

 

[alexdagrate]

Those sound like expensive kits to me. Once you are confident enough to put your own "kits" together, you can trim costs in lots of ways.

Here's what I do:

1) Buy hops in bulk. Farmhouse Brewing Supply, Hopsdirect, labelpeelers, or freshops all have decent prices. Farmhouse brewing is my favorite, mainly because the prices are low, the turnaround time is fast, and the 4 oz packages are convenient. Hops at a LHBS are 2-4 times more expensive than a bulk seller.

2) Get yeast from a local brewery. My local brewery gives me a ton of Wyeast 1056 whenever I drop off a mason jar. Takes a day or two for them to get around to filling it, but I dont need to use a starter and I save money and the quality of the beer is actually better.

2.5) Just use dry yeast, it's cheap. Unless you're brewing an incredibly complex and yeast-centric beer, you can usually substitute Safale US05 (Pale Ales, IPAs, American Barleywines), S04 (english style ales, stouts), or Safbrew (belgians). Dry yeast is cheaper than vials or packets and you don't need to mess with a starter.

3) Find the cheapest malt or extract seller among your LHBS's. One of my LHBS's sells Briess LME for $2.10 a pound. They charge less if I re-use and bring in my own container instead of getting a new one each time.

Eliminating equipment costs, I am down to around $20 for a 5 gal batch of IPA, just under $40 for a barleywine.

Thanks everyone! I definitely love brewing and will continue to brew for brewing's sake. I buy my kits from a home brew stores in CT. I just had heard time and time again that home brewing was cheaper than purchasing beer already made. When I started brewing I did the math and found it to be about the same price so I thought I must have been doing something wrong. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I hope to go all grain someday but I don't think I'm ready for it yet.

 

[ArcLight]

An extract kit is around $35 - with liquid yeast. Lets add in some whipping and call it $40 a kit for 50 12 oz beers. Around 80 cents a bottle.
Where do you get good beer for that price?
Of course it all depends on what you consider "good" beer is. You may very much enjoy something I will think is mediocre and not enjoy.

If you know what you like, you can save some money and buy in bulk, extract as well. That $40 may become closer to $30, or 60-65 cents a bottle for good beer.

All grain is much cheaper, but requires a lot more time, though all grain brewers tend to enjoy what they do.

 

[JohnTheBrewist]

Of course you can save money brewing your own beer! No one says you have to go out and buy expensive equipment to make good beer. And even if you do, once you've depreciated the cost over a couple hundred batches it's not so much.

For example, lets say you went all out and spent $3000 on the cadillac of brew rigs. Divide that cost by 200 batches of beer (you'll surely get way more than that). That adds $15 per batch to the cost of your beer. Buying bulk hops and malt and harvesting your yeast, a typical batch would probably average at about $15-30 for ingredients (the higher number is if you have to have it shipped). Now you're at $30-$45 per 5 gallon batch.

Craft beers here are typically $8+ per four-pack. That means it would have to cost you more than $104 per batch not to save money over buying a comparable craft beer.

 

[johnmcc]

You can buy 2 kits (avg kit that is), with shipping spend the same money. Where are you buying your kits from?

 

[BonnieJ]

I counted up all I spent on the ingredients for a 5 gallon batch, and it came to $20.
6 lbs extract = $12
specialty grains = $3
hops = $3
yeast = $2

Sure, I spent $50 on the trip to the store but I had to buy everything I needed to brew (minus brew pot and carboy, which I'm borrowing, for now).

We really can't afford to buy any more beer. I'm a full-time student and my husband only has part time work right now. It's homebrew or no brew. It seems vastly cheaper to me, since at $20 a run for ingredients I should be able to make about 50 bottles of beer. That's, what, 40 cents a bottle, or $2.40 a sixpack?

 

[Someguyinahat]

An extract kit is around $35 - with liquid yeast. Lets add in some whipping and call it $40 a kit for 50 12 oz beers. Around 80 cents a bottle.
Where do you get good beer for that price?
Of course it all depends on what you consider "good" beer is. You may very much enjoy something I will think is mediocre and not enjoy.

If you know what you like, you can save some money and buy in bulk, extract as well. That $40 may become closer to $30, or 60-65 cents a bottle for good beer.

All grain is much cheaper, but requires a lot more time, though all grain brewers tend to enjoy what they do.

The only $40 extract kits I have found in my local brew shops are American pilsners. A beer I am not particularly fond of. I'm typically spending more like 55-60$

 

[birvine]

In Ontario's liquor stores a good beer is $3-$5 for 500 ml which is $120-$200 per 20 litres. I can get a Brew House kit for $29 which makes me about 20 litres give or take. So, looking at these numbers, I'm 'saving' about $100. But would I go through this much beer if I didn't make it? No. Would I need a kegerator that cost me $400 to build? No. Would I need the $50 corny kegs? No. Or the turkey fryer? No.

I have to say that I haven't saved by making my own but it enhances my enjoyment of any given day knowing that my hobby is ready whenever I want. Just like my bicycling passion does not 'save' me any money, though it improves my health and well-being....


It's all about quality of life.

B

 

[Allstar]

I figure this way. I like to drink craft beer. It is not uncommon for me to go out and spend $100 on beer and maybe get 15-20 different bottles, that is on a good day. Sometimes it might only be $10. Now if you are use to drinking a case of race car beer you are going to be spending more brewing your own. I paid $30 at my LHBS for my Amber Ale, it made 45 bottles and two Growlers. I just bottled my milk stout that cost $42 and it made 46 bottles and a Growler. So for $70 I have 91 bottles and 3 growlers out of two batches. So it would have cost me $68 for 4 cases of yuengling. In my eyes I find it worth it.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I spend WAY WAY more money home brewing than I did buying beer. I WAS a 1-2 beers a month drinker, then discovered this hobby. Now I am MAYBE a case a month drinker but a multiple case a month giver away lol. I just REALLY enjoy the mad scientist aspect of the hobby. I have to make a couple of quaffers soon as the supply is getting low. But then I think I am gonna tackle the 120 min IPA. I have never tasted one but trying to get to that ABV intrigues me.

 

[CrookedTail]

I don't understand how people are spending so much on ingredients, even if they're brewing with extract. On average my extract beers cost me $30 to brew.

As for all grain being cheaper, it only is if you buy your grain in bulk. If you buy your grain per batch, you aren't saving anything.

You can buy extract in bulk to save money as well. The problem for me is storing it.