As a rule of thumb, I try to keep my recipes below the cost of what I could simply buy. Though I love experimentation, there's so many things I can make myself, I try to at least save a little when I put the time/risk in making things myself.
This brought me to experiment a bit in BeerSmith, and compare the price-efficiency of various ingredients. I'd like to validate some of those results, and get your input to put those differences in perspective.
For example, in 1L of wort, to get 1.5% ABV, you need about either:
Now yes, those numbers are a bit biased, given that my sucrose is priced bulk (sugar keeps, and I always have bulk sugar on hand), while the other two prices are not bulk. However, quickly looking at bulk prices... at most I half these costs, with two key factors remaining true: sucrose is insanely cheaper than grain-derived sugar, and dry extract is cheaper than malt.
Now, obviously, a 100% sucrose-derived beverage is, quite simply, not beer. For most places, I believe you need over 50% of the fermentible sugars to derive from malt (or at least grains) to qualify as beer. And a 49% sugar beer is... probably not all that good. Presumably, it would taste very watered down, thin, without body or mouthfeel, or at least not much of it.
But... adding sugar is not all that far-off. Rule of thumb is up to 10%, right? A recent brulosophy trial at 10% showed no difference than without sugar in a belgian tripel. How far can you go without impact? And then, even further, how far can you go without making too much of a negative impact?
Another question that arises is, if we dilute the wort with plain sucrose, can this be compensated by using certain "stronger" malts? I'm still very much a newb when it comes to malt, so in this regard, I have no answers. Color can certainly be compensated by using darker malts and specialty malts for that remaining (up to) 51% of the bill. But if you can attain the same level of color using 1/4 of a given light malt with a much darker malt, I'm not sure that 1/4 quantity of that other malt will give as much flavor... will it?
So which malts taste... maltier? Which give the most flavor? What is the correlation between flavor and color? And between these and mouthfeel?
And if the first questions related between sugar vs malt pricing, and the second in how to balance lower malt worts, the third big line of questions I have is extract vs all grain. I thought that all-grain, for all of its extra expenses in equipment and hassle, would at least offer cheaper brews. After all, you use raw-er ingredients, and thus less transformed products are usually cheaper. But by my calculations, per every point of ABV, extract is significantly cheaper than whole malt? Even retail quantities of extract are cheaper than bulk quantities of malt??? So while I can understand that malt in homebrew shops is more expensive per sugar content then bulk sugar (which you can buy at costco in 25kg bags for the same price or extremely close to what you'd pay by buying by the tonne), this malt vs extract difference I have a harder time understanding? Why bother going three-vessel all-grain, when you can have just about as much customization, for cheaper, with a single-vessel partial mash using dry extract and a handful of specialty malts? Are there drawbacks I'm not considering?
I've not started brewing with sucrose yet, but I have brewed a few batches with liquid extract, and *if* there is a quality difference between grain and extract (of which I am far from convinced), I still ended up with products I quite enjoyed, that cost me below the minimum legal cost of beer (never mind craft beers at 3x *that* price), while still allowing me to be generous with other specialty ingredients like hops, and end up with quite flavorful brews and good prices. Plus bonus, I get to pick the ingredients (especially hops) that *I* like, instead of whatever happens to be trending and that will become unavoidable in commercial brews.
So... why not add sugar to the wort? Why not use extract instead of plain malt? How much sugar can we get away with? And what tricks can we used to compensate for sugar's drawbacks? All while considering that the goal is to cut costs while remaining tasteful, not in merely getting some american light lager or otherwise simply drinking the cheapest water-ethanol solution possible.
This brought me to experiment a bit in BeerSmith, and compare the price-efficiency of various ingredients. I'd like to validate some of those results, and get your input to put those differences in perspective.
For example, in 1L of wort, to get 1.5% ABV, you need about either:
- 1oz of sucrose
- 2oz of amber dry extract
- 14.5 oz of amber malt
Now yes, those numbers are a bit biased, given that my sucrose is priced bulk (sugar keeps, and I always have bulk sugar on hand), while the other two prices are not bulk. However, quickly looking at bulk prices... at most I half these costs, with two key factors remaining true: sucrose is insanely cheaper than grain-derived sugar, and dry extract is cheaper than malt.
Now, obviously, a 100% sucrose-derived beverage is, quite simply, not beer. For most places, I believe you need over 50% of the fermentible sugars to derive from malt (or at least grains) to qualify as beer. And a 49% sugar beer is... probably not all that good. Presumably, it would taste very watered down, thin, without body or mouthfeel, or at least not much of it.
But... adding sugar is not all that far-off. Rule of thumb is up to 10%, right? A recent brulosophy trial at 10% showed no difference than without sugar in a belgian tripel. How far can you go without impact? And then, even further, how far can you go without making too much of a negative impact?
Another question that arises is, if we dilute the wort with plain sucrose, can this be compensated by using certain "stronger" malts? I'm still very much a newb when it comes to malt, so in this regard, I have no answers. Color can certainly be compensated by using darker malts and specialty malts for that remaining (up to) 51% of the bill. But if you can attain the same level of color using 1/4 of a given light malt with a much darker malt, I'm not sure that 1/4 quantity of that other malt will give as much flavor... will it?
So which malts taste... maltier? Which give the most flavor? What is the correlation between flavor and color? And between these and mouthfeel?
And if the first questions related between sugar vs malt pricing, and the second in how to balance lower malt worts, the third big line of questions I have is extract vs all grain. I thought that all-grain, for all of its extra expenses in equipment and hassle, would at least offer cheaper brews. After all, you use raw-er ingredients, and thus less transformed products are usually cheaper. But by my calculations, per every point of ABV, extract is significantly cheaper than whole malt? Even retail quantities of extract are cheaper than bulk quantities of malt??? So while I can understand that malt in homebrew shops is more expensive per sugar content then bulk sugar (which you can buy at costco in 25kg bags for the same price or extremely close to what you'd pay by buying by the tonne), this malt vs extract difference I have a harder time understanding? Why bother going three-vessel all-grain, when you can have just about as much customization, for cheaper, with a single-vessel partial mash using dry extract and a handful of specialty malts? Are there drawbacks I'm not considering?
I've not started brewing with sucrose yet, but I have brewed a few batches with liquid extract, and *if* there is a quality difference between grain and extract (of which I am far from convinced), I still ended up with products I quite enjoyed, that cost me below the minimum legal cost of beer (never mind craft beers at 3x *that* price), while still allowing me to be generous with other specialty ingredients like hops, and end up with quite flavorful brews and good prices. Plus bonus, I get to pick the ingredients (especially hops) that *I* like, instead of whatever happens to be trending and that will become unavoidable in commercial brews.
So... why not add sugar to the wort? Why not use extract instead of plain malt? How much sugar can we get away with? And what tricks can we used to compensate for sugar's drawbacks? All while considering that the goal is to cut costs while remaining tasteful, not in merely getting some american light lager or otherwise simply drinking the cheapest water-ethanol solution possible.
