That would be about it, buy in bulk, re-use yeast.
No chill can cut down on some water cost (marginal).
A recipe with minimal hops (i.e. Centennial Blonde) can be made for ~30 - 40 cents/bottle.
I think a lot of people forget to add in propane, electric, C02 and water costs when they quote how much a beer costs to make.
When I add up ALL costs, it is around $16 for a 5 gallon batch of a 1.050OG beer that isn't hop heavy. So about $.38 a bottle counting losses.
That is buying grains in bulk, hops in bulk, making oversized starters and reharvesting the yeast, propane costs, sanitizers, etc.
Example, the English stout I just made was 1.052OG. It used an ounce of hops I got in bulk, for around $1.25 for that ounce, ~6.5lbs of grain at an average price of $1.15 an ounce. Probably about $2 of propane, maybe $1.50 of DME and around $.50 of sanitizer and $1.50 of bottle caps for around a 4.5 gallon batch. A little less than $14 for 4.5 gallons, maybe 40 bottles of beer in the end, or 35 cents a pop.
Of course that isn't every batch. A DIPA is going to be roughly double the price between the extra hops and grains.
Occasionally I need to buy a new yeast, because I don't have it on hand, or what I have on hand is too old to be worth culturing it up from the few cells left alive. That can increase the cost of a batch by 50% easily.
Or a batch that is extremely heavy on specialty grains. My base, I can get for about $.92-1.05 per pound from my LHBS in bulk with club discount (yay 10% discount!!!). Specialty since I don't need 50lbs of Crystal 60L or Roasted barley or what not, I tend to get in 5-10lb batches from Morebeer or similar, which is a lot cheaper than the per pound cost, but still tends to be from $1.30-2.20 per pound for a 5-10lb bag. So something like a Rye beer, might have 3lbs of Rye at $2 a pound, which can drive up the grain bill costs.
That said, since I moved to oversized starters and bulk grain and hop buys (well, mostly bulk hop buys. Until I've got my chest freezer plugged in, in a few weeks, I do occasionally buy just 1-2oz at a time when it is something I know I won't use in a recipe again for a year or two, because I can't manage the space in my current fridge/freezer for 10lbs of hops for a ton of varieties, so I only buy 5-6 varieties in bulk), it has saved a lot of money.
Per pound and per ounce and fresh yeast each time, I was looking at probably around $30 to have made my English Stout, or a bit more than twice the cost.
Still, less than a buck a bottle is a lot cheaper than the store price for a good to great beer. I'll admit I've made a stinker or two, but not to be egotistical to the max, with the exception of a couple of stinker batches, in the 2 years I've been brewing, almost all my batches are at least a good 6 or 7 out of 10 if a 5 is average quality of a style. I can still get some better beer than what I can make, but a lot of times I'd compare mine favorably to a very good example of a style. A handful I've made I'd consider better than any other beer I have tried of that style, or at least top 3 I've had.
Of course fair amount of that is because I learned very quickly to brew to exactly my tastes. No one else out there is brewing to exactly what I want and my palate (or if they are, no one told me). Maybe cooking for so many years helped, but just like cooking, I've eaten food others have cooked that is better than anything I could possibly make...but it isn't all THAT often. Especially if you are talking about "look in the pantry, fridge and freezer. That is what you have to work with, now make some kind of dinner in the next 45 minutes" kind of meal.
Anyway, I digress. Doesn't matter if you are saving money or costing more money, if you are enjoying it, keep it up. I DO like the fact that I make beer a lot cheaper than I can buy it for. Considering I pawn it off on so many people, it is a good thing. Both personal consumption, my wife and with my friends, I probably go through 3-4x as much beer as I used to before I found brewing (or brewing found me), but I am spending less now, than I was when I was buying it from the liquor store. Going back on memory, I probably spent $70 a month on average pre brewing on beer at the store. Now I am probably spending $35-45 a month on average brewing beer, but also getting 3x as much beer in return.
I just need to wean my wife a little more off wine, as we are probably still spending $80 a month on wine, though that is down a little now that I've gotten her to drink a bit more beer. I also need to get around to planting a few rows of wine grapes so I can start making my own wine as well.
Doesn't include capitol costs in all of this, but even being self honest, not counting the free cost of a bit of brew-it-forwarding gear I've gotten from extremely generous folks, I've maybe spent $500 on equipment. Give or take $50. I might have another $200 of free stuff people have given me. In 2 years I've probably spent $1,000-1,400 on consumables brewing, for a total cost of around $2,000 if I round it up a little. Before all of this, I was spending probably $800-900 a year on beer. So I've spent a little more on brewing than what I would have on beer, but my costs per bottle have also been dropping as I go along. My break even is likely by the fall (unless I buy another expensive brewing toy). But that said, I've also BREWED probably the equivalent of $3,000-4,000 of beer in that time, since I produce a lot more volume than I used to be consuming. So I guess you could say I've broken even (I've probably only spent $200-300 over the last 2 years on store bought beer. Every once in awhile I need to get a 12 pack to take to a party and I don't wasn't to bring mine, or I just need some spare empties to fill with my own, or I even want to buy something, like some Stone or something).
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