Economical Brewing

[Clint Yeastwood]

My dad and I used to fish so we could get free dolphin, snapper, tuna, and grouper. His boat only held 775 gallons of diesel and never burned more than 40 gallons per hour. I miss that free fish.

I should add that I have 4 .22 rifles and one 16 gauge, and I really enjoyed the free 7-ounce squirrels I ate. All 8 of them.

 

[Conehead]

Well, where I live which is 2 hours from Toronto, the cheapest 2 row is $80 and Pils malt is $85. Shipping is around $24. That is it. Buy it or don't brew beer. I buy it.

 

[Agent]

Well, where I live which is 2 hours from Toronto, the cheapest 2 row is $80 and Pils malt is $85. Shipping is around $24. That is it. Buy it or don't brew beer. I buy it.

But isn't it like 40 Loonies for a 24pk of Labatts? You still come out a mile ahead, just in an adorable currency.

 

[passedpawn]

This article seems on target for this conversaion.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/the-frugal-brewer.678757/

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

This article seems on target for this conversaion.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/the-frugal-brewer.678757/

Perfect addition to this thread!
Thanks for snagging that.

 

[redrocker652002]

Great article. My next foray is going to be reusing yeast. US05 and Bry97 are my usual go to's. Just seems to easy to just swirl around the bucket and pour it into the mason jar and fridge it. But I am close to trying that. Also, bulk grain is on the list, but room is a bit of a problem. Morebeer gives me 10% discount for being an AHA member but I have to pick it up in store. Might broach the subject with the accountant (wife) and see. Great stuff.

 

[Airborneguy]

That’s exactly how I reuse yeast. I have never had an issue.

 

[z-bob]

Great article. My next foray is going to be reusing yeast. US05 and Bry97 are my usual go to's. Just seems to easy to just swirl around the bucket and pour it into the mason jar and fridge it. But I am close to trying that. Also, bulk grain is on the list, but room is a bit of a problem. Morebeer gives me 10% discount for being an AHA member but I have to pick it up in store. Might broach the subject with the accountant (wife) and see. Great stuff.

That's how I reuse most yeasts. If the jar of yeast is fairly fresh I just swirl it up and dump in the fermenter. Or dump half of it in and transfer the rest to a smaller jar. Last week I brewed a kinda high gravity beer and the jar of yeast was a couple of months old so I made a starter.

For a few yeasts, like K-97, I scoop the foam off at high-krausen and put that in a mason jar with a little bottled water. (top cropping) I wonder if a macro beer like Hamms would be better for covering it? I use it the same way.

 

[jdub1782]

i figure about $40-50 for a 10 gallon batch. Biggest cost is now grain since I moved back to south Louisiana a few years back. No local brew shops so I place orders of 6 -10 lb bags from More Beer for free shipping.

Previously I lived in the Chicago burbs and could call my local brew shop and have them put an extra sack of grain on their order for me. A side benefit was my wife would come with me to pick it up, and then she started asking the owner what she should get me for Christmas.

 

[Beerstein]

• I buy hops on black friday deals, enough for the year
• Buy yeast in 500g bags and try to go 2-3 brews on a yeast cake
• Use organic wheat and oats as adjuvants

I use a lot of hops in my beers, so a typical five gallon batch runs me $20-$25.

 

[DuncB]

• I buy hops on black friday deals, enough for the year
• Buy yeast in 500g bags and try to go 2-3 brews on a yeast cake
• Use organic wheat and oats as adjuvants

I use a lot of hops in my beers, so a typical five gallon batch runs me $20-$25.

Seems like a lot of yeast especially if you are recycling it?

 

[Beerstein]

Seems like a lot of yeast especially if you are recycling it?

I'm not always able to recycle it. I've found that the yeast lose a lot of viability when I pressure ferment in the summer.

If you watch on amazon, you can get some great deals. I bought a 500g pack of S-04 for $80. And it lasts a long time. I'm still working on the 500g of US-05 I bought two years ago.

 

[passedpawn]

Perfect addition to this thread!
Thanks for snagging that.

I wrote it

 

[ba-brewer]

Posts like this reminds me of Bracc, the king of cheap brew.

I want to say it was a couple bucks for a 12er and that included the sundries.

In the early 80s I was making 5gal of extract for about 7 dollars, now a 5gal batch of modestly hopped all grain ~5% golden ale is under 20 dollars.

 

[Wesley Dog]

The joy of drinking and sharing a beer you made far exceeds the cost of the product.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I wrote it

It's a long read but a very informative one. I hope everyone here took the time to read it as it echoes almost every post.

Just like everyone, I try to find ways to save a little money too. I enjoy brewing. I enjoy reading about brewing. I especially love when my recipe turns out and I'm sipping on a brew I made in the comfort of my own bar.

Sure, I could be sitting at the local brewpub sipping on one of their eight dollar pints and thinking about how much I'm saving by not brewing my own.

 

[DuncB]

I want to say it was a couple bucks for a 12er and that included the sundries.

In the early 80s I was making 5gal of extract for about 7 dollars, now a 5gal batch of modestly hopped all grain ~5% golden ale is under 20 dollars.

Cheaper than the extract version I'm sure.

 

[ba-brewer]

Cheaper than the extract version I'm sure.

To recreate the 80's extract, 3.5 to 4lbs of LME and a healthy amount of corn sugar, I think it could be done for about 20 dollars.

The 20 dollar golden ale uses a 50/50 mix of US 2row and Imported Golden promise with trendy hops like citra and mosaic and reused liquid yeast. If I used all domestic malt or lowest price base malt on sale with second tier hops (cascade, chinook, ...) with reused dry yeast I think the cost would be closer to 12 dollars.

I buy the bulk of grain by the sack on sale, hops in 8oz amounts and yeast get repitched at least 4 times.

 

[ba-brewer]

Frugal brewers here's your target, may 2021 pricing

i'd have to be at a bar for that! in comparison, the black beer i'm drinking cost $1.10 a twelve pack, or 12 cents a pint.....and it's 7.5% ABV....


i haven't spent $40 on a batch in 20 years!

 

[DuncB]

Frugal brewers here's your target, may 2021 pricing

God bless Bracc.

 

[bwible]

Homebrewing is a hobby. I don’t do it to try to compete with Anheuser Bush to try to make my beers cheaper than I can buy theirs for.

As far as reducing costs, there aren’t many areas I want to go that route. Do you want to buy the cheapest base malt? No, most of us are buying better. Do you want to buy old expired cans of extract? Trust me, you don’t. Do you want to buy cheap old hops on sale? Sure, no better way to ruin your beer.

Yes, it pays to buy grain by the sack. I’m not so sure about hops by the pound unless you brew alot of big, highly hopped beers and would use a pound of the same hop pretty quickly

About the one thing I do is try to re-use yeast. Especially since I’m a big fan of liquid yeast and I’m doing smaller batches. I think that pays.

 

[bwible]

I went to a local brewery today and bought a 4 pack 12 oz bottles of their imperial stout brewed with vanilla beans and cocoa aged on borbon - $40. I also bought a 4 pack of their barleywine for another $40.

If you’re talking in economical terms these are beers that pay to brew if you enjoy them and don’t skimp on ingredients and you still come out ahead.

 

[bwible]

I never noticed an uptick in my natural gas bill when I used to brew on my stove top. Propane is the most expensive energy you can use to brew, but the easiest to track. I'm still on my first 15 lb tank since moving outdoors four or five batches ago, so we're talking less than $4 a batch and still dropping.

You use alot of water brewing though. More than you think. You use it for cleaning, soaking, rinsing as well as brewing

 

[Airborneguy]

My area is known for horrible water bills. Roughly $100-150 per quarter, which seems to really bother lots of people. I don’t even think about it. It may have ticked up from brewing but not enough for me to notice.

 

[MaxStout]

You use alot of water brewing though. More than you think. You use it for cleaning, soaking, rinsing as well as brewing

This.

I chill with an IC, and know I use a lot. I bought one of those garden hose water flow meters on Amazon. Last brew took 26 gallons to chill to 63F. And our tap water is very cold--water pipes are buried deep here. Imagine the amount needed in, say, southern California, where the ground water isn't so cold and it's much more expensive and scarce.

Quantifying that made me think I need to capture that chiller water. I do that in summer when I brew in the garage. I pour it on trees and shrubs. And I keep the first few gallons for cleanup as it's plenty hot.

But in winter I brew indoors and let most of the water go down the drain. I could always save it for the washing machine.

I could be less wasteful.

 

[mac_1103]

You use alot of water brewing though.

I brew in spurts - three or four batches in a month and then nothing for the next few - and the water bill isn't dramitically different in months when I do or don't. Then again, water is pretty reasonable here so a 25% increase would only amount to five bucks at most. Did two beers and five gallons of fig wine in September and the water bill was $2 higher than the month before. I use rainwater for chilling.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

This.

I chill with an IC, and know I use a lot. I bought one of those garden hose water flow meters on Amazon. Last brew took 26 gallons to chill to 63F. And our tap water is very cold--water pipes are buried deep here. Imagine the amount needed in, say, southern California, where the ground water isn't so cold and it's much more expensive and scarce.

Quantifying that made me think I need to capture that chiller water. I do that in summer when I brew in the garage. I pour it on trees and shrubs. And I keep the first few gallons for cleanup as it's plenty hot.

But in winter I brew indoors and let most of the water go down the drain. I could always save it for the washing machine.

I could be less wasteful.

I brew indoors all of the time. I use a plate chiller but the outlet water goes into the sink bowl for cleanup. I can also fill my HLT for the next brew.

I'm on a well but I still don't want to waste water. That reminds me it's time to change my emergency water storage. I have four corny kegs of stored water for the next power outage.

 

[Langerz]

When we post costs I feel like we need to add some info on the beer.

There’s beers I can do $40-50 for a 10 gallon batch but no way if it’s a high abv really hoppy beer

 

[Brewer Mike]

The joy of drinking and sharing a beer you made far exceeds the cost of the product.

Nice sentiment, but I wouldn't agree with a blanket statement like that. If it cost $1M a bottle to produce I don't think anyone would say that the enjoyment of drinking it and sharing it far exceeds the cost. Certainly, it would never cost someone $1M per bottle to produce, but it does point out that there is a point of diminishing returns. Where that point is, is subject to the individual, whether it's $0.25, or $25 a bottle. I think that's the point of this thread.

 

[jcfontario]

I do many of the items already suggested here - base grain in 25 kg sacks, frequently used hops by the pound, save and repitch expensive yeasts such as Kveik Voss and 34/70. By doing this, I can make a 14 L batch of Pale Ale with Citra hops and Kveik Voss (working with Gen 5 right now) for about $1 (Canadian!) per litre. That also includes a couple of dollars worth of pink sanitizing detergent.

To make the process even more closed loop, I have been treating the spent grain as as a co-product. My wife can make 3 loaves (2 lbs for each loaf) of delicious spent grain bread with half the grain and then use the other half of the grain to make 4 pounds of dog treats for the kids pets. With the value of the bread and dog treats, the beer is essentially free - at least that is what I tell SWMBO!