How much does home brewing cost?
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paperairplane
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It costs all the money.
Hobbies cost more than consumption. Always. Just factor in your wage per hour. There have been many articles on this that were very uninformative to me.
Just to be an ass../ mix a Pliny with a pbr. Do you not get the same craft hop sensory as you would from each on its own?
IMHO brewing is frugal by nature, not to say you are trying to make the cheapest beer, but that you are trying to get the most out of the ingredients you have.
That being said, what price can you place on the knowledge?
Just to be an ass../ mix a Pliny with a pbr. Do you not get the same craft hop sensory as you would from each on its own?
IMHO brewing is frugal by nature, not to say you are trying to make the cheapest beer, but that you are trying to get the most out of the ingredients you have.
That being said, what price can you place on the knowledge?
Same here. I make a lot of my own gear and on the cheap as much as possible, but it does add up.
I ordered a homebrewing starter kit from Midwest Supplies which was around $99. I've added a few other things for brewing along the way that might total $100. Obviously need a kettle, found a 7.5 gallon stainless steel one for $60 (I brew in a bag and only make 3 gallon batches or smaller). Use to do my boil on the kitchen stove until a bought a turkey fryer for Thanksgiving, so now I use that for my boils. That was $60 plus propane costs. I order ingredients from Midwest as well and usually spend around $100 worth of ingredients plus shipping can be anywhere from $30-$40. So after initial cost brews usually average between $1-$1.50. Wash your yeast and reuse it for 10 batches or so. That's one cost saver. Enjoy homebrewing. You'll love it!
The truth is that, unless you make lots of beer and buy your ingredients in bulk, you're not really saving money by homebrewing. I do it because it's a cool, creative hobby that allows me to make stuff that's better tasting than much of what's available commercially and then share it with friends.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
About 100 euro's for a basic set and a 25l kettle for another 50.
Christmas handled most of the raw ingredients so far.
Christmas handled most of the raw ingredients so far.
kpr121
Well-Known Member
I don't agree with this. If your diligent about not buying the bling you can make 2 cases worth of excellent beer that's comparable to what people pay 50 or more a case for. As mentioned multiple times on here Equipment costs can be as low as 100 bucks. Meaning you can recoup your costs in as little as two batches.
If your five gallon batches cost more than 50 bucks your just doing it wrong.
1977Brewer
Free Dan Hess.
Truths. I'm about $100 in equipment and I have a stout shopped out for my next batch at $27.00. Making beer is a much cheaper hobby than drinking it.
user 125772
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If you can stick to extract kits and bottling, your wife will never complain 
1977Brewer
Free Dan Hess.
If you can stick to extract kits and bottling, your wife will never complain
Extract costs twice what you can make with all grain.
BIAB single vessel, and bottle in old soda bottles. Temp control with a swamp cooler and a light bulb run by your kids with a forehead thermometer. Now your recouping some cash. Basically free beer.
HawleyFarms
Well-Known Member
Probably can say I have spent less than $500 so far. That is with equipment, ingredients etc.
And I have a 7 gallon pail, 6.5 gallon carboy, 3 gallon carboy, and 2- 1 gallon test batch carboys. Turned an old dresser/wardrobe into a fermenting/bottling/storage station. Use the wardrobe part for storing cases of bottles and bottling equipment like siphons. Top drawer has all sorts of stuff: oak chips, specialty grains, dme, corks and corker, caps and capper, cleaning supplies, etc.
Bottom three drawers I am using for wine bottle storage right now.
I keep all my hops vacuumed in the freezer.
It sure helps having your own farm for fruits for wine, a good connection for free 5 gallon buckets of honey, we boil our own maple syrup, I saved probably eight cases of woodchuck and sam adams bottles, and a local hop grower trades me a pound of hops for a gallon of beer.
So all in all, I probably would have spent about $2000 but with good connections $500 sure helps convince my wife that its a cheaper hobby than expected.
And I have a 7 gallon pail, 6.5 gallon carboy, 3 gallon carboy, and 2- 1 gallon test batch carboys. Turned an old dresser/wardrobe into a fermenting/bottling/storage station. Use the wardrobe part for storing cases of bottles and bottling equipment like siphons. Top drawer has all sorts of stuff: oak chips, specialty grains, dme, corks and corker, caps and capper, cleaning supplies, etc.
Bottom three drawers I am using for wine bottle storage right now.
I keep all my hops vacuumed in the freezer.
It sure helps having your own farm for fruits for wine, a good connection for free 5 gallon buckets of honey, we boil our own maple syrup, I saved probably eight cases of woodchuck and sam adams bottles, and a local hop grower trades me a pound of hops for a gallon of beer.
So all in all, I probably would have spent about $2000 but with good connections $500 sure helps convince my wife that its a cheaper hobby than expected.
Hamaki
Well-Known Member
Seems like some take an unusual approach when answering this question. I estimate I've spent about $1,000 - $1,200 to date for gear. I could continue brewing with the equipment I have for a long time but projects I have in mind will run probably another $2,500 or so. If I assume a 5 year life span for the gear I have at 200 gallons per year that comes out to $5 - $6 per batch.
Considering ingredients & power I spend roughly $20 - $25 per 5 gal batch.
The state says the bottles I saved from beer I bought are worth a nickel each. I think I can easily get an average of five uses per bottle before breakage, non-return or dried on gunk take their toll. This adds about 50 cents per five gallon batch.
I've seen some argue that my time has value and that I'll never come out ahead making my own beer. I'm salaried so I get paid the same no matter how many hours I work. If I spread my salary evenly over 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and assume that all my time has equal value, a five gallon batch costs me about $86 for 8 hours. It's a good thing I don't brew every day or I'd never be able to afford it.
Considering ingredients & power I spend roughly $20 - $25 per 5 gal batch.
The state says the bottles I saved from beer I bought are worth a nickel each. I think I can easily get an average of five uses per bottle before breakage, non-return or dried on gunk take their toll. This adds about 50 cents per five gallon batch.
I've seen some argue that my time has value and that I'll never come out ahead making my own beer. I'm salaried so I get paid the same no matter how many hours I work. If I spread my salary evenly over 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and assume that all my time has equal value, a five gallon batch costs me about $86 for 8 hours. It's a good thing I don't brew every day or I'd never be able to afford it.
WOW... this is a can of worms!
I have been brewing for all of 13-14 months, and I have spent close to $1,500. I am also about to drop and additional $1000 to finish building my new AG system. So yeah, put me in the "wife commits homicide" group.
I have been brewing for all of 13-14 months, and I have spent close to $1,500. I am also about to drop and additional $1000 to finish building my new AG system. So yeah, put me in the "wife commits homicide" group.
Reisende has been infected with the obsession. Welcome.
Rotor_Head
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About 600$ for the first purchase. That bought me a starter kit that came with everything you need to start brewing except a kettler, an ~8 gallon kettle with ball valve and good thermometer, a good copper wert cooler, 2 boxes of 22oz bottles, and a red ale LME kit. After that, I inherited a CO2 tank and regulator and a spare carboy. 100$ later I got some sampling equipment and carboy handles. Then a horse feeder to make an ice bath to speed cooling. Admittedly, it ain't cheap.
Blue_State
Well-Known Member
My wife found the new kegs I ordered this weekend. One was brand new. I explained that the new one was for her soda because she would hate using a used keg. She is pumped about the new keg and is wondering if we are going to need a bigger kreezer than planned.
This may turn out well.
Since I started about 4 years ago (AG) I have slowly transitioned from a gravity fed, "ghetto" system using two saw horses & shelving doing 3 gal batches to a 6 gal horizontal brew stand w/ pump, ale & lager ferm chambers, 3 tap kegerator, etc.
Including ingredients for around 100 recipes over that period I've spent around $5K.
Roadie
Well-Known Member
Start up costs were high as we took an unfinished storage room in the basement and finished it to put everything in. I didn't have the tools so that was an expense, then the building materials, etc. The only thing we paid someone to do was the drywall and the vent (drilling an 8" hole in the side of the house was something I didn't have the balls to do). That said my spreadsheet ends at $10,333 to get everything up and running. I stopped counting at that point as it was readily apparent how obsessed I was.
Way way too much.
Fully electric 10 gallon HERMs system. Had to install a 50 amp 240 circuit for it. Got sick of lugging water around so installed a small water tower DI system with pump and pressurized tank. Had to run copper pipe all over hell and back to get it where I wanted it.
Fermentation keezer plus all the associated fermentation tools. (I bank the occasional yeast)
I keg everything, have 4 rotating kegs.
I'm sure I'm over 7k at this point. Prolly over 8k. I try not to think of it. Also doesn't include my kegerator in the basement.
I really need to add another 2 larger keezers. One for lagering, one for longer term primarying bigger ales. Right now I'm stuffing bigger ales into kegs and shoving them into my kegerator to condition. Lagers tie up the fermentation keezer for WAY to long so I don't make them as often as I want.
On the other hand, I could be racing cars or doing something stupidly expensive so I feel like I'm in a good place. And I make some WONDERFUL beers
Fully electric 10 gallon HERMs system. Had to install a 50 amp 240 circuit for it. Got sick of lugging water around so installed a small water tower DI system with pump and pressurized tank. Had to run copper pipe all over hell and back to get it where I wanted it.
Fermentation keezer plus all the associated fermentation tools. (I bank the occasional yeast)
I keg everything, have 4 rotating kegs.
I'm sure I'm over 7k at this point. Prolly over 8k. I try not to think of it. Also doesn't include my kegerator in the basement.
I really need to add another 2 larger keezers. One for lagering, one for longer term primarying bigger ales. Right now I'm stuffing bigger ales into kegs and shoving them into my kegerator to condition. Lagers tie up the fermentation keezer for WAY to long so I don't make them as often as I want.
On the other hand, I could be racing cars or doing something stupidly expensive so I feel like I'm in a good place. And I make some WONDERFUL beers
Those of us that do both envy those of you that have only one of these hobbies. Even racing $500 cars cost thousands...I am not sure but think a crack cocaine habit would be cheaper...but then I would lose my job.
ArkotRamathorn
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First I exclude all ingredient costs and 'admin' costs like sanitizer and such, the ingredients I consume at a later date from the bottle, the sanitizers and cleaners and such I need to allow consumption of said ingredients in beer form.
Water and propane I exclude since, said water and propane are used to make the beer from the ingredients I purchased to be consumed as beer at a later date.
Next I exclude the costs of the equipment because, the equipment is used to take water, malt, and hops, to make beer that I will consume at a later date.
I have been brewing for free since day 1.
Honestly though, I've never really truly kept track of any of it. I mean, I keep track of it in terms of a monthly budgetary stand point, I make sure I can pay the actual bills and actual rent (woo now its a mortgage payment, no longer a rent payment). I know I havent spent more than $500 for equipment, I don't think I have spent less than $300 though for the equipment costs, I have a project coming up to build a kegerator though I hope I finish it by the end of summer. As for ingredient costs, I never really give it any thought, *unless* I'm planning a DIPA/Imperial whatever. Theres only so much malt you can throw in a beer when you are doing a 5 gallon batch (well, with a big enough mash tun you could make a gigantic beer, but it may not even ferment ever). But you could throw an endless mountain of hops into a beer and unless you grow or buy in large bulk (if you buy 1oz packages, sometimes at 3 dollars a pop a DIPA can get pretty expensive).
Water and propane I exclude since, said water and propane are used to make the beer from the ingredients I purchased to be consumed as beer at a later date.
Next I exclude the costs of the equipment because, the equipment is used to take water, malt, and hops, to make beer that I will consume at a later date.
I have been brewing for free since day 1.
Honestly though, I've never really truly kept track of any of it. I mean, I keep track of it in terms of a monthly budgetary stand point, I make sure I can pay the actual bills and actual rent (woo now its a mortgage payment, no longer a rent payment). I know I havent spent more than $500 for equipment, I don't think I have spent less than $300 though for the equipment costs, I have a project coming up to build a kegerator though I hope I finish it by the end of summer. As for ingredient costs, I never really give it any thought, *unless* I'm planning a DIPA/Imperial whatever. Theres only so much malt you can throw in a beer when you are doing a 5 gallon batch (well, with a big enough mash tun you could make a gigantic beer, but it may not even ferment ever). But you could throw an endless mountain of hops into a beer and unless you grow or buy in large bulk (if you buy 1oz packages, sometimes at 3 dollars a pop a DIPA can get pretty expensive).
Dude, I am totally planning on using that angle when the time comes to keg! I've already started laying the groundwork... Good luck to you sir.
I got extremely lucky... my Dad gave up brewing/drinking, so I got everything I needed for free, carboys, kettles, bottles, hoses, campden tabs, hop bags, caps, bench capper, etc. etc.
How many user names do you have? This is about the third identical post from different use names...
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