How Much Money Is There To Be Saved?

[scottj19x89]

I'm making my first batch of home brew... it was $120 for all of the equipment and ~$20/$25 for the ingredients. It's supposed to be a beer like Killians... obviously, it's probably not going to turn out as good as Killians but I'm sure I'll enjoy it more than those cheap ass beers that are $20 after deposit for a 24 (Miller Lite, Bud Light, Budweiser, etc.).

I will never be able to find a deal of 48 beers for $25 around here ever... a lot of companies make money off of brewing beer, of course you can save or even make money off of it. It just seems like you would have to look at your home brewing as a business and not really a hobby because, apparently, a lot of these guys on this forum aren't ****ing around. My ingredients aren't top of the line but I'll take $25 for 48 beers of a ****ty Killians clone (while also learning how to brew) over $8 for a 6 pack of actual Killians.

The Bud Light thing seems to make sense, but who the hell's gonna try to brew that crap? I'm with malintent... piss in a cup, I wouldn't disgrace my fermenter with such bull**** beer haha.

 

[Runyanka]

I could brew my little heart out and never get back all the money I've dumped in for equipment, etc.

 

[StittsvilleJames]

I think I save money only factoring in ingredients, but not if you factor in the equipment. The thing is, it costs a hell of a lot more for a 24 of beer here, even if it is Bud light or something. The cheapest beer here is around $1.00/beer, + tax (and taxes are more here) so you're about $1.25 for the cheapest swill available with bottle deposits and what not.

That being said, I only spent about $100.00 for my equipment (extract only) and don't really see the need for anything else right yet. It shouldn't take too long to bring the cost per batch down below the cost of decent commercial beer. I'm only on batch 4 right now, so it will only get cheaper.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

If you flipped to all grain fairly quickly, washed yeast/use dry yeast, and bought hops in bulk you could get your costs down to or below the cost of bud light within several batches if the beer you made was a low hop, low alcohol session beer.

Most people don't make that transition early so you add a lot of cost into your brewing buying extract, multiple 1oz bags of hops, etc. Most people start wanting to make 6,7,8+% ABV beers, very hoppy beers, etc. which require more ingredients so that adds money. Then you get into wanting more equipment and more advanced equipment so that adds to costs. If you don't take cost efficient steps you're always going to make expensive homebrew when you price it out over time. Certainly brewing your first batch of anything is going to be way, way more expensive than buying commercial beer. It takes a while before your costs start to come down per bottle, especially if you buy a lot of expensive equipment up front.

I've been brewing for close to two years and I can make beers well below the cost of Bud Light, even at 6-7% ABV. Then again I don't have a lot of fancy equipment, I don't keg, don't have dedicated fermentation chambers, no fancy mash set up or expensive kettles, etc. and I buy hops in bulk, yeast wash and use a small number of strains. I also don't brew highly hopped beers. So for me my costs are very low. I think my first batch ran about $2.50 per bottle and now it's around $.50-90 depending on the beer.

 

[KevinW]

just do it!

You may not be able to replicate any of the light commercial lagers, easily anyway, but your tastes will expand and you may find that BMC will no longer be your favorite!!

Worst case scenario is you can just sell all of your equipment if you don't really like the hobby!!

Good luck

 

[dancness]

Let's see...since I have started homebrewing, I have saved exactly -$543.75.

 

[RugerRedhawk]

I don't know, I think you can save a ton of money even doing extract brews as long as you keep your equipment purchases in check. You figure a typical craft beer, nothing fancy is going to run $30/case. Figure $60 per equivalent batch. I in total for my first three batches spent About $270 including all of my equipment. So after just three batches I'm setting at $90 per batch. Three more $35 extract kits later and I'm at $62 per batch. Three more and $53 per batch. Of course you can spend more or less on kits, $35 seems fairly average compared to the fairly average $30/case figure I used above. I think within just 10 brews you can easily start saving some money.. over similar commercial beers. Maybe not much savings over bud light, but you're brewing better beer with more alcohol in it.

 

[malweth]

There's no way you can say that making your own beer doesn't save money because working at a fast food joint would earn you more for the same amount of time spent. In essence it's true, but most people interested in brewing beer have a job (else how could we afford to buy beer).

You need to look at the cost differential versus sitting on my ass doing nothing. Right now I'm probably at about $80 for 5 gallons (a total guess... I had some of the equipment already AND bought more...) and my wife isn't entirely pleased, but it's more about how quickly I waste the money. The goal is for my brewing to not cost more than buying... or better, to cost significantly less.

That doesn't mean I'm in the game to save money. I just want to do something I enjoy, drink more and better beer, and have all the costs justifiable.

(My next batch of wine will be dirt cheap... with equipment I calculated it to be $9/bottle... without, $2).

 

[mcwilcr]

on an ingredients basis alone I probably save a few bucks since when it comes to store bought beer I have expensive taste but realistically, I cant stop spending money on equipment so I have no delusions that I am saving money with this hobby. I've boiled away lots of stress with it though.

 

[Mike_D]

Thanks for all the information everyone, didn't expect to get this much help! I already love this forum haha

I know most of you do this for the hobby and not to save money. But I'm wanting to do it first to save money and second for the hobby. I first have to pay off some priorities (a new car) but after that I'm going to start trying to brew beer to save money.

I'm thinking of making a new thread when I do and lay out my plans and costs to see how much money I actually save (if any). I'm thinking of washing yeast and possibly growing my own hops or buying them in bulk, haven't decided yet. I think this could be a cool little experiment to show if you can actually save money or not. What do you guys think?

 

[bottlebomber]

Quiet you guys, tell him he's gonna save a ton of money! Then once he's brewed a couple batches by the time he figures out we were lying he'll be done with the piss beer

 

[Mike_D]

OP RESPONSE
Big text so everyone can see my response lol

thanks for all the information everyone, didn't expect to get this much help! I already love this forum haha

i know most of you do this for the hobby and not to save money. But i'm wanting to do it first to save money and second for the hobby. I first have to pay off some priorities (a new car) but after that i'm going to start trying to brew beer to save money.

I'm thinking of making a new thread when i do and lay out my plans and costs to see how much money i actually save (if any). I'm thinking of washing yeast and possibly growing my own hops or buying them in bulk, haven't decided yet. I think this could be a cool little experiment to show if you can actually save money or not. What do you guys think?

 

[remilard]

You need to look at the cost differential versus sitting on my ass doing nothing. Right now I'm probably at about $80 for 5 gallons (a total guess... I had some of the equipment already AND bought more...) and my wife isn't entirely pleased, but it's more about how quickly I waste the money. The goal is for my brewing to not cost more than buying... or better, to cost significantly less..

No, you need to compare brewing vs whatever you would have done with the time. For a lot of people that is not thumb-twiddling. If you view brewing as easy work, you should be just as happy to get a part time job at Burger King for the same hours, and you'll be ahead financially for it.

Think about it this way, if I ask your wife if your brewing has saved your household money what will she say? I mean when she stops laughing?

 

[iaefebs]

Thanks for all the information everyone, didn't expect to get this much help! I already love this forum haha

I know most of you do this for the hobby and not to save money. But I'm wanting to do it first to save money and second for the hobby. I first have to pay off some priorities (a new car) but after that I'm going to start trying to brew beer to save money.

I'm thinking of making a new thread when I do and lay out my plans and costs to see how much money I actually save (if any). I'm thinking of washing yeast and possibly growing my own hops or buying them in bulk, haven't decided yet. I think this could be a cool little experiment to show if you can actually save money or not. What do you guys think?

I think knowing your cost is another aspect of brewing. There are many way's to save money if you start tracking cost. I suggest becoming a member of a Homebrew club... that is one way to save 10% at most LHBS. I also suggest getting to know your local micro brewer. They might allow you to piggy back on a grain order. I follow the group grain buy's here and really I get grain cheaper than the prices I see. Same with Hops buying in bulk is the way to go. Learning to reuse yeast is maybe #1 for cost cutting. The biggest cost factor may be fuel usage though and I am trying to cut cost there. I think if you follow through with a new thread there may be enough interest to get some good ideas but after 20 posts or so any thread starts to get a little less informative.

 

[reim0027]

^^ Good points. I am a member of a local home brew club, and the discount has paid for the membership many times over. Hell, 2 batches paid for the membership.

 

[malweth]

No, you need to compare brewing vs whatever you would have done with the time. For a lot of people that is not thumb-twiddling. If you view brewing as easy work, you should be just as happy to get a part time job at Burger King for the same hours, and you'll be ahead financially for it.

Think about it this way, if I ask your wife if your brewing has saved your household money what will she say? I mean when she stops laughing?

I completely agree. I doubt most people would be brewing beer instead of showing up for a job, though. You are spending time on the activity, but it's not typically time that would make you money. You also get something out of brewing beer besides beer. Time, pleasure, and experience are intangibles.

And nobody's ever going to increase their earnings by home-brewing beer (unless they're selling it illegally). Neither will they spend less making beer than if they'd drunk water. For me, the goal is to save money versus an equivalent purchase of craft beer. The OP, trying to break even versus BMC, faces a more difficult task.

 

[jsweet]

The "what else would you be doing?" is only true to a point. The work I do would pay well over $50/hr if I were waged instead of salaried, but that doesn't mean that if I spend an hour to save twenty bucks that I've wasted my time. I can't just be sitting around on a Saturday night and say, "Hey, maybe some company will pay me to do [some high-tech job] for a couple of hours..." For that matter, you can't be just sitting around on a Saturday night and decide to drive to Burger King and have them pay you minimum wage for two hours. You have to actually apply for the job, get some hours scheduled, and then show up for them.

If I'm planning to build some shelves for my garage sometime this week to avoid having to pay extra to buy them (as I do plan to do), I can always be like, "Crap, no time this week. I'll do it next week." If I had a job at BK to earn the equivalent amount of money, I couldn't just be like, "Nah, I'll show up next week instead."

Unless you are doing freelance work out of the home and have so much available work that the limiting factor is your time rather than billable hours, the "Your time is worth $X" argument doesn't go very far.

malweth's last two sentences hit the nail on the head. Doing HB to save money is a dicey proposition any way you slice it, but it certainly can be done if the alternative is buying commercial craft brews. (By my estimates, the cost per batch to extract-brew a typical average gravity craft brew brings it roughly in line with the price of store-bought BMC. Obviously you have to amortize equipment costs, but still...)

I do not think one could realistically save money vs. BMC though. Especially not brewing BMC, because to do it right that would increase your upfront equipment costs (e.g. I would think you'd really need a temperature controlled environment to lager properly)

 

[Badaboom]

Here in Saskatchewan, alcohol has a bunch of taxes built in. A 24 pack of cans is about $47-48. I can buy a full batch worth of beer for around $60 online (includes $20 shipping). This saves me about 1/2 since I get twice the volume.

 

[Vuarra]

It is possible to save money brewing beer, if you go for light ales, light on the hops, and are willing to drink a few batches of not quite up to par beer. Having said that, you'll drink it and say that it's the best you've ever made.

Where I am, 5 lbs of grain, milled, is about $6.50; 1 oz of hops is another $6.50; yeast (~1 oz) is $3.50. Not counting energy costs, water, or other general things, that's about $15.50 for a light beer (granted, 2.7% abv). Add another 5 lbs of grain for another $6.50, and you have the ability to make a kick-ass "premium" beer (5.1% abv) for about $24 for 2.5 cases.

If that's cheap for you, then go for it. If that's too much to bear, then don't get into the hobby, because it's addictive on several levels.

EDIT:

For $18.30 or so, got just under 6# of LME, 1.75oz of East Kent Goldings, a packet of Nottingham yeast and some one-step sanitizer. It will make a beer about 3.9% ABV, and it will be completely in the 01A (American Lager) style.

1.040 OG
1.010 FG
10.2 IBU (Goldings are weak this year... after talking to my LHBS guy, it's been a weird year for hops)
2.4 SRM

Values are courtesy of an online brew calculator.

 

[Transamguy77]

I am a noob got 3 batches under my belt and very much enjoy brewing, I got started not to save money but to brew a better beer than I can afford to drink. I typically drink High Life or Coors Extra Gold cause a 30 pack is about $20 and I drink a 30 pack a week.

I bought my starter kit on Craigs List for $75. I scored a 20qt aluminum pot for $20 at my local grocery store. The LHBS has extract kits for about $35 a kit and that includes steeping grains, hops, LME and liquid yeast.

So minus the equipment I bought I'm almost breaking even compared to the $40 I spend every 2 weeks and the beer is significantly better than BMC, I enjoy drinking Wheat beer but that is close to $40 a case and I can brew twice as much for what 1 case costs.

IMO it's not how much you can save but how many other kinds of beers can you now drink cause it costs less to brew it than buy it.

Also I see a lot of posts about buying a 6 pack, I live in Pa and the only way to get a six pack is to go to the local bar or six pack store and since there is no 6 pack store around me I am forced to buy cases.

 

[joesixpack]

I'm new here and I am considering brewing my own beer. I normally drink Bud Light... Alright no criticism or comments on how it taste like piss and what not haha. I grew up drinking the stuff and am just used to it. To each his own. But if I brewed my own beer I would definitely try a bunch of new kinds.

A 24 case (cans) of Bud Light here costs around $22 after taxes and all. For my first brew I'm going to try THIS recipe. I was wondering, not counting the cost of equipment, how much the supplies would cost? Basically how much money would I be saving?



Also I'm 100% new to brewing and had another question. I seen you can get some starter kits and what not. Do you guys recommend getting one of those, buying everything separately, or creating homemade items? Any sales I should know of? I'm looking for a good cheap way to do this.

I thought I would save money but not the case. I figured i drink about a 12 pack a week or 2 cases a month and you get 2 cases per keg. I like to drink Sam Adams which is roughly $15,00 per 12 pack or $60.00 for two cases. Home brew recopies are any ware from $30.00 - $45.00 at my lbs. Looking at it like that I would save $15.00 - $30.00 per month. Since my kegarator and homebrew inception I’ve/friends have been drinking a keg every two weeks or two kegs a month. I'm not saying a dime in fact I’m spending more but I am having a hell of a lot of fun. Not sure if my wife agrees with me but she likes all the beer I’ve made so far and has drank some.

 

[Fennis]

To be honest, I wouldn't go in with the plan on saving too much money, especially in the beginning when you need to buy all the equipment. If you are completely new to it, I know some may knock it, but why not start with a Mr. Beer kit?

Starting off, there is just no way you will save any money. I am only into home brewing for about 5 months, and between getting the equipment, and doing a total of 2 Mr. Beer recipes and my first 5 gallon partial mash brew, I have easily spent over $250...and that's with only making about 3 cases worth of beer. Granted, from this point on I am pretty stable besides the cost of new batches if I stay at bottling batches, but I have lots more equipment on my wish list too which costs a lot more money--find a mini-fridge or chest freezer to convert, get some corny kegs and all the associated equipment, and I would like an outdoor propane burner. All together that is at least $200 or more to spend, depending on if I find a cheap fridge/freezer on craigslist.


I don't mean to scare you away from the hobby at all, I just wouldn't go into it with the idea of saving lots of money, especially in the first year or two you get into it. If you don't have any equipment yet, I would suggest seeing if you even like brewing beer first, and get a Mr. Beer kit. For around $50 you can start making 2 gallon batches, the initial kit purchase gets you everything you need including 1-2 recipes included with it, and new recipe kits are between $20 and $30. For probably $30 to $50 more ($80 to $100 in all), you can get starter kits which usually include two 5 gallon plastic buckets, 1 for fermenting, 1 for bottling, with all the needed equipment for racking and bottling (besides bottles), its more expensive up front, but allows for bigger brews and more flexibility to upgrade. No matter what, besides the starter kits you will need a brew pot, measuring cups, a thermometer and hydrometer are very useful though not completely necessary to start off. Personally, starting with Mr. Beer helped me get a feel for the hobby, and allowed me to realize that I loved making beer, and quickly moved on to 5 gallon batches. One word of advice, start saving up your beer bottles now. You need 24 12oz bottles for a 2 gallon batch, close to 50 for a 5 gallon. Never use screw top bottles, they just don't work, so most of your Bud Light bottles are probably useless to re-use.

 

[eastoak]

after i started homebrewing i started buying beers i would have never considered before. $10-12 bottles of belgian saison, $13 six packs of german kolsch and so on. i've been spending more money on beer period.

 

[Vuarra]

after i started homebrewing i started buying beers i would have never considered before. $10-12 bottles of belgian saison, $13 six packs of german kolsch and so on. i've been spending more money on beer period.

When I read this, I thought back to when I started. I thought that there is NO way anyone is going to get me to try a beer called Hobgoblin, 10W40, or any stout at all.

Since then, I tried a few different things, and now I've settled on a whole bunch of stuff that I would have thought that only belonged to the EAC crowd.

 

[Transamguy77]

If you are completely new to it, I know some may knock it, but why not start with a Mr. Beer kit?

I started with a Mr Beer kit too, it was a Christmas present from a good friend of mine and he got me like 3 more additional kits, I quickly went out and bought a "big boy" brew kit.

 

[o4_srt]

Let's see: propane burner and kettle: $70. Trub screen and valve kit: $50. Sight glass: $30.

3 carboys: $90 3 1g carboys: $15 misc bottling/testing equipment: $100

Fermentation chamber and controllers: $300

Triple tier stand plumbed with copper, with cfc and march pump: $400

I'm sure I'm missing some things, buy I'm approximately $1000 into the hobby.

Even buying in bulk (which I NEED to start doing), it's going to be quite some time before I'm in the black.

It's a labor of love. If it wasn't so relaxing/enjoyable, I wouldn't be doing it. Maybe someday it will save me money, but not in the foreseeable future.

 

[Gwitz]

Its interesting im reading alot of you guys spending 16-30 dollars on 5 gallon batches. And i guess id be there too before i discovered buying bulk grain and hops. Now i can brew 10 gallons for $15, counting grain, hops, yeast electricity and cleaning chemicals. Now im sure im not ahead yet considering im close to 2k into equipment, kegs controllers various fittings and tools to build stuff. Probably never will be, i want some conicals and more corny kegs to brew with. Oh well, my friend once told me he was 5k into aquarium fish, my jaw dropped, i said to him, you cant drink fish can you?

Its actually pretty funny, you can find cheap local beer for 8-10 bucks a 6 pack. Cold BMC is in and around 25 dollars for 12. So heres where it gets crazy, i can brew a 12 pack of 5% awesome tasting beer for around $1.60. That right there makes it all worth it

 

[o4_srt]

Its interesting im reading alot of you guys spending 16-30 dollars on 5 gallon batches. And i guess id be there too before i discovered buying bulk grain and hops. Now i can brew 10 gallons for $15, counting grain, hops, yeast electricity and cleaning chemicals. Now im sure im not ahead yet considering im close to 2k into equipment, kegs controllers various fittings and tools to build stuff. Probably never will be, i want some conicals and more corny kegs to brew with. Oh well, my friend once told me he was 5k into aquarium fish, my jaw dropped, i said to him, you cant drink fish can you?

Its actually pretty funny, you can find cheap local beer for 8-10 bucks a 6 pack. Cold BMC is in and around 25 dollars for 12. So heres where it gets crazy, i can brew a 12 pack of 5% awesome tasting beer for around $1.60. That right there makes it all worth it

God I need to find a "bulk buddy" and get in on a group buy

 

[Bithead]

Try the Group Buys forum

 

[Yooper]

For $18.30 or so, got just under 6# of LME, 1.75oz of East Kent Goldings, a packet of Nottingham yeast and some one-step sanitizer. It will make a beer about 3.9% ABV, and it will be completely in the 01A (American Lager) style.

1.040 OG
1.010 FG
10.2 IBU (Goldings are weak this year... after talking to my LHBS guy, it's been a weird year for hops)
2.4 SRM

Values are courtesy of an online brew calculator.

Beer Geek Alert- No way that is a 1A. No way. It's not a lager unless it's lager yeast (a different species than ale yeast completely), and no EKG and Nottingham. EKG and nottingham will make an English bitter. But certainly not an American Lager! But I bet it's a darn fine bitter.