Costs?

[Rammer]

Good afternoon brewers,
I currently have my first batch of beer sitting in the fermenter (Amber Ale)and I will be getting ready to bottle in another 9 days. I have been putting some thought into my next beer and all though I am probably to scared to venture away from a kit at this time I was just wondering what the cost comparison is between using an extract kit with specialty grains vs all grain and buying all the ingredients separately from a supply store or online. I live in Canada and in my town the availability of the kits are limited so I bought my first one online. Most the kits I have looked at online are $50.00 to purchase (5 gallon kit with liquid extract, specialty grains, steeping bag hops and most importantly instructions)

 

[bleme]

I have always found that kits are cheaper than identical ingredients priced out. The only ways to get cheaper are converting to All Grain, buying in bulk, and/or reusing yeast.

 

[madscientist451]

I brew all grain, pay retail at my LHBS, but save some money buying the hops on line and re pitching yeast. My 5 gallon batches probably average $25. Lots of hops and specialty grains might push that up, while mostly base malt lightly hopped ales will be cheaper. I just got a grain mill, will start buying base malt by the sack and specialty malts in 10 lb increments and I should be able to get the average below $20 for 5 gallons.
I just brewed a bourbon wood aged clone for about $6/gallon. The commercial example sells for $4 a 12oz bottle retail, So I don't mind spending some money on ingredients.

 

[TBC]

When you buy kits your paying for convenience. If your worried about instructions look at the kits and most of the time they have the brewing instructions as a PDF that you can print or write down. Buy the LME in bulk. They sell it in 33lb containers and measure it out on your own. You should be able to brew a 5 gallon extract batch cheaper than $50 unless it's a DIPA or RIS.

 

[kramer2500]

When you buy kits your paying for convenience. If your worried about instructions look at the kits and most of the time they have the brewing instructions as a PDF that you can print or write down. Buy the LME in bulk. They sell it in 33lb containers and measure it out on your own. You should be able to brew a 5 gallon extract batch cheaper than $50 unless it's a DIPA or RIS.

To take it one step further, most kits have the ingredient lists too with the instructions. If you find something you like, just look at how much of LME/DME is included, what steeping grains, and then hops and yeast. Definitely start reusing yeast (will save you a minimum of $4-5 USD per batch. Buy LME/DME in bulk and just look at the online PDFs. Specialty grains might trip you up a little, but there are plenty of people that can help. You should be able to get extract batches down to $30-40 USD per 5 gallon batch.

As for all grains, it is definitely cheaper per batch (I just brewed a low gravity cream ale this weekend that was less than $10 for a 5 gallon batch). But, you will have the equipment expenditure, which will take a while to offset with cheaper batches. The advice I give all new brewers is get comfortable with extract batches (where you are not looking at the instructions all the time) and then move into all grains. Just my $0.02.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Buy your own grain if you plan on sticking with beer making.
I brew 10 gallon batches (double the kits)
It cost around $35 on average
That's less than $10 for a case of premium beer...Homerun on every level

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

It's way easier then many beginners think it is to do all grain. BIAB is a great way to start all grain and for many perfect forever.

Anyway, I'm all grain and buying in bulk, repitching yeast, and using expensive malts (MO, GP) and I'm at $30 to $52 US for about 10 gallon yield. Fuel costs (propane) plus misc (cleaner, santizer, water treament, etc) are another $6 bucks a batch.

I grab recipes online, and from books then tweak them to suit my tastes and process. Ray Daniels - Designing Great Beer puts you in the ballpark pretty quickly. Again .... It's easier then you think

One of my best beers is also one of my least expensive. It's based on Orfy's Dark Mild (search in this forum). I brew it often, and that wouldn't change if it cost $90 per batch .... cause me likes it so much. The fact that it's just $36 is just a bonus. Could probably do this one for around $28 if I substituted domestic 2 row for the Maris Otter. I may try this as I'm not sure MO isn't completely masked, given the chocolate malt.

 

[Vedexent]

Welcome to the forums

I've only done small batches so far, and I'm also in Canada (Calgary, Alberta).

I started with all-grain brew-in-a-bag (BIAB ) - and I have to agree with MidAtlanticBrew - it's really not that hard if you are careful.

I'm doing half-batches (2.5-3gallons, ~10 liters into the fermenter), BIAB, full-volume boil, with no sparging - so my efficiency is down around 60% so far. That means I'll be spending a bit more on materials per liter/gallon than people doing sparging to wring all the sugary goodness out of their mash.

Still, for about 8 liters (2 gallons) of bottle-able beer, I'm putting my "cost of materials" ~$15Cdn (factoring in ingredient purchases that span multiple small batches, esp. hops). That's about $0.94/beer for my 500ml swing-top bottles, or $0.63/beer for for 24 standard 355ml bottles.

And that's not buying any grains in larger amounts, it's buying pre-milled grains, and that's including a $6 "smack pack" of yeast. If I bought grain in larger quantities, milled my own, and harvested/washed/re-used yeast strains (or even used dried yeast where I could), I could drop my costs a lot.

Of course, that's not counting the costs of equipment setup, and if I do a "return-on-investment" calculation to determine when I'd break-even on home brewing vs. buying beer, it's a long time.

However, I'm not really enjoying home brewing for reason of economy. I also count it as entertainment, and the sheer fun of learning to something like this, and learning (hopefully, eventually) to do it well

 

[bajaedition]

I brew both extract and all grain, it just depends on time commitments and how I feel. even though I have everything it takes to all grain brew, about half the time I extract.
I have never really compared the cost difference because I buy ingredients at the time of brewing, most but looking at the cost of kits online I see that if you bought your ingredients in bulk to all grain you would save money.
with the cost of shipping individual kits, decent money.

my thoughts on cost savings is this, if we get 5 gallons of beer we get about 8.8 six packs of premium beer. at 7.99 a six pack for premium beer that is over 70 dollars, for that amt of money I can brew 10 gallons easy

now if I was Drinking swill such as B(%&(#$@r, then at the price I can get that, 14 dollars a case, then maybe the price is just about break even

 

[kh54s10]

Once you get to all grain and have all your equipment you can save a lot of money buying grain and hops in bulk. I would say a typical brew would cost at least %25 less. Then if you reuse yeast you can save that expense for at least the next few batches.

 

[andrewmaixner]

It's way easier then many beginners think it is to do all grain. BIAB is a great way to start all grain and for many perfect forever.

Heed this advice. Spend $10 to $30 for a bag, and then you are doing all-grain, improving your quality/control (compared to liquid extract) and saving money.