Homebrewing as a way to save money

[MrMeans]

Currently my wife stays at home to care for our two children and I am the breadwinner in the family. I make a good salary but we are far from living high on the hog. I already have equipment for both all grain and kegging. Currently I spend roughly $20 per 5.5 gallon batch; I rinse and save my yeast with a fresh starter for every beer. I never let my yeast go more than about 5 or 6 generations.
My whole goal here is to make great tasting beer for less than I would buy the same volume at the store. Don’t get me wrong, I love this hobby and craft beer. This is along the lines of making your own sandwich bread, or jams and jellies because you can, you enjoy it, and because it’s economical.
My questions to HBT community is this, is anyone else on the I brew because it saves me money plan, and if so what do you do to keep expenses down without sacrificing quality?

 

[JayDubWill]

I think you already nailed one of the best ways to keep costs down; washing yeast. Other than that I think the biggest impact to the bottom line for me has been simplifying my recipes. there's a video on YouTube of a presentation titled "brewing on the ones" that's talks extensively about this. I'll try to find it and post it.

 

[JayDubWill]

Here it is,

 

[kmckiou]

You know, I have stopped calculating the cost of brewing. After taking into consideration grains, hops, water additions and supplies, I expect I am spending close to $40 a 5 gal batch. But honestly, there is no way to use cost savings as a justification when I have $2K - $3K in equipment, books, software and have plans to build a brewery in the basement. The "investment" in toys will always out-weigh any cost savings per batch. Worst of all, I probably spend 13 - 14 hours per batch. I brew because I find it satisfying. For me, if I wanted to save money, I would sell everything and just order kegs from the local liquor store. Thank goodness my wife is ok with my hobbies...Hey! I guess it keeps me out of the bars .

Oh wait! I do have something to contribute. Buy a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Drink it and harvest the yeast in the bottom of the bottle (I do this). Then you need about 4 cycles of 1 liter starter, chill, decant before you are ready to use it. Great yeast! Helps a lot if you have a stir plate - which, BTW, you can build on the cheap using a computer cooling fan.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I don't think I could use that. I have never saved money. Nownif you don't include one time expenses, then yes I save money.

I find having a mill and buying bulk grain is cost effective. I also buy hops by the pound. I have a vacuum sealer to help preserve them. Once I pay off the up front costs it is very cost effective.

For yeast I just grow a few extra in the starter and use those for my next starter. That way I don't have to wash them.

 

[Hamaki]

Buy grain and hops in bulk. If you're doing $20 a batch you're probably already doing this anyway.

 

[kaconga]

One thing I have been doing has been to collect a bit of the last runnings of a beer and boiling it down for the next starter. Only really works when I am brewing multiple batches each month but it does save me some DME costs and time.

 

[MindenMan]

By reusing my yeast, I can usually brew a 1.060 beer for $19.00 w/o hops. I average 2 oz of hops usually, so a full 5 gallon batch with hops can be $21.00, a far cry from the $64.00 plus tax or more, that eight 6 packs would cost.
Saving money by making home brew, is like saving money by flying your own plane. It's a great idea at the time, it seems. I can honestly say, since I started home brewing, the minimal equipment that I use to brew with, has been completely paid for by the savings of not buying retail beers anymore. I have a re purposed turkey fryer, a 40qt alum. pot, a Zapap tun, a hydro, a floating thermometer, and the appropriate sized transfer tubing. As long as I don't drop a bunch of money in to my current set up to make big changes.

 

[fartinmartin]

I costed out my beer, I decided to right off the equipment cost as eventually I should not need to buy more equipment, that leaves me with goods electricity and sanitiser resulting in £0.32 per pint , I am happy with that, but that dose not include my 5 hour brew day, and my 3 hour bottling session.

The more I drink, the more I save ! ?

 

[Donmega]

Brewing my own defiantly saves me a bucket load, that was a factor in giving brewing a go, here in Nz the craft beer market is booming and so are the prices, Even a 12 pack of crappy commercial beer is approx $20... Unless it's on special you don't buy it !! I can brew 23 litres for approx $40.. Further more the better I get at brewing the more I am enjoying trying different processes etc so it's keeping me hooked.... Cost wise so far I would have invested about $250 on gear..


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[Cheesy_Goodness]

Bulk hops and grains seems to be a great way to go, and washing yeast saves a buttload.
One outside the box thing you might want to consider is what you do with your grains after the mash. Plenty of people either make dog treats with peanut butter, flour and eggs when they're wet, or put them on a cookie sheet in the oven to dry them out and use them for bread baking. The Spent Grain Chef has several recipes that stretch your dollar on grain.
I'm not sure how cost efficient (or practical) it is, but growing hops is always an option too.

 

[gwapogorilla]

Other replies have nailed it already. Buying bulk grains and hops and washing your yeast. I also FREEZE my yeast in little 1 or 2 oz. vials. There is a thread on yeast freezing in this forum.

 

[Hamaki]

One more thing I did that cut $2 - $3 off each batch was switch from propane to electric...that's if you don't count the ~$500 "investment" I made in new equipment.

 

[broadbill]

If money is that big of an issue then stop brewing, and stop drinking/buying beer. At the end of the day it is a non-essential expense and you aren't going to "save money" brewing no matter how cheap you get your ingredients.

If you aren't really that cash-strapped: buy in bulk and reuse your yeast are the biggest things.

 

[Eucrid]

Here in Ireland I can make a 5 gallon batch for the price of a 6-pack of craft beer. Its even about half the cost of macro (but I don't really drink that anyway) so it quite economical here. Plus my beer is fresh which isn't the case with a lot of the commercial beer here.

 

[Riot]

It depends on how bad alcohol taxes are in your area. At 30 bucks a case minimum I saved quite a bit of money making beer with minimal equipment. Once you decide you want better gear its over however, I bet I've spent 400 on equipment in the last two months

 

[RonPopeil]

Most of the good stuff has already been said. Wash yeast, buy bulk ingredients and store, maintain equipment as best you can to prevent rebuying. These are the main issues. I'm on the verge of grabbing a refractometer for the pure fact that I've spent nearly $30 on hydrometers this year. If a refracto lasts me two years it saves me money.

For awhile I approached brewing from a money saving point of view. Anymore it's just a hobby that cuts into funds for other interests. Depending on your point of view it may or may not save you money. Are you the type to go out and do things on days you would use for brewing or does not brewing mean you're a couch potato? A lot of guys say you have to add the value of your time to it. For me, the time I spend brewing beer is time I would spend on entertainment. Many times this involves a meal at some point which means brewing is actually a cheaper way to spend my time than not brewing. $26 on a batch of beer is cheaper than a $60 night out doing movies, drinks, brewpub trip, walking around town, farmers market trips, etc. If you're the type that would spend your time in a more fiscally responsible manner this additional savings and philosophy may not apply but for me, and probably quite a few others, this is applicable. Only a few hobbies are cheaper (playing guitar, listening to my hifi stuff) but those things also have buy-ins and often lead to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

 

[DSorenson]

Consider making gruit with non-traditional, cheap and easy to acquire spices.

This will cut down on hops spending and maybe give you an exciting new beer.

 

[madscientist451]

6 packs of decent craft beer run $10-12 around here. I can get Sierra Nevada for $15 a 12 pack and cases of Sam Adams and others for about $32.
I can produce my own for way less than that, but my beer just tastes way better
than many of the commercial beers I can buy. I have very minimal equipment and my beer hobby shares some of the same equipment my I use for wine.
I've developed a thirst for sour beers
and they can be somewhat pricey. It doesn't really cost any more to make sour beers, just takes time and ties up my carboys.
The sour beers I like cost $12 and up for a 750ml bottle, I can really justify making that, lol.
Everyone needs a hobby and needs to have a creative outlet. There's really no need to justify your hobbies. Just do them because its something you enjoy.

 

[Braufessor]

Bulk buying is a must - 50lb sacks of grain, 1lb bags of hops, at the very least( get in on a "group buy" in your area or through a local club or brewery and you can sometimes get ingredients REALLY cheap). Some of the prices group buys get are insanely low.

Don't use hops like citra, amarillo, etc...... Use cascade, columbus, willamette, etc..... they are 1/2 (or less the cost).

Don't brew beers that use a ton of hops. Brew 1.040-1.050 gravity beers instead of "double imperial whatevers."

Fuel source - I use natural gas - way cheaper than propane.

Reuse your chilling water for other things.

You mentioned yeast...

Take care of your equipment...... if you don't need to replace something, it is money saved.

****** Take up a hobby like golf or boating for a while...... then quit and go back to brewing...... brewing will seem like it is free compared to most other hobbies at that point

 

[Flboy]

I brew at about 10-12 bucks per 5 gal. Buy bulk, stop using kits. Also wine is a great savings, very easy to make quality equal to Carlo Rossi. Using only juice runs about 20 bucks/5 gal

 

[sjfischr]

Most of this has already been said, but:
-Base malts are usually the most expensive component of a beer. A 50-lb bag of Two-Row is perhaps 50-75% cheaper than by-the-pound bags.
-Hops is probably the second most expensive component. Agreed on the bulk hops as well--focus on higher alpha acids, and more versatility. I just got a 1-lb bag of Chinook, which can be used for bittering, flavor, and aroma, for $16.99, whereas most hops by-the-ounce run $1.99-$2.49, so there's another 50%-75% savings.
-Yeast washing is probably something I would not do because the cost of time far exceeds the financial savings of about $3.00 per batch. Using dry yeast is something I do to save time and money, since many dry yeasts don't require starters, and they typically boast double the population as the liquid yeasts.
-Oh, and I use a GE Smart Water filter as opposed to buying 5-gallon jugs of water. This was an investment which paid for itself within a few brews.

People have stated that sticking to sessionable beers is a way to save. You get a savings per ounce, to be sure, but higher gravity beers tend to be enjoyed in lower quantities, so I don't think this is a strong-enough argument.

 

[Brewenstein]

I got into home brewing five years ago because the beer I liked was costing $8-$11 per six pack. I did extract for six batches, then switched to all grain. Bought recipes from Brewmaster's Warehouse, so there was no extra grains laying around. Started buying hops in bulk at the same time. Eventually got a grain crusher and now participate in group buys for both grain and hops. I have a very basic set up - 10 gallon round cooler mash tun, turkey fryer, 10 gallon and 20 gallon stock pots, two burners, home made immersion chiller, about six or seven ale pails. I bottle everything. I also try to plan brews so that I can harvest yeast directly from the fermentor for the next batch (try to brew every 2-4 weeks). Even though dry yeast is cheap (I use US-05 95% of the time), there is no reason to toss it all out after one batch. The real secret for me is that I usually get money for birthdays and Christmas and use this for brewing equipment and ingredients. Or I let people / my kids know exactly what I want as a gift. I think I haven't spent more than $400 of "my" money on brewing in the five years I have been doing it. So basically every beer I drink is a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Birthday to me". Would I like better / more fancy equipment? Sure - who doesn't. Am I happy keeping it simple and ghetto - sure am. I have had plenty of people tell me my beer is better than commercial / craft, and better than other brewers with fancy equipment. (Not that I haven't had a few "meh" beers and dumpers along the way.) As you read over and over on HBT, it really comes down to good practices, and good fermentation temps.

Now, "Cheers" and let's all RDWHAHB!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

****** Take up a hobby like golf or boating for a while...... then quit and go back to brewing...... brewing will seem like it is free compared to most other hobbies at that point

Especially when you consider that you'd then have to BUY beer while golfing and boating!

 

[Calichusetts]

Meh...so many threads over the years on "costs" and time, etc.

The wife and I work and make a pretty decent income. We have no credit card debt, a decent savings, stock, etc. We are not upper income people but have some wiggle room. We don't really set a budget so brewing for me is the hobby in itself. I like brewing. The amazing side effect is drinkable beer. But 4-5 hours of me brewing is like meditation. I don't breakdown the costs/value. I love this hobby, I don't go overboard with spending on it. No one complains.

The wife and I love craft beer. She really likes some expensive beer, so I look at it from a different perspective. The total costs of my batch is usually less than any trip to the store we make.

 

[govner1]

When getting into any hobby I've found that if your goal is to "save money", you're on a fools errand.
Hobbies are for enjoyment, learning or expanding skills, relaxation, camaraderie w/ others having similar interests, ultimately personal pleasure in what you learn and produce.


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[Cyclman]

Good tips already stated. I don't think that anyone has said to discover maltier, more yeast driven styles. Yeast can be reused, or even frozen for storage. Malty beers tend to have less expensive hops. BTW, growing hops is a great investment for a brewer.

I love Blondes, Dubbels, Pilsners, Milds...all are pretty cheap to brew.

 

[Picker]

The more I drink, the more I save ! ?

lol

 

[DaNewf]

I brew relatively simple beers BIAB style on my kitchen stovetop. I don't think I've purchased any new gear in over a year. At this point I think my actual savings (even taking increased drinking into account) have covered the cost of my equipment.

My last batch was 5 gallons of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. The ingredients cost $26.73 CDN. Other consumables like cleaning/sanitizing agents and electricity may have drove the cost a little closer to $30CDN (I pay a flat rate for water). A 12 pack of Molson Canadian goes for $24.50 and that's as cheap as beer gets here. Never mind imported stuff stuff like Young's Double Chocolate Stout or Fuller's London Porter at $4 plus a bottle.

This hobby is actually saving me a little money and I am drinking more (and usually better) beer than I would be otherwise. That's the main reason I started homebrewing and while it's not the only reason anymore, it still figures big into it.

 

[mikescooling]

With 25 gallon pots, I can brew a 1/2 bbl net worth each brewday. It cost about 50bucks a brew day to make $300 worth of beer. Each batch I save about a quarter grand! And in 7 or 8 years I will break even on the cost of doing an Ebuild. So NO! I'm "in the red" about 3K.