Cost vs. Labor - Before I do anything!

[cimirie]

another plus:

consuming homebrew typically requires less ingestion for the same (mild) inebriation. so you don't have to "drink 6 beers, piss 9 beers," it's "drink 3 pints, don't have to piss."

Yet another example of something this board has brought to my attention that I never would have thought of on my own!!! LOL.


I love your quote in your sig, BTW.

 

[olllllo]

This must be a world record. It's rare that Bobby_M or myself wasn't the first to point out the labor cost when people "save" money brewing.

 

[apologeticus]

you'll probably start drinking more and gain weight once you start homebrewing. take that into account.

 

[mordantly]

you'll probably start drinking more and gain weight once you start homebrewing. take that into account.

i'll be damned, stouts and high body beers just won't fill my tire up!


for a real-life example of cost: i am prepared to make a 5gal clone of fat tire, all grain. and the total materials bill is $16 or ~$.32/12oz pour. not too shabby! it will take some time to mash, but not terribly labor-intensive.

 

[CDbrews]

Do you consider this Kit overkill for a newb like myself or about the best start I can get for the money?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/everything-a-carboy-complete-brewing-package-equipment-kit-2.html

To get things back on topic- yes this seems like a good deal

 

[Bacchus]

In the immortal words of the legendary George Carlin......"I have interests. Interests are free. Hobbies cost money."

 

[Weezknight]

Homebrewing doesn't save you guys any money?

I thought everyone here was routinely buying cases of Chimay!

 

[AirBronto]

Even if you eventually save money, that is not what it is about. Home brewing is a disease. When you have it you will know. It is a life long hobby. A way of life.

 

[seanybubbles]

A buddy of mine just spent 2000$ on a record player the other day....To me, my 150$ micro brewery (using buckets to make beer!) seems like a cheap and satisfying hobby. You're making your own beer, how cool is that!

 

[oneawesomeguy]

To get things back on topic- yes this seems like a good deal

Good deal, but I would skip the bottles. Midwest has some other great deals. I bought my first kit from them. They charge you normal shipping costs based on weight and those bottles are going to bump your shipping costs way up. Just go to a local liquor store or supermarket and buy four 12-packs. Or, you can ask your friends or a local bar or even visit a recycling dumpster is you are not grossed out by that.

P.S. Yeah... you're never going to save money homebrewing. You will continue to buy new equipment.

 

[Rentachik]

I just brewed a Stone Ruination clone. Cost $32 Two six packs at the liquor store, $30. So for the additional $2 I now have an additional 38 bottle of brew. I'd say it can be cheaper.

On the flip side, I think alot of people on here fall victim to the downward spiral of dumping ridiculous amount of cash into this hobby. My self included.

So if economy is your thing... I'd buy the $70 brew bucket kit with an extra bucket and 32QT pot from Sams Club. Total cost $110-120. You should have every thing you need to do all grain cheap beers. Do the bucket in a bucket trick.

 

[eriktlupus]

check out brewmasterswarehouse.com for a bit cheaper pricing esp on the shipping(he's in atl). the kit you linked is nice but not sure about the bottles and the pot can be found at most any bigbox store. this http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/product/0101896/maestro-beer-equipment-wauto-siphon and this http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/product/0101627/5-gallon-glass-carboy and then recycle some of them newcastle bottles.

 

[uncleozzy]

The labor cost, therefore, probably doesn't come into play for somebody who's thinking about a dollars and cents approach to brewing.

Exactly. I tend to brew (and bottle) when I would otherwise be watching TV, reading a book, playing a video game, or sleeping. That is, not making money. If you have a few spare hours every couple of weeks, homebrewing can definitely be a money-saver (well, unless your consumption increases as a result of brewing... which it will). And hell, if you look at brew-time as entertainment, it's even better.

 

[152Sumo]

When I first got into homebrewing, a friend of mine from the UK asked "why are you homebrewing? Beer is cheap in the US." He did some homebrewing in the UK strictly to save money. I answered him: "I don't do it to save money, I do it because it is interesting and fun, especially to drink it".

I suppose one could save money homebrewing, but I think most people start for the hobby, not necessarily for the savings. If I could duplicate 90 minute IPA, I am sure I could save ($10 for a 4 pack!)

 

[CarsonCE]

I just brewed a Stone Ruination clone. Cost $32 Two six packs at the liquor store, $30. So for the additional $2 I now have an additional 38 bottle of brew. I'd say it can be cheaper.

On the flip side, I think alot of people on here fall victim to the downward spiral of dumping ridiculous amount of cash into this hobby. My self included.

So if economy is your thing... I'd buy the $70 brew bucket kit with an extra bucket and 32QT pot from Sams Club. Total cost $110-120. You should have every thing you need to do all grain cheap beers. Do the bucket in a bucket trick.

All grain is certainly cheaper per batch, but I think it would be best to start with extract and steeping grains to learn the basics. Most of us started with extract (and some continue brewing this way) before moving on to all-grain if we choose.

 

[StarCityBrewMaster]

For me it's anything to keep me away from the damn online poker tables!

I am going to study up and make the initial equipment purchase. That's half the battle for me. Once I get starter equipment I'll be full steam ahead I've just got to get over that initial hump!

If you all could name one or a few things that you didn't have when you started brewing but realized after just a brew or two you needed (or would make the process easier) what would they be?

 

[JetSmooth]

I brewed with the typical "starter" extract setup about thirteen years ago. I've since decided to build out what's left of that equipment and go all grain. At first, I figured it would be about $150 in equipment. A friend was interested in trying it so I offered to split the 5 gallon batch wit hhim if he put up the money for the ingredients. I figured ingredients (given poor efficienty and overestimating to give myself a nice overhead offset) to be $50.

After joining this forum (BIG mistake!) I found a few other pieces I'd been missing from my extract days (a decent wort cooling method, pump, etc) and my hardware estimate went up to $250ish. So I invited another friend to join in and split the beer three ways with a buy-in of $45.

Well, I JUST finished planning out my purchases and am looking at about $450 in hardware costs. I invited ANOTHER friend to join us with the buy-in now at $40 each and still splitting the beer three ways. I won't be taking any of this maiden batch (well, maybe three bottles).

I could have stuck with a partial volume boil with extract and stayed around the $150 mark. But where's the fun in that?

 

[doug1395]

Its just a hobby for me that's the best way to look at it. Its something to do,everytime I leave the house I spend money.Just think about it,if your watching your pennies right now just wait.When your ready though the beer , well its GOOD !

 

[Synovia]

Homebrewing is in no way shape or form a way to save money on beer.

Saving money isn't a good reason to homebrew, but you sure can save money homebrewing.



There's no reason that homebrewing has to be expensive. The fact that a lot of guys LOVE to buy expensive equipment doesn't mean you have to.


You could have a whole all grain setup for $100, and be making beer for $12 per 5g/50bottles.

 

[JetSmooth]

Doug,

You've got a great point about spending money leavin gthe house. My wife and I just had a baby and I reflected on my entertainment and realized I didn't really do much in the way of hobbies with any real benefit to the home life. Well, I do BBQ (Google "Big Green Egg" and you'll find another cult to get into and spend money on) but most of what we do is go out.

I decided I needed to develop a hobby that I could become very proficient at and use as a bonding experience with my son when he grows up a little. Luckily, my wife is a beer drinkin' gal as well, so this might just work.

Something to do with the family AND you end up with great beer? Who wouldn't spend a little money on that?

As an aside, when I was growing up, my dad's dad owned a bar. Or I should say THE barin the little Nebraska town he grew up in. We only got to visit once every few years or so as I remember, but I loved the atmosphere. My dad's a Miller Lite drinker and I can remember him having a beer every night with the news but I have NEVER seen him intoxicated in my life. Not even now that I'm 32 and we drink in his woodshop or just hanging out. I think having that early and responsible exposure to alcohol fostered a very healthy repesct of alcohol. I rarely overindulge myself now.

 

[Synovia]

This must be a world record. It's rare that Bobby_M or myself wasn't the first to point out the labor cost when people "save" money brewing.

There's only a labor cost if you're skipping work to brew. Its a hobby.


Saying brewing has a labor cost is like telling me its costing me $35/hr to read a book.

 

[djt17]

My previous hobbies have included; hunting, fishing, golfing, & gambling. Homebrewing is by far the cheapest...even if I throw the beer down the drain, it's cheaper than the others.

 

[152Sumo]

My previous hobbies have included; hunting, fishing, golfing, & gambling. Homebrewing is by far the cheapest...even if I throw the beer down the drain, it's cheaper than the others.

My other addiction is kayak fishing. brewing is definitely cheaper. And when you take into account that you could probably sell a lot of fishing and hunting gear for a little cash, brewing is even more cheaper (I doubt that there is a market for used plastic fermenting buckets. I wouldn't buy em out of fear of infections)

 

[djt17]

My other addiction is kayak fishing. brewing is definitely cheaper. And when you take into account that you could probably sell a lot of fishing and hunting gear for a little cash, brewing is even more cheaper (I doubt that there is a market for used plastic fermenting buckets. I wouldn't buy em out of fear of infections)

Yep, I sold my boat last year, my third one. I wished had all the money I dumped into them every year! I also BBQ, that equipment isn't cheap either. But; my brewing & bbq produce some very tasty products. Doing both on a sunny MN summer day with a few brews is truly relaxing.

 

[JetSmooth]

My other addiction is kayak fishing. brewing is definitely cheaper. And when you take into account that you could probably sell a lot of fishing and hunting gear for a little cash, brewing is even more cheaper (I doubt that there is a market for used plastic fermenting buckets. I wouldn't buy em out of fear of infections)

I'm actually getting ready to sell my Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus to offset the cost of my brewing setup. Bought it last christmas when I thought I would get back into playing (It's been a longer departure from guitar than it has been for brewing) and basically never picked it up again.

 

[TRainH2o]

I too would not buy bottles. My local recycling center has tons of them. Give them a good soak in Oxy Clean Free and run them through the dishwasher. You'll need about 52 for a 5 gallon batch.

I would recommend adding the clip on dial thermometer and a long stir paddle.

 

[doug1395]

Don't get me wrong its a great hobby that's why I do it and its one of the cheapest things I do.It does cost minimal money though .I sold some of my old hunting stuff on ebay and paid for my keezer build.That was the ony big purchace I have made.Its preaty easy to sell somethings on there to get you going.Plus with a new baby its a hobby at home.

 

[BlueSunshine]

Beer in Pennsylvania is 45% more expensive than other states so in the end I'm saving a little bit of cash.

A local beer distributor has Newcastle on special for $37 bucks a case. If I pay 48 bucks to make 2 cases of similar beer I'm saving some dough.

Just out of curiosity, how much do you guys pay for a case of Newcastle or Dogfish Head 60 Minute?

 

[PolishLogic]

I had the same thought as the OP, as I'm sure a lot of us did once. Granted I got into this for the experience, but I was curious about how long it would take to break even. My usual beer is roughly $17 a 12'er, so that's $68 per 48 beers (not including tax and redemption). I figure I'm in for about $400 in equipment (and another $300 will be added to convert a mini-fridge to a kegerator), and an average of $38 per kit. So according to my quick "guestimation" math, I'm saving $30 per batch, versus what it would cost to buy the same amount in the store. Meaning I should come out ahead after 23-25 batches. Of course this is assuming that I don't upgrade here, swap pieces out there, etc....

I'm currently working on establishing a pace to give me a new finished batch every two weeks, once my pipeline is running at it's optimum. So even accounting for things like adding another primary down the road to increase my pipeline output (or brew some longer beers without sacrificing my projected pace). I figure at best...as my setup stands now.... I hit a break even point in just over a year, at worst in about a year and a half.

Now, with all that being said, this cost analysis was something I really only gave thought to after seeing what kits were priced at, on average. My main reason for starting this hobby was to be able to enjoy beer I made with my own bare hands. As well as having some styles that aren't readily available without taking a 1/2 hour drive to the nearest local beer & wine superstore. Not to mention trying to concoct my own recipes once I get more knowledgeable about the process as a whole.

 

[doug1395]

Nice well done