Home Brewing = Saving Money?

CornyKegs 728
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I went to Bevmo today because I wanted a six pack of marzen and when I got home and poured me one, it was oxidized, stale, and just horrible all around. I wanted a marzen because I'm brewing a batch next weekend and I couldn't wait the 2 months or more it's going to take for it to be ready. So that's why I brew, so I can drink good beer and not waste my money on bad beer.
 
I have around $200 invested in my 3 vessel system and ferm fridge, another $100 in my mill. I re use yeast, buy bulk grain and hops by the lb. For a low ibu beer it costs me around 30¢ apiece, probably around 60¢ for a hop bomb. Considering that craft beer is 9+ dollars a six pack (never even had a sculpin because I refuse to shell out fourteen bucks for six beers), and the fact that I prefer my own beer over the majority of commercial varieties, and go through 10 gal/month (don't judge :tank:) I'd say I've saved quite a lot by homebrewing. Not to mention it's a hobby I truly enjoy
 
Btw, it's not just Canada where you save, I vet you save a lot in Scandinavian countries (e.g., I've heard of prices in Norway being even worse than Finland) and the UK. In lots of continental Europe beer is cheaper (e.g., in Germany you can pick up decent beer for one Euro).
 
Come to think of it, I may have saved enough to talk swmbo into writing a kegging setup into the budget this year :D gonna have to crunch some numbers.
 
JKaranka said:
Btw, it's not just Canada where you save, I vet you save a lot in Scandinavian countries (e.g., I've heard of prices in Norway being even worse than Finland) and the UK. In lots of continental Europe beer is cheaper (e.g., in Germany you can pick up decent beer for one Euro).
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True. Beer is outrageously expensive here in Norway, and the most expensive of the scandinavian countries. Those that live on the eastern border drive across to Sweden to save money. A six-pack of Carlsberg (European version of cheap, macro pilsner) costs around $20 right now (it was more like $26 when I first moved here, but the Kroner has lost some value since then). A .5L bottle of craft beer at the grocery store (no higher than 4.7%) costs about $6-8. At The Winemonopoly (Vinmonopolet), a .5L of craft beer costs upwards of $9.

I'm about to brew a Bohemian Pilsner that cost me about $45 for 25L (6.6 gallons), or about 93 cents for a .5L.

While startup costs for equipment and what not are obviously quite a lot, once I get settled with my final setup, I will eventually save quite a bit of money.

In Germany, go out to eat and just drink beer. It costs more for bottled water.
 
I'm way into the savings of homebrewing. Avid thrift store lurker and have found most of my items for less than $5.

$5 (2 - mr beer kits)
$5 20qt kettle
$5 large cooler for mashing grains
$20 5 gal carboy
$2 5 gal bucket
$10 bottle capper
$5 paint strainer bag

It's been enough to make almost 10 batches so far. Most of them are $20 or less for 5 gallons. Like most people, I buy my hops online at and have a decent grain hookup.
 
berrywise said:
I've got a long way to go before before I could even say I've broken even on the money I've invested in my brewery. It doesn't help that I continue to buy gadgets.

That said the one thing most people overlook is that your time is worth money, even if you say you do it just for fun. Factor in paying yourself even minimum wage and you've just blown any savings.
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I'm going to have to disagree with this. If you derive any enjoyment at all in spending your time on brewing, it isn't a cost--it's a return. I don't know a single fisherman who considers their time spent fishing to be a cost.

And yes, you could theoretically be working and earning money instead of enjoying your hobby, but then that would defeat the purpose of a hobby--a pastime which is enjoyable.

IME, brewing is recreation. The fact that one can save money while doing it means it's one of the few hobbies with an actual return for hours spent.

*******

I also reload ammunition--shooting is another one of my hobbies. I can reload .45 ACP for about 10 cents a round (I also cast my own bullets). To buy commercial ammo costs about 40 to 50 cents per round. I can load, at a relaxing pace, 300 per hour. That's "paying" myself upwards of $90/hour in savings, and I can go faster if I want. Even if you halve the hourly rate by including time spent casting, it's still $45/hour.

Brewing beer is similar in that once equipment is paid for, there's a monetary return for hours spent. It's not as "lucrative" as reloading, but as in reloading, the quality is higher and the satisfaction greater than just buying it off the shelf.
 
In 2015 I brewed 100 Gal using 219.17 lbs of grain at an Avg Cost of $38.80 per 5 gal batch which includes the cost of yeast, grain, and hops. So.. Avg Cost per Gal: $7.76, Avg cost per 12 oz bottle: $0.73, Avg Cost per 6 pack: $4.37.

As a hobby, I figure equipment is sunk cost so I don't bother calculating it in. This is much like golf: the cost of the clubs, balls, hats, gloves, shoes, etc are not calculated in the cost of a round. But if I did calculate in equipment and used $1,000.00 for average equipment, at the going rate of $8.00 a 6 pack of craft beer, I figure I am ahead after 25 batches.

So After a little more than one year (which has come and gone) I am saving money and doing what I like: drinking the beer I brew at home.
 
joshesmusica said:
True. Beer is outrageously expensive here in Norway, and the most expensive of the scandinavian countries. Those that live on the eastern border drive across to Sweden to save money. A six-pack of Carlsberg (European version of cheap, macro pilsner) costs around $20 right now (it was more like $26 when I first moved here, but the Kroner has lost some value since then). A .5L bottle of craft beer at the grocery store (no higher than 4.7%) costs about $6-8. At The Winemonopoly (Vinmonopolet), a .5L of craft beer costs upwards of $9.

I'm about to brew a Bohemian Pilsner that cost me about $45 for 25L (6.6 gallons), or about 93 cents for a .5L.

While startup costs for equipment and what not are obviously quite a lot, once I get settled with my final setup, I will eventually save quite a bit of money.

In Germany, go out to eat and just drink beer. It costs more for bottled water.
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Wow... Yes that is worse than Canada... I remember I was in Germany and Czech republic and drinking all these great beers for about .75 cents Canadian... That was in the shopping market near my hostel. So probably expensive for there! In Canada those beers would have been about $2.50 each at the time. 500ml bottles...

Beer prices vary even in Canada... I live in Ottawa and will drive to Quebec (10 min drive) to buy beer a few times a year. Probably 25% cheaper there. If you buy a few 24s it adds up.

I also fish and hunt... Never really cared what I spent on those hobbies. Brewing I did start to save money but it became a hobby I enjoy... And in Canada unless you are going "all out" you will be saving money.

Sou ds like in Sweden you are saving money hand over fist?
 
Just my thoughts. I do save money because im an occasional drinker. I make simple batches of beer i enjoy. But on same note i absolutely love the freedom of being able to brew things ti my liking. Or challenge myself to brew something unique.

Hobbies are never money savers its a passion. Yea you can save money if u stick to a simple set up. But if brewing is ur hobby then your not gonna save money. Just get more amd more obsessed.
 
I look at it like this.
Cheapest way to buy beer..1/2 barrel
cheapest beer Bud Light(lets not split hairs)
1/2 barrel BL $100
Half barrel = 15 gallons
3-5 gallons batches=$50 pale ale= Half price of the cheapest beer the cheapest way
Higher Abv more complex homebrew.$90
So a premium homebrew craft beer is still less than the cheapest beer the cheapest way.
Its a no brainer if you enjoy the process of brewing beer.
 
JonnyRotten,

I think one of us has miscalculated. If, according to your figures, 1/2 gallon of BL = 15 gallons, and it costs $100, then you are paying $6.67 per gallon.

If your homebrew pale ale costs $50 for a 3-5 gallon batch then you are paying $10-16.67 per gallon.

In this case it's actually the BL that is around half the price of the homebrew. Nor does that account for equipment cost or your time.

While it is possible to save money in this hobby if you are very frugal, like mosts hobbies, it tends to cost.
 
andy6026 said:
JonnyRotten,

I think one of us has miscalculated. If, according to your figures, 1/2 gallon of BL = 15 gallons, and it costs $100, then you are paying $6.67 per gallon.

If your homebrew pale ale costs $50 for a 3-5 gallon batch then you are paying $10-16.67 per gallon.

In this case it's actually the BL that is around half the price of the homebrew. Nor does that account for equipment cost or your time.

While it is possible to save money in this hobby if you are very frugal, like mosts hobbies, it tends to cost.
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I think you misunderstood my numbers,or it came out wrong.The cheapest beer I brew is around $15 for a 5 gallon batch.So 15 times 3 =$45for 15 gallons, half price of a 1/2 barrel.I don't count equipment.It will pay for itself in a year or so
 
k1ngl1ves said:
I used to save a ton brewing my own beer.





Then I got into kegging...
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I bought up a bunch of sankes when they were going around 40$ a keg. I now have a staging area in my garage for on deck kegs... What is going to hurt the wallet is when I invest into a freezer for a kegerator instead of my 3 tap fridge.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
I think you misunderstood my numbers,or it came out wrong.The cheapest beer I brew is around $15 for a 5 gallon batch.So 15 times 3 =$45for 15 gallons, half price of a 1/2 barrel.I don't count equipment.It will pay for itself in a year or so
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Ok, I was going by the numbers in your earlier post in which you reported that it cost $50 to brew a 3-5 gallon batch. I guess you reported those numbers wrong in the first post or I misread it. No big deal.

Either way, usually if you brew all-grain then the cost of ingredients makes the beer cheaper than commercial beer, but depending on how costly your set-up is you'd have to brew a lot of volume to make the equipment cost marginal per beer or per batch. A friend and I roughly calculated it once, and with me brewing about 15-20 batches per year and not buying any more equipment we worked out that it would take a good number of years (15-20 I think? can't remember exactly) before I got the price down to something like $2 a pint. Mind you, cheaper set ups than mine can be had and it'd get you there a lot sooner.

I think bottom line is whether or not you enjoy the process and the product. If it's not a 'yes' to both of those then I doubt there's any cost that makes it worth putting the time and effort into it.
 
andy6026 said:
Ok, I was going by the numbers in your earlier post in which you reported that it cost $50 to brew a 3-5 gallon batch. I guess you reported those numbers wrong in the first post or I misread it. No big deal.

Either way, usually if you brew all-grain then the cost of ingredients makes the beer cheaper than commercial beer, but depending on how costly your set-up is you'd have to brew a lot of volume to make the equipment cost marginal per beer or per batch. A friend and I roughly calculated it once, and with me brewing about 15-20 batches per year and not buying any more equipment we worked out that it would take a good number of years (15-20 I think? can't remember exactly) before I got the price down to something like $2 a pint. Mind you, cheaper set ups than mine can be had and it'd get you there a lot sooner.

I think bottom line is whether or not you enjoy the process and the product. If it's not a 'yes' to both of those then I doubt there's any cost that makes it worth putting the time and effort into it.
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nah, he just put the hyphen in the wrong spot. he should've said 3 5-gallon batches. but he said "3-5 gallons batches." wasn't too difficult to understand what he meant.
 
Canuck137 said:
Wow... Yes that is worse than Canada... I remember I was in Germany and Czech republic and drinking all these great beers for about .75 cents Canadian... That was in the shopping market near my hostel. So probably expensive for there! In Canada those beers would have been about $2.50 each at the time. 500ml bottles...

Beer prices vary even in Canada... I live in Ottawa and will drive to Quebec (10 min drive) to buy beer a few times a year. Probably 25% cheaper there. If you buy a few 24s it adds up.

I also fish and hunt... Never really cared what I spent on those hobbies. Brewing I did start to save money but it became a hobby I enjoy... And in Canada unless you are going "all out" you will be saving money.

Sou ds like in Sweden you are saving money hand over fist?
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I'm in Norway, but yeah. Once I get my equipment set to where I want to be, and I'm almost pretty much there on the brewing side. Eventually I'll get a good keg setup, then I'll be finished. At that point, I will quickly make up those costs, and be saving tons of money. Especially since I usually get my equipment for birthday/christmas presents.
 
k1ngl1ves said:
I used to save a ton brewing my own beer.





Then I got into kegging...
Click to expand...




Haha, so true!



Kegging has been the biggest cost to me and I plan to spend more on it as I want more variety. Besides that, I save more by brewing over buying. I've been reusing my yeast, so that's been $6-$7 save per kit. My club is going to do a bulk grain buy soon, so I should see even more savings.
 
I posted in this thread almost 4 years ago now and I can definitely say that home brewing has definitely saved me money.

In my previous post I had just moved to AG via BIAB and was enjoying that so much that I was in the planning stages of my now 3 tier system. Even though I have made more investments like my 3 tier system, kegging system, keg washer/wort chiller recirculating pump and ferm chamber. I am now at the point that I only pay for ingredients and since I haven't bought anything in over 2 years it has significantly cut down on my brewing cost.

Now that the initial investment is spent and that the range of cost of a 10 gallon batch is $35-50 that's all I'm spending. For most of us it's a hobby and what it costs is not why we do it. You can make this as cheap or expensive as you want, you can control what your expenses are by what purchases you make or how much DIY you do.

I have kept track of what I have spent and it's just over $1700 for everything, now I DIY a lot of it but you can't DIY kegs, the single largest investment was kegging, about a third of that $1700.

If it's a hobby that you like and you stick with it then yes you will eventually save money home brewing.
 
If you have a lot of friends who like to drink there is a lot of savings. We could kill 2 - cornys in a night off drinking. Buying that much beer, even cheap beer would add up quick!

I would leave a "Donations" jar on the bar and a lot of the time my out of pocket for ingredients was 0.
 
I personally don't care about saving money because, is it just me or does the beer taste SO much better 100 percent fresh? I even like the taste of the unfinished sample at bottling time over a can of store bought now. It seems so natural.
 
My total setup costs have been on the order of $1000. Possibly as high as $1500. I should go back and add them all up...I haven't separated them well from ingredients or other "Hobby-Related Expenses" in my records, though, so that's nontrivial.

Ingredients are $30-odd per 5 gallon batch; one batch makes 53 bottles. At two bottles per day of commercially available craft beer at $8.99 a six-pack (probably average around here) plus tax I'd be running $140-150 a month, vs. about $40-45 in ingredient costs. Assuming a $15 total utility bill increase, and disregarding opportunity cost for time brewing (many of the things I might otherwise spend that time on would have out of pocket costs associated with them), I'm saving between $80 and $90 buying "maintenance beers" for myself...

...and instead spending that and more on high end bombers from the nearest bottle shop. Fu...err, BEAUTIFULLY UNIQUE SPARKLEPONY.
 
joshesmusica said:
nah, he just put the hyphen in the wrong spot. he should've said 3 5-gallon batches. but he said "3-5 gallons batches." wasn't too difficult to understand what he meant.
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That makes sense... although an extract kit where I live usually costs in the $50 range so that's what I thought he was talking about, so it's easy to see the source of the confusion.
 
Well, to add my 2c, I not only started brewing because the resulting beers would be cheaper. But also because of the variety of possible beers I can't get around here, or at least not at a reasonable price tag. Then, of course, historical beers were brought to my attention by da revs. I was hopelessly lost at that point! So it is a rabbit hole, but that hole branches off.
Do I want all kinds of brewing bling...or do I want all kinds of brews? Big beers, rare beers, extinct beers, small beers? Light beers, dark beers, clean beers, sour beers? Simple beers, complex beers?
Beyond all that, I try to minimize all the brewing hardware. I don't like a ton of equipment that cost a lot of money cluttering up the man cave/brewery. Although it does seem to reach critical mass every now & then. I just like to brew the best beer I can with a minimum of equipment. Saves more money for ingredients.
Speaking of which, since brush & forest fires, droughts & the like, some grain fields & hop crops got burned. Prices go up. More breweries open, demand goes up for the same amount of crops yielded. So prices have gone up substantially even since I started brewing beer rather than wine. Besides the fact that my partial mashes have grown in complexity to mostly mashes. Which, naturally, drives the cost up as well. But getting a good beer in return makes it ok in my view.
So, over-all, I'd rather spend more on beer than equipment.:tank:
 
Out here in spain hops range from 3,50 to 6 euro for 100g, ground malt abt 1 euro a kg, and yeast between 2 and 3 for a 20 liter batch.
I last two beers i made cost me 11 or 12 euros with kick ass pirinean water and a few cents in butane for 20 liter batches. Tbh anything less than 2 euro a liter for kick ass beer is amazing but kick ass beer for less than 1 euro a liter damn man. Ill nveer run out of home brew AGAIN, even the nicer beers i can get at supermarket dont even compare.
 
andy6026 said:
That makes sense... although an extract kit where I live usually costs in the $50 range so that's what I thought he was talking about, so it's easy to see the source of the confusion.
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Most home brewers here in the UK use kits. They start at £8 (~$11). Considering a bottle of beer typically costs about £1.50 it's clearly cheap.
 
I most certainly do not save any money brewing beer. I sure do love my little pile of stainless and my never ending array of gadgetry though!
 
How funny to see this thread pop up. I picked up brewing as a hobby, not a cost savings, but at the end of the first year I figured I would add everything up and see what it actually cost me.

I think if I add everything from my first 3 gallon pot up through my most recent chest freezer, I spent right around $9/6-pack. Part of that is because the Seattle area has killer deals on Craigslist if you're patient, and part of it is because my family and friends enjoy drinking beer (save on volume).

Even if I didn't make a drop of beer, I still spent less than I would have in a year of classic car repair, range fees at a decent country club, Nicaraguan robustos, RC airplanes, or any of a hundred other hobbies.

Our prices locally:
$40 - IPA Ingredients
$65 - Filling a Corny with IPA at the Brewery
$80 - Buying IPA by the 6-Pack
 
Even if I didn't make a drop of beer, I still spent less than I would have in a year of classic car repair, range fees at a decent country club, Nicaraguan robustos, RC airplanes, or any of a hundred other hobbies.
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And you get BEER....seems like a win to me.
 
I'm realitively new to brewing. I figure my costs about $20 US for 5 gallon batch, all grain. Found that normal american beers just don't have the tastes that I like any more. If I do buy beer it is Sam Adams and runs about $33 a case here. The beer I am brewing has much better taste to me than SA. So even with my equipment costs figure it won't be to long till break even, and I'm drinking a better beer too. So I see it as a definite WIN!

Just my $0.02:mug:
 
Saving money? I wish.

Since I started this hobby I bought 2 kits with the LBK, then a Northern Brewer small batch kit, then some kettles, then a couple more 1 gallon fermenters, then a small lager fridge, then a couple of 3 gallon fermenters and the siphon and tubing to go with it, then a 3 gallon beverage cooler and the parts to go with it to make it a mash tun. Plus all the strainer bags and things I've forgotten about in-between.

That is why the advice I'll give to new brewers is that if after they have made a batch or two and fine they like it, think about what size batches they might want to settle on after that discovery is made, and go straight to that. And even then, don't get heavily invested until you've brewed a few batches.
 
Keeping in mind I prefer Belgian and scottish ales and they are very expensive. I save a lot of money by brewing rather than buying. But I didn't drink as much beer before I started brewing. My main goal is having a good hobby, in that sense it's cheaper than a lot of other options.
 
thaymond said:
These are my 2 biggest savers. Yeast can be 5 to 8 bucks per batch if puchased individually. Hops can also be 5 to 15 dollars per batch, depending on the recipe and amount. My one time cost on yeast was last may, of a batch of scottish 1728 and us05. I cultured a WLP002 over 2 years time. Since, I haven't used much else. I've used lager yeasts in the past, but lost most cultures two years ago.
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I fear I may have lost an entire culture. I know I've still got a batch in the keezer that used it, I'm seriously considering harvesting the dregs to make sure I still have it and avoid another smack pack.
Canuck137 said:
Beer prices vary even in Canada... I live in Ottawa and will drive to Quebec (10 min drive) to buy beer a few times a year. Probably 25% cheaper there. If you buy a few 24s it adds up.
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It really depends. Some imports and almost all craft are cheaper. Others are possibly even more. What a lot of people don't realize is that in Quebec the prices are listed pre-tax, Ontario is the tax in price listed. Adding the 15% sales tax (5% GST, 9.975% HST IIRC) quickly cuts into the difference. Add the time and fuel cost (as some from Kanata and Stittsville have) and the savings quickly disappear. I work in Gatineau so it is not out of my way at all. Not that I buy beer anymore.
 

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