How much is your beer costing you?

[bbrim]

Domaso: I see you are in Lithuania. Is your currency the Euro, and if so, is your price calculated in that currency? I'm just curious, either way it sounds like you're getting a good price on ingredients.

 

[Hammy71]

Don't forget to add propane/NG to the cost of a batch, or electricity. Propane by the 20# is really expensive compared to other heat sources.

There are some other hidden costs, such as ice for chilling, cleaners, sanitizer, and to be fair, CO2 and even electricity to keep the various beer fridges and freezers going. If you order online, include the shipping charges. If you have to buy water, add that in too.

Altogether they easily add $5-15 to a $20-40 batch.

Buying grain in bulk (group buys), hops by the pound rather than ounces, ranching and harvesting yeast, etc. helps to keep the cost of ingredients down to a minimum. So does substituting with what you have on hand.

My 2 cents.

I'll agree with the propane, but the keggerators and beer fridges were in my house long before I started brewing. So I'm a wash in that department. I average around $16 -$28 a five gallon kegged batch before propane. Add another 8 buxs a batch for that. Still way below a sixtel of good IPA at the store....

 

[hunter_le five]

My only liver and most of my inhibitions.

 

[user 214470]

Domaso: I see you are in Lithuania. Is your currency the Euro, and if so, is your price calculated in that currency? I'm just curious, either way it sounds like you're getting a good price on ingredients.

Yep our currency is Euro, but I'm in American forum so I've converted to USD. (if you can trust Google on that )

I might be cheating in a way because this beer I brewed was super simple APA, here goes:

21lb Pilsen malt: $13.37
1.1lb Cara-Crystal malt: $1.11
Malt crushing "service": $1.33
1.05oz NorthernBrewer + 1.41oz Columbus: $3.12 total for hops
1.5 packet of Safale US-05: $3.34
80 bottle caps: $2.25
--------------------------------
Total: $21.18 for 10.5 gallon / or about $11 for 5 gallons.


I also have to mention that we think the 12oz/0.33l bottles are too small, so we use 17oz/0.5l bottles And that's where I need only 80 bigger bottles instead of 120 smaller ones, so I'm saving 40 caps (just enough for another 5 gallon brew). Even better - I sometimes use 34oz/1l Flip-Top bottles so they don't need caps at all, and the bottling goes twice as fast! (these bigger bottles are great for lighter beers, lawnmowers, etc., where you know one glass will not be enough anyway )

 

[beersk]

My only liver and most of my inhibitions.

I would also say it's costing me a lot of ambition.

But on the material scale, it's probably in the $15-20 range for a 5 gallon batch with buying grains and hops in bulk and harvesting yeast. I also boil on my stove instead of using propane, so that saves on cost as well. Not sure what the breakdown of water or energy cost for my fermentation fridge is either.

 

[CaptainDucman]

Right on. People don't buy fishing boats because they can't afford the price of fish at the supermarket.

some of my most expensive seafood was caught on my boat

seafood market is WAY cheaper.

 

[Remmy]

I typically make nine or ten-pound batches (to keep on tap during the warm/hot months and drink when I'm working outside of the house). Here's the run-down:

$14.40 for grain
$1.50 for dry yeast (a pack is $3, but I use half of a pack for low-OG beer)
$3.75 for 4 ounces of hops (taking an avg. of $15/lb. bag of hops)
$3 propane ($12 for a fill, and I get 4 batches' worth out of my tank)

I brew 5.5-gallon batches. So, I get roughly 50, 14-ounce pours out of the tap...which turns out to be 45 cents per beer or $4.11/gallon.

 

[drainbamage]

I would also say it's costing me a lot of ambition.

Most of my ambition is beer-related, so there's that.

I'm running about $7-15/gallon these days. I don't consider that too bad, but I should start doing more bulk buys.

 

[m00ps]

countless hours of sleep worrying about my babies bubbling away...

 

[beersk]

Most of my ambition is beer-related, so there's that.

I'm running about $7-15/gallon these days. I don't consider that too bad, but I should start doing more bulk buys.

Same here, but there's other sh*t that needs to get done, like the dishwasher that's been sitting full with clean dishes in it for 2 days or the carpet that needs to get vacuumed or the lawn that needs to get mowed. But most of that isn't too huge of a deal.
I've never had much ambition to begin with, so I probably can't blame it on the beer. I had low ambition even before I started drinking beer, but beer definitely doesn't help.

 

[Rivenin]

If i was homebrewing to get cheap beer... i'd be wronged super fast with the cost of equipment... it'll never even out.
However, if i take that out of the variable.... you can get smash beers, blondes, saisons, etc, under $15 or $20 a 5 gallon batch if you're not buying in bulk.
however, i'm not in this hobby for cheap beer... i'm in it for the experimentation and fun!

 

[NickTheGreat]

I usually do 2 5 gallon batches on a brew day. And I usually walk away from my LHBS with $35 - $55 worth of hops, grains, and yeast.

You can buy cheaper beer, but I wouldn't want to be drinking Natty Light anyways