How Much Money Is There To Be Saved?

[tpitman]

Aside from the equipment, my first homebrew with a canned Coopers kit and 3 lbs. of corn sugar came to about $21. Most of the beer I buy runs around $8 to $10 a six pack, and I got 45 12 oz. bottles out of that kit, which comes to around $.47 a bottle. I just cracked open the first two bottles of that kit tonight, and I have to say it was surprisingly good. I kind of ignored the instructions, left it in the primary for 3 weeks, then conditioned in the bottles for 2 weeks. Not over-carbonated, a bit of a weak head, but clear as a bell and tiny bubbles rising up through it the entire time it was in the glass (which wasn't long). It was Coopers Dark Ale, fermenting temps were low 70s with a swamp cooler rigged up to overcome the Florida heat. My expectations were low, frankly, but I was quite surprised. Tastes much like the Guinness Extra Stout that's brewed in Canada. I've strained a lot of that through my kidneys over the years, so I'm a happy guy. It's cheap, easy and fun to make. If Budweiser is the benchmark against which to compare alternatives, homebrewing is definitely a huge step up, even with something fairly cheap like a Coopers prehopped kit.

 

[Transamguy77]

Since when do you have a hobby and include "equipment" costs? You don't do it because it will save you money or cause you enjoy doing it?

If you were restoring a car and included all the tools, equipment, parts AND time you would be in it for hundreds of thousands before you know it and could prob buy a car done for much less.

You have a hobby cause you like to do it not cause it will save you money if thy were the case we would not have hobbies and just spend ALL day at work.

 

[iaefebs]

If you buy your equipment at the the right price there is no reason that you can't recoup most of your cost if you have to sell. I know that I can sell my equipment for more than I have invested.However I've been building my system for 6 years. My cost's for brewing is water, malt, yeast, hops..... and propane.

 

[WCD]

This is a very interesting debate. Im pretty anal on my costs as well. Besides brewing I keep an eye on costs in general outside of brewing. I chaulk it up to part of the hobby, Brewers notebook via excel spread sheet, costs of batch, compared to cost of just about all equipment. Based on my calculations, I broke even after my 11th batch. I dont have a crazy setup( 2 carboys, bottling bucket, autosiphon, bayou , homedepot 10G cooler, 2 big pots....) and made a couple bad purchases with cost in mind. I also factored in Christmas gift cards and the like. Great to have a hobby that makes it very easy to get gift card to the LHBS from coworkers and team.

So, I totally agree if your drinking the buds,mgd and cheaper based commercials. It will be very longtime to break even but not impossible assuming you dont abuse and have to replace allot of equipment. If your doing the craft beers, at least here they are 9-10 bucks a six pack or so after deposit.

All that said, if you dont make it fun in some way. Youll never break even because you just wont do it. Bottling isnt my favorite part, that is the chore of brewing in my mind. The best part is planning the brew and I havent met to many people that arent somewhat intrigued by the whole thing so I am rarely alone when I brew. It has become a social event around my house, family, friends, coworkers. Im getting to the point where I have to brew on the DL.

So, there is money to be saved but if that is your only driver. Dont get into it. Remember, Its a hobby! Your supposed to waste money on hobbies! It cheaper than golf.

 

[themashedone]

depends on what kind of beer you make if you choose a extract kit of an american light beer or something you will prolly spend more to make it. however if you make something like a doppelbock which store bought runs around twelve bucks a six pack you will most likely save.

 

[BrewForMe]

It's all about the experience for me, so far no money saved, but maybe after i have the coolest brew setup ever (ie: no goodies left to buy) i might save a little

 

[ChickenBeer]

Yeah, I have to say that even if brewing cost me more than buying it in a store I would most likely keep doing it. If you start a new hobby to save money especially to make your own cheaper Budweiser I think you should just buy the Bud. They have a profit margin but pretty sure that they figured out the cheapest way to make it a long time ago. I personally buy my filler beers and make my good big beers. Fun as hell and have had a good time doing it.

 

[jkreuze]

I've saved a lot of money by homebrewing (as long as we don't take into account the $150 on brew gear and the $500 on kegging gear and the $100-$200 spent on odds and ends).


Okay, maybe "saved" is not the right word.

 

[KillJoy]

I have ~ $250 - $300 in equipment. This includes 3 Primaries (Buckets), and is for Extracts.

That cost aside, I am seeing 50 Bottles / $35 per kit. So..... 8 6-Packs (plus 2 bottles) for $35 and "fun / hobby time". So, the beer is "basically" 1/2 price!

KillJoy

 

[coryforsenate]

Unless you mainly drink expensive beer like Chimary or Mikkeller, you're not going to save a whole lot.

You can make a ~5% abv simple all grain beer with dry yeast for $20-25/5gallons using the cheaper malts, like basic brewer's two row. It starts getting expensive when you want to make things like IPAs or using wet yeast. And of course, the higher the alcohol, the more grain you have to buy unless you're planning to dump a bunch of corn sugar in it.


Edit: Forgot to add shipping charges, which will be at minimum of $8 in the case of Austinhomebrew's flat rate shipping policy.

 

[coryforsenate]

i brew 3 or 4 AG batches every month. i still drink bud light!!!! not very often.. i also drop $20 on a bottle of beer every once in a while.. the fact is you'll find it very very hard to make a beer that tastes like bud light. a good lager is more money to make than ale too. you can probably save money by making only "kit" beer i bet; but i also bet it will not taste anything like a bud light.

The thing about making your own lite American lager is that that very lack of flavor makes them among the most difficult beers to make. Any flaw will shine like halogen lamp glaring on a tv.

 

[coryforsenate]

I'm interested to see how my Oktoberfest comes out (first lager attempt). I noticed a touch of diacetyl as fermentation was slowing down, so I did a 4 day diacetyl rest before slowing dropping the temperature and transferring to the secondary.

 

[estoppel]

I save a ton of money because Beer is stupidly expensive in my Canadian province. I pay $14-$21 for a six pack of craft beer around here and the selection is not very good. Like some others have suggested, my cost is in and around the 45-50 cents/bottle range.

I am brewing a 10G batch of a pretty big and 100+IBU IIPA this weekend and my hard ingredient cost will be $72.20. It would have been about 60 bucks, but I made the mistake of forgetting to order two lbs of Crystal malt online and ended up paying $9/lb(!) from my LHBS. Anyways that works out to about 61 cents a bottle and that is among the more expensive beer I ever make (I don't use 20oz of hops very often).

 

[bottlebomber]

*look up* do not mix brewing with meth use

 

[milesvdustin]

Im drinking bud fat right now and i have 35 gallons of homebrew in the other room... can't drink the good stuff when you just want a cheap buzz!

 

[bottlebomber]

What about when you want an expensive buzz?

 

[drathbone]

Maybe I've just found spectacular deals, but I can almost get 2 extract kits for ~$50. Looking at Northern Brewer and sorting extract kits by price, almost the entire first page (nearly 40 kits) is under $30. Considering I don't drink BMC, a case of my favorite craft beer would cost around $80. Aside from the process (which is fun to me, I don't count it as a cost) I save plenty of money drinking my own brews and I stay healthy by only binge drinking every 6 weeks to a month

 

[logan3825]

I have spent $1267.53 on equipment, ingredients and other supplies. That includes shipping, water, everything. An equivalent amount of craft beer at $9 a 6-pak would be $1296 so I have "saved" $28.47. I put saved in quotes because that is what I would have saved if my drinking habits(and my wife's) had remained constant. The problem we ran into is that when the homebrew is ready to drink we drink twice as much as we probably would if we didn't have it around the house.

I still only brew extract but can make a good American wheat with 5.5oz of hops for about $27. I cut costs by using dry yeast whenever possible, I have a free source of spring water, and buying most grains and hops in larger quantities. I currently have about 4lbs of various types of hops vacuum sealed in the freezer so I will only need to buy yeast and extract for the next few batches. I just reached the tipping point here at 17 batches.

I don't consider a brewing as much of a time sink. A buddy and I brew together so we only have about 3 hours into brewing every other week. We can bottle a batch during the boil while we would be sitting around doing nothing anyway. The 3 hours includes measuring and milling grains right to the end of cleanup. There is a lot of wasted time waiting for water to heat up and wort to cool and grains to steep.

 

[BBKing]

Lol, someone thinks that they are going to save money, in the long run, by brewing?

Someone isnt obsessed yet!!!!

I was guilty of this sort of thinking a few years ago.

 

[mcwilcr]

Lol, someone thinks that they are going to save money, in the long run, by brewing?

Someone isnt obsessed yet!!!!

I was guilty of this sort of thinking a few years ago.

Hahaha. That is the exact thought I had when I came across this thread.

 

[mellofello]

I think it is hypothetically possible to save money brewing beer, and here are some suggestions how to do so.

Equipment - keep an eye on craigslist, ebay, or a local homebrew club. If you can buy second hand equipment from someone who is quitting or upgrading for a good price it is likely that if you ever decide to sell the equipment you will get back what you paid for it. Also, you can consider alternate uses. I use my boiling kettle and burner for large seafood boils and chili batches, so it is not purely a beer expense.

Time - I think it's pretty easy to not consider your time invested as an expense. I mean if I wasn't brewing beer I'd probably just be drinking beer. Since I can drink and brew at the same time.... lol. a man's got to have a hobby of some sorts.

Ingredients - well this is really the only real expense. If you live in a temperate climate you may be able to grow your own hops or even find them growing wild. You may be able to get a few rhizomes from someone who already has some growing. If you brew regularly you can reuse the yeast many times just by pouring new wort into the primary on the last batches yeast. Or hypothetically harvest yeast using equipment bought cheap enough to resell.

So hypothetically speaking, your only real expense is going to be grains. You could grow barley, but there is just no way you could malt the barley cheaper than just buying it. So you will have to bite the bullet in some way on this one. Hypothetically, you could buy in bulk, and probably reduce your cost down to about 25 cents per bottle.

Now hypothetical aside, you start brewing I think you're going to want certain equipment, you're going to start taking pride in your brew. All of a sudden spending $50 here or there is going to seem worthwhile to make your brewing experience more enjoyable and to make better brew.

 

[tpitman]

I'll bet, though, a lot of folks get into it (like me) looking at the cost of a cheap extract kit and think, "Wow, I can really save a pile making my own." Then, as they read and understand some of the finer points of brewing, and start looking at the "jewelry" under brewing equipment lists, they get more wrapped up in it. I have to say I've got tools for everything, some used only once for a very specific task. Some of my DIY activity has paid off handsomely, some has been a waste of time for the results I achieved. With brewing, we'll see if I can resist the "siren's call" of more sophisticated equipment, and settle for making a few styles of homebrew with the basic equipment I've bought that'll keep me out of the upper shelves of the cooler at the liquor store. I found the time spent brewing the simple kit I did, was fun, and I've spent a bit of time combing this forum and homebrew supplier's sites looking for info and an understanding of the process.

 

[bottlebomber]

I'll bet, though, a lot of folks get into it (like me) looking at the cost of a cheap extract kit and think, "Wow, I can really save a pile making my own." Then, as they read and understand some of the finer points of brewing, and start looking at the "jewelry" under brewing equipment lists, they get more wrapped up in it. I have to say I've got tools for everything, some used only once for a very specific task. Some of my DIY activity has paid off handsomely, some has been a waste of time for the results I achieved. With brewing, we'll see if I can resist the "siren's call" of more sophisticated equipment, and settle for making a few styles of homebrew with the basic equipment I've bought that'll keep me out of the upper shelves of the cooler at the liquor store. I found the time spent brewing the simple kit I did, was fun, and I've spent a bit of time combing this forum and homebrew supplier's sites looking for info and an understanding of the process.

Good luck. I just invested about 700 into a really nice extract set up and accesories, and im already looking at all grain equipment and conical fermentors and I've only made 2 batches

 

[KillJoy]

I just invested about 700 into a really nice extract set up and accesories

KillJoy

 

[logan3825]

Good luck. I just invested about 700 into a really nice extract set up and accesories, and im already looking at all grain equipment and conical fermentors and I've only made 2 batches

That is really on the extreme side of spending though. I have probably a middle of the road setup, 5 gallon pot, immersion wort chiller, plastic buckets for fermenting, and have spent $385 on equipment. I am sure I could get away without most of the equipment I have.

 

[tvtoms]

I think there are a lot of factors people weigh in on without weighing in on others they don't think about. Such as the time. Ok, it takes time to brew. Obviously it also takes time to drive and shop and checkout and drive again home with purchased beer. BUT, there's also calories burned by our meticulous cleaning and sanitizing, carrying barrels and tubs and buckets around, cleaning up again and again. How do we quantify the workout time and calories saved and burned? Subtract it from your gym time I guess..

Also I don't see a lot of people talking about the awesome spent grain breads and rolls you are making. You aren't really throwing your spent grain in the garbage or compost heap are you? Pile it in a layer on baking sheets and dry it out, put it in freezer bags and freeze it. When you bake bread, substitute 1 cup of spent grain for 1 cup of flour. Totally awesome flavor and pride and saved you money.

You could, if you were hardcore, buy barley at the feed store, malt it yourself, dry it, crush it, brew with it, bake with it. Could also grow your hops, never buy them again.

I recently decided I was tired of buying frozen pizza's or ordering them. So now I make them at a cost of.. are you ready.. 63 cents each. Pizzeria quality, very easy, and once my herb plants and garlic are ready to harvest, it'll be even less. The oregano and basil are pound for pound the most expensive ingredients from those little bottles. (yes I based my cost on regular supermarket prices, nothing bulk or sale)

You have to want it! Be creative and use what you've got. You could make a business out of it. I can see profit in it for someone super hardcore about it.

 

[Clann]

Havent really bought anything since my innitial investment of about $300

couple of hydrometers and ingredents.

I love being able to make two cases of craft beer for the price of one case of BMC

 

[bottlebomber]

Yep top quality 10 gallong stainless pot $125 weldless fittings $100 KAB4 bayou burner $100 capper $65 2x6.5 gallon carboys $40 each refractometer $65 german made lab grade hydrometer $45 immersion chiller $85 accessories random about $100 and then bottling equipment also but I guess basically everything is useful for all grain if/when I make the transition. Not cheap but basically everything I purchased is top of the line you could probably get set up for extract brew for under 100 bucks if you were really thrifty

 

[logan3825]

Yep top quality 10 gallong stainless pot $125 weldless fittings $100 KAB4 bayou burner $100 capper $65 2x6.5 gallon carboys $40 each refractometer $65 german made lab grade hydrometer $45 immersion chiller $85 accessories random about $100 and then bottling equipment also but I guess basically everything is useful for all grain if/when I make the transition. Not cheap but basically everything I purchased is top of the line you could probably get set up for extract brew for under 100 bucks if you were really thrifty

My purpose wasn't to call you out. Heck if I could afford it I would spend WAY more than I have so far. I think most would. I just wanted to add a disclaimer to your setup. Your mileage may vary.

Really though you can save money over craft beer. Saving money over BMC while possible is probably not practical. The main thing is to limit the equipment buying. There will always be one more gadget to buy.

 

[KillJoy]

There will always be one more gadget to buy.

....like an IC.



KillJoy