How much does your "average" batch cost?

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Peruvian802

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I was in the local store yesterday and realized almost every sixer of craft brew was $9 and up. Most bombers were $8 and up.

I started buying bulk base grains recently so they are $1/lb. Specialty grains are about $2/lb. Bulk hops are about $1/oz (depending on what it is so this is an average). Yeast is $4-8 but since I wash or re-use my yeast it's closer to $1-4 per batch.

Therefore an average pale ale/IPA/session/etc runs me under $20. Considering that's over 50 12oz bottles I'm down to under $3 per sixer.

This doesn't consider equipment, time/labor, etc (I'll leave that for the other thread).

What does your average six pack cost for ingredients?
 
I'm probably in the same range as you. As I've said a lot of times though on here. This is my hobby. Cost is not really a factor so I've never sat and crunched the numbers. So, my quick assessment says $17 for a 5 gallon batch. That could be cheaper, but I always start out with 6 gallons going into the fermenter. That way when it's all said and done. I'm putting at least 5 gallons into the keg.

I love this hobby though. So it could cost a lot more and I'd still be doing it.

I've actually got my equipment costs down quite a bit as well. Another good reason to brew a lot. The more batches the less that equipment costs per batch.


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Those prices are really low. Usually hops for me (all not bulk) are 2-3 bucks a piece and. The yeast are now $10-12 here so i have been washing and reusing yeast for cost savings. I'm planing on a pils which should run me around 25 minus the yeast. I dont look at the cost in stores. To me the beer i make is priceless and my creation. This is not the cheapest hobby but i dont care and enjoying it.
 
A pale ale usually runs me around $10-12 for 5 gals, given $0.65/lb base malt and $10/lb hops. Some 2-row SMaSHes will easily get under $10 a batch.
 
Depends on what I'm making. $35 to $50 for materials (yeast, grain, hops, extract, adjuncts, etc.), I guess. But I didn't get into beer making to save money. If I did, I wouldn't have gotten into it in the first place. After all, when I factor in time, one batch of beer costs about $700. Which makes a six-pack of my beer several times more expensive than one sold in any store.
 
Around $30-$40 depending on the recipe. I don't buy anything in bulk yet I only really buy what's needed for a given recipe at a time
 
I'm probably spending $40-50 per 5-6 gallon batch. That's counting all non-equipment ingredients like purchased water, DME for starters, cleaners/sanitizers, corn sugar, etc. Still not bad at just under $1/12 oz bottle for super hoppy DIPAs and such.
 
Beer is much more expensive here than in the US and ingredients as cheap or even cheaper in some cases, so I save a fair amount. Not that I brew to save money, but it's a nice bonus.

a 7% hop loaded IPA might cost me 60p a bottle at most, it would be about £3 a bottle in the shop. And a bitter or mild would be much less, probably 20p a bottle to make at most
 
I love these threads no matter how many times they appear!
Just leave us alone haters!

Anyway I was calculating batch costs this weekend when putting together a big online supply order. I bought specialty supplies for 10x10 gal batches. Cost was about $200 shipped. I went back today and added in base malts and estimated yeast cost based on previous history with these batches (I do a combination of dry and liquid, fresh and harvested so that moves around even on repeats of the same recipe).

Anyway here is what I came up with:
screenshot-2014-09-05-121926-63741.png


Cost does not include other disposables including propane, water, brewing salts, whirlfloc, yeast nutrient, starters, PBW, Star-San, electricity to cool the kegs and run the pumps and fermentation chamber, gas to buy the base malts, pH meter calibration supplies. It doesn't include depreciation of brewing equipment (I tried calculating that once, it is depressing if you really track it closely.). Also doesn't include labor either time spent brewing or researching or shopping or wasted in HBT. It doesn't include potential liver damage or estimated cost of health effects attributed to having so much good beer around, least of which is need to pay for gym membership (or buy new clothes, often). So with full disclaimer I get to either $1.73-$3.46/sixer or some astronomical number that must not be mentioned.

Either way it is a lot of fun so thanks for asking.
 
I've never tried to figure out my average cost per batch because I have not settled down to a regular rotation of beers yet. Nearly every batch is different since I am still trying new things.

Recently I did a 5 gallon batch of pale the cost me a little under $27 and a 3.5 gallon batch of porter that cost me just over $33. I did an extract kit a while back that my LHBS store charges $60 for (I got it on sale).

I know that every beer I make is much cheaper than anything I can buy ($2/bottle minimum) and that's good enough for me.
 
I average around 1 dollar per bottle. I know that is high. I make 3 gallon batches of big beers and I only have a 5 gallon tun so I usually add a half pound to a pound of DME to get the OG I want. I also don't buy in bulk which I am going to start doing when I get settled in a new place where I can have a mill, bigger tun, etc... I reuse yeast up to 4 or 5 times.

Still, 6$ per 6-pack of big belgians and barleywines is WAY better than $12-14 for a 4 pack.

Getting a mill and buying everything in bulk, I'm sure I can get it down to around 50 cents a bottle.
 
Depends on what I'm making. $35 to $50 for materials (yeast, grain, hops, extract, adjuncts, etc.), I guess. But I didn't get into beer making to save money. If I did, I wouldn't have gotten into it in the first place. After all, when I factor in time, one batch of beer costs about $700. Which makes a six-pack of my beer several times more expensive than one sold in any store.

Time spent on hobbies has no dollar value unless you incur that expense by choice. For example, taking a day off work without pay to brew beer.

No one is going to pay you an hourly wage to make beer you are going to drink yourself. Just the same as no one would pay you to cook your own meals or scrub your own toilet.:)
 
20-30 Per batch depending on the amount to hops needed.
Yeast is 8/vial
Grains are $1.00 - $1.69 / lb
Hops are $2/oz
 
5 gallons of extract/specialty grains buying nothing in bulk cost me $30-35 for average size ales. That's about 80 cents per 12 oz bottle, or less than $5.00 a sixer, much cheaper than good beer in the store. And I'm brewing about the most expensive way you can. AG buying in bulk must be nice.
 
LHBS is about $2/lb for 2 row and $2.50/lb for everything else and $2-3/oz for hops, $7 for yeast. So about $20-30 per beer.
 
well the reverse thought is something like beer at store is about 9/6pk with about 8 to 9 6's per batch means it is $70 to $80 in store equivelents.

With wine, "savings" are even higher. I put that in quotes because usually after congradulating ourselves on saving money on beer, someone interoduces the "but you forgot equipment, propane and time costs". Well if I had a different hobby, I'd have equipment and time cost, and still have to by my beer.

an IceWine kit will cost about $100 and make 3 gallons. If you buy the same amount in the store (min $20/500ml, usually higher) you'd spend about 460....
 
I dont know why but people who use time as an argument irritates the **** out of me. If you think you are so special you should get paid for every second of your life you need to come off that high horse you are on. If you dont have time to brew then why do it? Take that time you dont have and channel surf.
 
So far my average cost is about $60. I have only brewed one batch, its currently fermenting. That includes the cost of the Brewers Best IPA, cleaner, sanitizer, a few hoses and an AirLock. The starter equipment was given to me. Im sure as I start to build my own recipes it might get a little cheaper or go up depending on the beer. :tank:
 
Our batch cost for a 1.046 / 52 IBU beer is around $46.00 for 20 gallons.
 
I don't buy ingredients in bulk. For the latest 1.060 Bourbon Barrel Porter ingredients I just bought, quick math says $5 a six pack including shipping. I saw a Bourbon Barrel Ale four pack at $8 before tax today.


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5 gallons extract brewing costs me between $35-$45 a batch. Subtract my time brewing is $40 since I enjoy doing it. So it's about free.
If you like doing it subtract your time don't add in onto the cost.
This is a relatively cheap hobby compared to golfing or other hobbies that won't get u a good buzz......
 
Time spent on hobbies has no dollar value unless you incur that expense by choice. For example, taking a day off work without pay to brew beer.

No one is going to pay you an hourly wage to make beer you are going to drink yourself. Just the same as no one would pay you to cook your own meals or scrub your own toilet.:)

So true. It's way more expensive to make my own beer than it would be to buy a similar beer at a store, but "cost" wouldn't even be at the bottom of a list of reasons for me to make beer. It's simply a non-factor.

The "time" thing for me, though, wasn't saying "I'm brewing beer instead of cleaning the toilet or cooking dinner." I meant "I'm brewing beer instead of working." People working at companies probably can't say that, but since I'm self-employed and work in my own time, taking on as much or as little work as I want and working 7 days a week, time that I'm brewing is time that I could be spending working (I pretty much always have projects that I could be working on--or SHOULD be working on--while I'm brewing). Hence, why a batch of beer could be worth $700 or so.

So "cost" is, in my opinion, not even a factor. I don't think there could ever possibly be a situation where brewing my own beer would be cheaper than buying it at a store, even if all the equipment and ingredients were free, simply by the value of the time spent on it.

But, like you said, hobbies are meant for enjoyment, not cost. I've spent something like $25,000 on musical instruments and equipment over the past 16 or so years, but I regret none of it. :D
 
I buy from morebeer. Bulk and kits 20-30 per 5gal. Cheaper than $9six packs and fresher hop taste for my session IPAs.


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50lb sacks of 2-row, grow my own hops, wash yeast. Did a SMaSH for $5.24 (6gal into fermenter).
Average brew, buying hops, are $15-25 depending on grain bill & washing yeast (6gal into fermenter).
 
$30-40 for 5-gal. extract or partial mash batches, unless I'm making something particularly big or hopped-up.

The nice thing is that the LHBS I frequent does a rewards card, where for every $20 you spend you get a punch on your card. Every 10th punch gets you $20 off that purchase, so I'll get a batch for pretty much half-price at least once a year.
 
So far I am using extract & partial grain kits. It works out to between .84 - $1.04 per bottle. Can't complain about the quality though as so far they have been great beers.
 
Today's 10 gallons of an APA will be $55. (Bulk 2-row, 5 oz Amarillo)
Recent dunkelweizen was $72 (All specialty grain, non-bulk prices)
Recent SMaSH EIPA was $57 (Bulk MO malt)

If you call it $60 per batch, that's $0.75 per pint for ingredients alone, even if you have to double that for propane, etc (gross exaggeration), it's half what I'd pay at the beer distributor for a similar amount of quality beer.

Edit to add: That said, I gotta get some bulk ingredients for my dunkelwiezen.
 
Non bulk items for me and my batches are running about 40 dollars per 5 gallons on average. Which is about 5 dollars a six pack.
 
Equipment included my first few batches ended up over $10 per bottle. Now after 3 years, getting all grain equipment, fermentation chamber, kegging etc. I am under $2 per bottle. I don't know exactly.

Ingredients per recipe - depends... Low maybe about $12, high close to $40

But I am still not saving much because before home brewing I averaged maybe 1 beer per week. Now I finish a keg in a couple of weeks.....
 
I worked out my average brewing cost last batch - about $9.75/gallon, everything in (bottling, power, water, etc.). I brew mostly IPAs and the occasional cider.
 
Excluding equipment and time it is .72¢ per 12 oz beer. Extract beer.
 
Buying buy the batch will always go High. I buy everything in bulk most 5 gal batches average $22 ish (includes 02 bottles and CO2 bottle refills). If you want to save a few bucks on yeast, I always do starters and refill the white labs vial, I can get about 2 years worth of batches out of a single vial.
 
I've been wanting to keep closer tabs on each brew, as far as cost per bottle goes. I'll give it a shot with my upcoming Double IPA and Golden Pumpkin to see. Interesting reading the wide and not so wide ranges on this thread. But, I'll agree with what one guy said... It's my hobby, so cost isn't really a factor to me. I'll continue doing it. Of course cost will always vary depending on what style beer I feel like brewing next.


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I make an orange pale ale for about $10 with $7 bulk grain, $2 of crystal malt, $1 for water, and I use homegrown Cascade hops. Yeast is usually washed from a Bells sixer so I consider that almost free. So $0.21 per beer which is cheaper than soda.

On the high end I would say $45-48 for 48 beers (highly hopped IIPA or Belgian with lots of CSI sugar). So $1 per beer.

Although I pay attention to ingredient costs, its still a hobby so I have no problem going for the higher cost brews from time to time.
 
Probably spend $25-30 per batch (5 gallons). Reusing yeast would be a good opportunity for savings, but I usually don't brew 2 in a row of the same recipe. I don't buy bulk bags of malt b/c I only brew 4-5 batches a year, and my lhbs gives 10% discount on 10 lbs.
 
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