Homebrewing saved me over $1000 in 2015!

[brewcat]

Figuring labor...ha! That's nonsense. Just think of it as a one man brewery. Labor doesn't factor for an owner. They only make as much as the brewery makes. Since we as homebrewers can't sell then labor doesn't matter. Labor only matters if you take time off your day job.

My own cost analysis. $10+ for six craft beer = $80+ for two cases. Homebrew batch $(40 ingredients + 4 propane + 2 water/cleaning) = $46. That could be much lower with bulk buys, reusing yeast, etc.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Yes, but I pelletize my own hops to save money, as well as dehydrate my liquid yeast into dry to save money as well.

But, but, labor costs!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

If a $200 pair of shoes is on sale for $100 and you buy 2 pairs, did you save $200??

What if you make 5% commission on everything you sell, but you are the only one buying the product. Did you make money?

"Brewing your own beer to save money on beer is like buying your own boat to save money on fish" - Yooper

 

[Zuljin]

I figure I'm making money. I save money, and a penny saved is a penny earned, so, I'm making money.

 

[hunter_le five]

If a $200 pair of shoes is on sale for $100 and you buy 2 pairs, did you save $200??

According to Feyonce, yes.

 

[brewprint]

The way that I see it is that I'm saving money too. I drink a lot. I used to spend around $50 or so a week on beer. I know that sounds terrible.

Anyway I save a lot of money by brewing my own. I don't count labor costs because I enjoy doing it.

Now I'm going to dump >$1500 into an electric BIAB setup that I will be able to do 10 gallon batches that will account for a little less labor. It'll take a while to re-coup the cash from that.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I hate to interject this thought, but the value of convenience is a thing that is worth money. When I put up a brew it takes between 3-8 weeks to then enjoy the product. Sure I can build up a pipeline to make this not extremely inconvenient, but the effort of building the pipeline itself is a huge inconvenience. This is an inconvenience we as homebrewers are all happily willing to endure... to a point.

The proof is in the pudding. If in fact homebrewing was materially better over purchasing commercial beer then everyone would homebrew and no one would buy commercial beer. Homebrewing can cost less in money, but not in material loss, otherwise they would not be able to charge as much for beer in Canada as they do. Convenience and other material losses like time with the kids, vacation opportunity cost and missing the premiere of Game of Thrones all add up to us voting for commercial beer as the market leader. Heck, even serious homebrewers will endure a watered down or lower quality product in many cases, because buying beer is in fact easier. Easy is worth a lot of money.

You the homebrewer are different than others in your drive to achieve the best quality at the lowest price. Will you succeed? Probably not, but I applaud you all in your effort to beat the system! You truly make beer "brewed the hard way"!

 

[bob1852]

If a $200 pair of shoes is on sale for $100 and you buy 2 pairs, did you save $200??

What if you make 5% commission on everything you sell, but you are the only one buying the product. Did you make money?

"Brewing your own beer to save money on beer is like buying your own boat to save money on fish" - Yooper

If you made 2 pairs of shoes for $800 and spent $0 on other shoes, than you saved $400.

 

[ncbrewer]

If we don't count our labor cost, it seems the main factor in whether we save money is the amount spent on equipment. Several thousand dollars isn't uncommon, which means it takes many years to break even. But you can do it with a couple hundred dollars, which can be paid back in just a few months. I have about $400 in mine, and it's been paid back and saving me money for several years now.

 

[iijakii]

I sold my last three setups for more than I spent. As far as I can tell I'm saving money even though I have a few thousand into it right now. It's just an appreciating asset. Performing better than my 401K, I can guarantee that.

 

[mmb]

Figuring labor...ha! That's nonsense. Just think of it as a one man brewery. Labor doesn't factor for an owner. They only make as much as the brewery makes. Since we as homebrewers can't sell then labor doesn't matter. Labor only matters if you take time off your day job.

My own cost analysis. $10+ for six craft beer = $80+ for two cases. Homebrew batch $(40 ingredients + 4 propane + 2 water/cleaning) = $46. That could be much lower with bulk buys, reusing yeast, etc.

If labor cost doesn't factor into the business expense then you're not doing your ratios right.

You have to account for your income as a labor cost above the business income, otherwise you'll never be able to hire AZ to muck out your mash tun when you throw your back out.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

If you made 2 pairs of shoes for $800 and spent $0 on other shoes, than you saved $400.

hahaha

"If you don't count labor"...over and over and over and over...If the company I work for didn't count labor our prices would be about half of what they are. If you want a true comparison of cost, do a true comparison. If you want to say I spend less money on buying ingredients to make beer then I do on buying beer", then you are 100% right. Ingredient costs count. Equipment costs count. Time is money, so time counts. And don't forget profit and overhead. Oh wait, nevermind. Either way, I don't buy as much beer as I once did. Do I save money? I tell my wife I do!

 

[mmb]

hahaha

"If you don't count labor"...over and over and over and over...If the company I work for didn't count labor our prices would be about half of what they are. If you want a true comparison of cost, do a true comparison. If you want to say I spend less money on buying ingredients to make beer then I do on buying beer", then you are 100% right. Ingredient costs count. Equipment costs count. Time is money, so time counts. And don't forget profit and overhead. Oh wait, nevermind. Either way, I don't buy as much beer as I once did. Do I save money? I tell my wife I do!

Greatest fear is my wife selling my hobby stuff for what I told her I paid for it.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I love the title of the thread. I thought spam at first.

"Click here to reveal this ridiculously easy trick to may off your mortgage in three months"

 

[GuldTuborg]

Why does this labor cost issue keep coming up? I've yet to see a check from any of you fools for labor. Don't cheat me.

And time is money? Please...only when I'm at work.

 

[Sailingeric]

If labor cost doesn't factor into the business expense then you're not doing your ratios right.

You have to account for your income as a labor cost above the business income, otherwise you'll never be able to hire AZ to muck out your mash tun when you throw your back out.

How do you figure labor cost. At min. wage or at $150 an hour?? The other thing I see brought up is the cost of the equipment, which should be figured but amortized out per batch. If I spent $500 in equipment but do one batch a year, then yes brewing is expensive but if I spent $500 but brewed 50 batches a year and used the same equipment for several years before upgrading or replacing, then my cost per batch is not so bad. It is like when you buy a brand new model of car. The car company may have spent millions of dollars designing the car but they don't charge you a million dollars for that $20,000 Honda.
Even if I amortize out my brewer equipment cost over about the 20 batches of beer I made last year, I would be ahead if stopped brewing now. Figuring high end on cost, $40 per batch in ingredients and propane, $25 amortizing my equipment per batch, that is $65 a batch of beer. Figure I get 25 22oz bottle of beer per batch at $5 retail price for beer, that is $125 per batch what it would have cost me to pay for beer in the store. I am $60 ahead each batch X 20 batches, that is $1200 in savings. I am not in this for money saving but it is nice to know it is a hobby that can at least not be a money suck versus other hobbies like RC airplanes or owning a boat.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

How do you figure labor cost. At min. wage or at $150 an hour?? The other thing I see brought up is the cost of the equipment, which should be figured but amortized out per batch. If I spent $500 in equipment but do one batch a year, then yes brewing is expensive but if I spent $500 but brewed 50 batches a year and used the same equipment for several years before upgrading or replacing, then my cost per batch is not so bad. It is like when you buy a brand new model of car. The car company may have spent millions of dollars designing the car but they don't charge you a million dollars for that $20,000 Honda.
Even if I amortize out my brewer equipment cost over about the 20 batches of beer I made last year, I would be ahead if stopped brewing now. Figuring high end on cost, $40 per batch in ingredients and propane, $25 amortizing my equipment per batch, that is $65 a batch of beer. Figure I get 25 22oz bottle of beer per batch at $5 retail price for beer, that is $125 per batch what it would have cost me to pay for beer in the store. I am $60 ahead each batch X 20 batches, that is $1200 in savings. I am not in this for money saving but it is nice to know it is a hobby that can at least not be a money suck versus other hobbies like RC airplanes or owning a boat.

This is the point I was trying to make, looking at the column on 'money spent on beer' being lower by so much thanks to the efforts of my hobby which I enjoy doing. I would still do it if it was cheaper to buy beer of similar quality, I just hadn't realized it would end up saving me money in the long run.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Why does this labor cost issue keep coming up? I've yet to see a check from any of you fools for labor. Don't cheat me.

And time is money? Please...only when I'm at work.

Not sure if it matters, but I'm at work now. And, technically, yesterday, when I went to the LHBS, I was at work then too. And since I am a salaried employee, and technically "on the clock" at all times, I'm always getting paid! Time is money

 

[FloppyKnockers]

From a hobby standpoint I hate seeing people try to factor their time, and sometimes equipment into the overall cost. So when I went golfing last weekend how much money did I spend? I thought I spent $81. $54 for the greens fees, $20 for the cart, and $7 for the IPA. By some of your rationales I spent hundreds more than that for the round. After all I have to factor in the cost of my clubs, shoes, shirt, sleeve of balls, lessons I took back in the 90's, and labor. I like to pay myself about $20 bucks and hour to golf. After a little quick math it looks like I spend and average of $323 per round. I should find a different sport.

 

[jrcrilly]

I need to figure out a way to brew while on the clock at work...

I do that now.

 

[mongoose33]

I'm not arguing if labor should or should not be accounted for (I think we agree is shouldn't be, as it is hobby).

What I'm saying is the statement that I saved X dollars homebrewing because that much craft beer would have cost Y is false because that person not taking into account the same set of inputs to produce that amount of beer.

Did they save money?....uh sure, if you leave out things like labor, equipment, and all the other stuff a business has to pay for to get their beer into your gullet. But then we are back to the beginning on this, arguing if we should include those inputs in the first place.

You want to include things that AREN'T money in your argument, which then fails on its face.

If you spend less on ingredients this year than you spent on beer last year, your costs are down. If you want to amortize the equipment over a 30-year lifetime you can go ahead and do that. It should not be hard to understand that my "labor" is free, and I pay no additional costs for space, ergo, my costs are less than what I have to pay for craft brew at the store.

If you end up with more money than you would have otherwise, you've saved money. There are no magic accounting tricks that need to be done to understand this, as it's basic math.

 

[mmb]

How do you figure labor cost. At min. wage or at $150 an hour?? :

As a self employed business owner/operator? Whatever you need to make OR what you would need to pay someone else to provide the labor.

 

[Kharnynb]

I've saved money, not only is my gear very cheap, as a 1 kettle biab brewer, but living in finland, even the most basic "decent" beer is about €3,50 a bottle....

 

[bob1852]

Why does this labor cost issue keep coming up?

In a thread as ridiculous as this has become we can keep bring up whatever we want.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Don't forget the cost of water. And propane or 'lectricity.

 

[specharka]

This might sound cheesy, but the only "real" cost to anything on earth is time, and how you spend it. If brewing makes you happy, then it's time well spent. Ya dig?

 

[agrazela]

Homebrewing saved me $1000 just last night.

Wife comes home with no working AC in the car. Thinks she's going to need a $1000 AC compressor or some crap. All it needed was a new o-ring in the high-pressure hose connection at the compressor and a couple cans of freon. Just happened to be a -111 o-ring, which I had in the garage because of kegging, which I'm doing because I'm a homebrewer.

Ergo, homebrewing saved me $1000 just last night.

 

[KCBrewer]

Brewing makes me money. I started buying stuff at auctions to use in brewing, which lead to buying other stuff to resell at a profit so I would get my brewing stuff for free, which led to buying even more stuff and even more profit. So, homebrewing = profit.

 

[mmb]

Brewing makes me money. I started buying stuff at auctions to use in brewing, which lead to buying other stuff to resell at a profit so I would get my brewing stuff for free, which led to buying even more stuff and even more profit. So, homebrewing = profit.

TTB will be stopping by to say Hi!

 

[slym2none]

I consider myself the owner of my "brewery". Owners usually don't pay themselves, but I (we) get to consume the entire product I (we) make. I consider it a fair trade-off, so I personally don't charge myself for my time. Anyone else can call me crazy/stupid for it, but I still don't charge for my time. Because even though I consider myself the owner, it's not a business.

Same, I don't charge myself for time when reading, bagging, & boarding comic books. When I sell them, my time spent packaging & mailing them doesn't get factored in either.

These are not my jobs. They are my hobbies.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Brewing makes me money. I started buying stuff at auctions to use in brewing, which lead to buying other stuff to resell at a profit so I would get my brewing stuff for free, which led to buying even more stuff and even more profit. So, homebrewing = profit.

But how much do you save because you don't sell any of it?

 

[hunter_le five]

Owners usually don't pay themselves

Sure they do.

 

[Sailingeric]

If brewing was such a money losing proposition then there would be no breweries on every street corner

 

[mmb]

If brewing was such a money losing proposition then there would be no breweries on every street corner

If everyone homebrewed there wouldn't be.

 

[brewcat]

If labor cost doesn't factor into the business expense then you're not doing your ratios right.

You have to account for your income as a labor cost above the business income, otherwise you'll never be able to hire AZ to muck out your mash tun when you throw your back out.

If you are a sole proprietorship it doesn't matter. Business income is personal income. In this brewery's case it is only me running things. I have zero employees, hence no labor costs.

 

[Zuljin]

But what about how long you have to work to buy the beer, and how long it takes you to drive to and from the beer store?

And really, the only time your time counts as money is when you're getting paid for it. If you were going to spend your brewing time just playing stink finger, well, that was never going to pay off anyway.

 

[iijakii]

Don't tread on my business dreams, Zuljin.

 

[Phunhog]

I not only save money from homebrewing....I actually make a little bit of money. I started a "brewery" with a great logo and sell shirts. Usually make around 600-800 dollars a year. That is the money I spend on homebrewing supplies every year. So I really spend very little out of pocket for beer...yet always have a few kegs on tap in the garage.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I saved $500 on hookers last year by playing stink finger with myself. Wait. Whut?