How much does it cost to make homebrew?

[webnmar]

Another cost factor no one has mentioned is the labor costs!! The commercial comparison includes their time since it's not a HOBBY for them. If we were to compare prices, we would have to add in our time, and not just brewing time, but getting supplies, reading this forum, drinking at the bar with friends to "taste test", bottling, making labels, deciding on which next piece of equipment to buy..... It could be hundreds of hours per week :rockin:

Ok, maybe not that much, but it is significant.

My stats are:

$1.69 per bottle / $12.93 per Gal / $31.25 per batch since I do Mr. Beer

1. Have you worked out your cost per batch if so what is it (Average or Range)? Yes, above

2. How accurate is it? (Does it take into account extras/sundries like fuel, water, sanitisers etc.),
includes almost all costs, except electricity and gas for stove and fridge, also no labor costs.

3. Are you Extract and Steep / Partial Mash/ All Grain Extract(some steeping)

4. What if ever will be your break even point? Never, its a HOBBY, when you can measure fun, comraderie, and satisfaction, then I will give a break even point.

5. How much do you have invested in equipment? About $450 and planning at least another $500, wait till I start keggin!!

6. Have you got a formula or spread sheet to work it out? Spreadsheet and Brewbook

7. Do expect or care about a cost return/savings? I care about managing the costs and trying to incrementally build/augment the equipment, but I don't compare it to commercial purchases.

 

[middleofnowhere]

just to give you an idea of what we pay for beer here, a 6 pack of heineken is almost $15 lol.

Hoegaarden which is my favorite beer and the clone I just brewed is not even available so to drink the real thing, I have to drive 30km to get it on tap, at $7.50 a pint, otherwise I go without. so really paying $100 a batch isn't that bad for something I like to do and enjoy drinking.

Wow. That link is being pretty optimistic I think on how much it costs to buy beer at the store. $50 a case? I don't even know what you could buy that is that expensive! So in my opinion a very unreasonable base point.

I am an extract brewer. For the first 30 brews or so I added all my costs and tracked my yield (down to the exact # of bottles each batch). My break even point, including sanitizers, wort chiller, extra fermenters, shipping (everything!) was at 22 batches. A batch or two was undrinkable, or just not very good and I dumped it then I subtracted that number out of the yield. I calculated the yield based on what I would have bought otherwise. Heineken at 12.99 a 12-pack.

 

[Coastarine]

In the spirit of including every expense in the price of brewing (propane, tubing, CO2, and even largely one-time expenses like corny kegs, etc) I did this simple exercise: I used my budgeting software to isolate all of my brewing expenses and give me a grand total for as long as it has been keeping track, which is 3/30/09 to 10/25/09. In that time I have spent $1,319.55 on brewing. I brewed 17 5gallon batches. Assuming 50 beers per batch, that's 850 beers at a cost of $1.55 per beer or $9.30 for a 6-pack. That's about what I expect to pay for craft beer at the store. I'm sure I could drive that waaay down if it were more of a priority. Your mileage may vary widely. Almost all of my brewing setup was purchased before that time period, so the initial equipment purchase would certainly affect that for a new brewer.

 

[Pappers_]

It costs me ~$19 for a tank of propane, and I use most of a tank to keep water boiling for an hour or more on my Banjo Burner.

Wow! I can do four or more batches per tank of propane, using a SQ-14 burner.

 

[user 22118]

It costs me $.05 per oz

Ingredients - $25-30 for 5 gals All Grain
Time - $20 I pay myself to make beer
Gas, Water, Electricity, C02, Fridge - $10
Bottles - $1 each when I buy new
Starter - $1.50
Equipment - More than I have spent on other hobbies

 

[peripatetic]

Wow! I can do four or more batches per tank of propane, using a SQ-14 burner.

Yeah, as much as I love the Banjo Burner because it boils water so fast, it is a terrible gas hog. The Hummer of propane burners.

 

[Malticulous]

I think I'm still into this less than $1000 for equipment. It's hard to keep track. 5.5 gallon batches run $10 to $30 in grain and hops, most are less than $20. About 25-30¢ a serving.

I heat watter on the electric stove in two pots. Propane is about $14 to fill my 20 lb tank and I get 4 11 gallon batches with it. Less than $2 a 5.5 gallon batch.

 

[motobrewer]

1. Have you worked out your cost per batch if so what is it (Average or Range)?
2. How accurate is it? (Does it take into account extras/sundries like fuel, water, sanitisers etc.)
3. Are you Extract and Steep / Partial Mash/ All Grain
4. What if ever will be your break even point?
5. How much do you have invested in equipment?
6. Have you got a formula or spread sheet to work it out?
7. Do expect or care about a cost return/savings?

I've only done two batches, so my numbers are going to be pretty high:

1. $62.78 per gallon. Comes from making 8 total gallons in the bottle out of spending $502.21 so far. Went with full boil kettle, and a "deluxe" starter kit, other misc stuff....

2. Includes everything from the HB store (a few carboys, 8 gallon ss kettle, racking equipment, yeast starter stuff, star-san, ingredients obviously, other misc.) and propane, does not include bottled water.

3. Extract w/ grain

4. Obviously depends on what I brew in the future, but I probably won't break even for awhile. I plan on expanding my equipment (more carboys), and even if I brewed five 5-gallon batches at $30 each, I'd still be at $11 per 6-pack.

5. $409.98 - most of my cost has been equipment. Just including ingredients, my cost is about $1.08 / beer.

6. Spreadsheet

7. No, but eventually I'll break even.

Something that's also interesting to me would be $ per beer consumed. If I buy a 6-er for $8.50, that $8.50 is going straight to my stomach (my wife doesn't drink beer). How many of you guys drink every ounce of your batches? I know I'll be sharing a good portion of at least my first few batches, especially since #2 was a Christmas ale meant to be shared