Homebrewing Cost analysis.

[jdoiv]

I spent $350 this summer on a little over 600lbs of grain. $7-10 a corny and it is really good beer. My DFH 60 IPA clone I'm drinking right now tastes just like the original. My SNPA clone is really close to the mark and tastes fresher than what I can get at the store. AG is the way to go for both better product and cost savings. Not that I do it for the cost savings alone. I like the challenge and creativity as well. Now I'm not factoring equipment costs into the equation. I don't want to think what that would do. Probably be something like $100 a corny.... (not really, but it wouldn't be pretty)....

 

[McKBrew]

You guys must all be doing AG. I just spent about $26.00 for 5 lbs of wheat malt extract. The yeast, hops, etc. probably bring my true cost closer to $35.00 for about 5.5 gallon batch.

I feel your pain Lou. I'm currently an extract brewer, and it's about 30 bones for a 5-gallon batch. When I was in Hawaii, I spent almost $50 per batch. I guess money is an option, I'd rather brew AG and have that dough left over for more equipment, etc... AG is definately in my future, I'm probably 3-6 months away from that.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

You guys will really notice the difference once you hit AG in beer quality and in price savings.

Gotta wash your yeast too!

 

[EdWort]

You guys will really notice the difference once you hit AG in beer quality and in price savings.

It's the quality of the beer! Man has it changed my life and brought about a renewed obsession in brewing beer.

I sit here typing away while drinking a Bavarian Hefeweizen that I brewed, and I might as well be on a business trip to Munich sitting in my hotel room drinking a commercial German hefeweizen. I cannot believe I made it sometimes.

 

[Glibbidy]

It's the quality of the beer! Man has it changed my life and brought about a renewed obsession in brewing beer.

Amen!:rockin:

 

[Philip1993]

AG is definately in my future, I'm probably 3-6 months away from that.

I've been an extract brewer with steeped grains. My last two batches have been PM (40-50% grain mash) and I already to full boils. Based on what I read here, the only thing between me and AG is about 7# more grain. Which begs the following question;

Is all I'm missing to go AG a MLT? If so, the ONLY difference between AG and PM is a MLT and an IC.

If I'm correct above, AG is a little more time consuming, but certainly no more difficult than extract. Thoughts?

 

[BierMuncher]

It's the quality of the beer! Man has it changed my life and brought about a renewed obsession in brewing beer.

Same here….except the bad batch I had to toss the other night. Kinda dampened my confidence a bit.

Now I have a batch that I think I over-crushed. Nice tasting, but a dry astringent after taste. Hoping I’m wrong and it’s just the nugget hops that need to be tamed.

I’ve got a fresh 50# bag of grain being delivered tonight and have 10-gallons of my Nierra Sevada and Blue Balls on deck. Gotta get my groove back on.

On the upside, the Old Speckled Hen is coming along very nicely, my NA Anchor tastes fantastic and I just bottled some pretty darn good OktoberFast in anticipation of an upcoming…er…uh…exchange event…

 

[delenda_est]

I'm a pretty dedicated surf fisherman, and if I did a cost analysis on how much the fish I brought home cost me, I'd probably end up dropping about a hundred bucks a pound.

You engage in hobbies because they're fun, not because they're cost effective.

 

[Orfy]

It's the quality of the beer and the money saving and the enjoyment of the craft.

The way I look at it the more I brew the more I save.:rockin:

Most hobbies cost you.
This one is self funding.

It saves me money.

I'm way way in front on the £££

My last 5 gallon batches have cost me.

$4 for the cider. (Free apples) and $14 for a BIGIBUIPA

 

[El_Borracho]

I'm new to this, haven't so much as bought anything..

I'm getting into it for the love of drinking a nice beer. I want to be able to make stuff I can't get around here....that means making my own. Hope I don't develop a palate for crap beer I'm trying to avoid extracts, I'd like to go right into grain.

Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is awesome, their other beers give me heart burn (wheat, porter).

 

[homebrewer_99]

I buy bulk DME and hops and wash my yeasts.

My batches are between $15-17.00.

 

[kaptain_karma]

When I first started, I knew more or less nothing about beer and thought that making beer at home would be a great alternative to buying a twelve pack every night. I rapidly fell in love with beer and the process and learned everything I could about beers and brewing. Now, my favorite thing about homebrewing is the ability to make any beer I can imagine and cater to my specific tastes.


oh yeah, I guess I didn't answer the original question. Including shipping (I order ingredients online), propane, and junk I don't "need", I probably average $30 for low to mid gravity recipes and $40 for high gravity or unnecessarily complex beers. Honestly, I've never calculated the exact cost.

 

[mr x]

I've brewed 7 AG batches since Sept 1, and it's worth every penny and more. I've probably spent over $1000 on gear, but I consider it money very well spent. I work 3 on 3 off, and my first day off is brew day, and I love it. The fact that I'm not paying $20 for 12 Keith's also sweetens the deal. Plus I can't stand giving the government any more of my money. It's win win win.....

 

[Bosh]

Let's see by my calculations:

Cost of 5 gallons of ****ty Korean beer at store: $51.74
Cost of 5 gallons of decent import (Hoegaarten etc.) at store: $175.58

Cost of a batch of more expensive homebrew, I avoud liquid yeast since I'm a cheap bastard and don't like paying $15 for a vial:
Minimal equipment costs (have only the most basic stuff)
Cost of 6.6 pounds of DME: $32.76
Cost of 1.1 pounds of specialty grain: $3.28
Cost of 84g of hops: $6.55
Dry Yeast: $2.18
Buying new big bottles (hate dealing with little ones): highly variable by about $5.50 per batch of beer
Bottled water (tap water tastes like crap): $7.55

That makes a 6 gallon batch and my brother in law pays for shipping and I give him about a gallon.

Total costs to get me five gallons of homebrew (high estimate): $57.82

So basically homebrew costs about the same as the local ****ty later and is about a third of the price of imports. So if my stuff is as good as the imports I save 2/3 and if the labor I put in is worth it to get good beer instead of ****ty lager I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead despite paying a lot more for ingredients than the rest of you.

In addition I get variety that beats the hell out of the very limited selection of decent imports in Korea. If I was in the states and could get a six pack of good beer at the local store for less than what I pay for two bottles of guiness here, I'd probably give up on it but it saves me big piles of money in Korea.

As far as going AG, I'd need a new stove, a lot of new equipment and the grain would be $3/pound plus shipping, so I don't think I'd end up saving less money and the annoyance of having all that stuff in a small apartment/having to brew on the roof wouldn't be worth it. Have to try to do some mini-mashes though.

 

[Chris_Dog]

It would be kind of cool to add up ALL the money I have spent on this hobby and figure out how much each gallon of beer has cost me. But then if I did that. the wife would see it and flip out..

In my mind it wont add up in most any hobby...
Take my dad for example. Loves to Bass fish, nice bass boat, who knows how much $ in rods, reels, & tackle. We were fishing once and he posed a very similar question. "What do you think this Bass would cost per pound?" (I can't remember what the # was that we came up with, I would imagine hundreds).

 

[BierMuncher]

...I'm getting into it for the love of drinking a nice beer. I want to be able to make stuff I can't get around here....that means making my own. Hope I don't develop a palate for crap beer I'm trying to avoid extracts, I'd like to go right into grain.

Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is awesome, their other beers give me heart burn (wheat, porter).

Word....

I have 10 gallons of Old Speckled Hen in kegs ($7.00 a six).
10-gallons of Anchor Steam ($8.00 a six).
10 gallons of Octoberfest ($6.00 a six)
I just racked 10 gallons of SNPA to secondaries last night ($7.00 a six).
Just doughed in for 10 gallons of Blue Moon ($6.00 a six).

That's a little over 20 cases of beer with a store value of about $544.00.

My 10-gallon batches run between $19-$24, so I spent somewhere between $100 and $120 dollars.

So yes...you can get your investment back if you're dedicated to brewing on a consistent basis.

Also remember...I can Graiglist my equipment anytime and get full value since I built everything myself.

 

[Cheesefood]

The AG thing is funny. I've been on this board long enough to have seen MANY of the people here (myself included) make the jump from PM to AG, and no one has looked back. Not even in when they wanted to save time. Everyone is nervous about it at first, but after they drank their first AG homebrew, they were hooked.

Not only is the quality better but building up your equiptment is a blast. Picking out the cooler, the burners, the pot, the mill, the keggle, the pump, the 3 tier... I remember when Dude went AG, Ed, Bird, Orpheus, Rdwj and all the other vets of this board. Everyone was dissatisfied with the overall quality of their beer and thought the expense was high. Start brewing AG, and everything tastes better, is cheaper, and way more fun.

I think you feel more connected to the beer when it's all grain. You really get a feeling like you made beer. Extract felt more like making soup. The first time you mash, sparge and boil you really feel like it's YOUR beer. YOU had your hands in every part of it. No one did the work for you.

 

[Bulls Beers]

You guys must all be doing AG. I just spent about $26.00 for 5 lbs of wheat malt extract. The yeast, hops, etc. probably bring my true cost closer to $35.00 for about 5.5 gallon batch.

I feel your pain Lou. I'm currently an extract brewer, and it's about 30 bones for a 5-gallon batch. When I was in Hawaii, I spent almost $50 per batch. I guess money is an option, I'd rather brew AG and have that dough left over for more equipment, etc... AG is definately in my future, I'm probably 3-6 months away from that.

I'm an extract brewer. I'm brewing today a Bohemian Pilsner and my kit costs 43 bucks. Not incluing 3 gallons of water and a bag of ice to cool it..That's another 6.

Do you need alot of space to AG? I need to move.....

 

[LouT]

I buy bulk DME and hops and wash my yeasts.

My batches are between $15-17.00.

But gosh, Bill, you brew a LOT! If I bought bulk DME, I think I'd have a big 25 lb bag of hard brown stuff in my basement after about 3 months!

I'm at least harvesting and washing yeasts, which helps some. I wish I bought some bulk hop pellets last year when they were 1/2-1/3 price! I want to get into AG, but I don't think I'm all the way ready for that yet. I also know that I sometimes go whole hog on something and then lose interest, but I'm also the type that likes to only buy something once and buy high quality stuff -- so I'm kind of holding off before I go sick with buying crankandstein grain mills, conical fermenters, keggle building, etc. etc.

Maybe I should just do a rubbermaid MLT, buy a cheap big aluminum kettle, and a king kooker burner, buy my grains crushed from the LHBS, and get off the fence and do this!

 

[LouT]

The AG thing is funny. I've been on this board long enough to have seen MANY of the people here (myself included) make the jump from PM to AG, and no one has looked back. Not even in when they wanted to save time. Everyone is nervous about it at first, but after they drank their first AG homebrew, they were hooked.

Not only is the quality better but building up your equiptment is a blast. Picking out the cooler, the burners, the pot, the mill, the keggle, the pump, the 3 tier... I remember when Dude went AG, Ed, Bird, Orpheus, Rdwj and all the other vets of this board. Everyone was dissatisfied with the overall quality of their beer and thought the expense was high. Start brewing AG, and everything tastes better, is cheaper, and way more fun.

I think you feel more connected to the beer when it's all grain. You really get a feeling like you made beer. Extract felt more like making soup. The first time you mash, sparge and boil you really feel like it's YOUR beer. YOU had your hands in every part of it. No one did the work for you.

I think you've summed it all up perfectly, Cheese.
The quality of beer isn't that big of an issue for me, my extract brews fortunately have been coming out AWESOME, but I'm a gearhead/gadget type, so the building up equipment has a huge appeal to me, as well as the final thing you said about feeling more connected to the beer.

I have a few space issues to deal with due to my other hobby stuff taking up so much space in the basement (SWMBO's pet peeve, that I have too much "stuff").
I guess the way BierMuncher put it makes sense, though -- if I Craigslist the stuff and put together my AG setup over time and/or build a lot of it myself, I could always CL it later if I find that I'm not using is as often as intended.

Another big factor for me is that my kids are already getting older, so I already did my time-away-from brewing thing when they were younger - now I think brewing is something I'll continue to do for the long haul, honestly.