Lowest price homebrew

[madscientist451]

I noticed a FB marketplace add where they are selling barley for $4 for about 25 lbs. So if you figure $.16/lb. , and 2-row by the sack at $1 lb you could throw together a simple grain bill of 6lbs 2 row and 4 lbs unmalted barley for 6.64. I could use my homegrown hops but if I buy some hops cheap and re-pitch yeast I could do a 5 gallon batch for about $8, or about $.16 for a 12 oz beer. I’ve also experimented with re-using dry hops in the boil, and it actually works pretty well, so that’s another cheapskate option. Reportedly you can make a brew even cheaper by using all unmalted barley and amalyze enzyme, or using the enzyme and reducing the amount of malt and increasing the percentage of unmalted barley. I actually have an oversupply of brewing grain and a backlog of beer that I haven’t consumed, so I’m probably not going to try it any time soon. Anyone else considering how to make a super cheap brew? https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...place_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

 

[An Ankoù]

I noticed a FB marketplace add where they are selling barley for $4 for about 25 lbs. So if you figure $.16/lb. , and 2-row by the sack at $1 lb you could throw together a simple grain bill of 6lbs 2 row and 4 lbs unmalted barley for 6.64. I could use my homegrown hops but if I buy some hops cheap and re-pitch yeast I could do a 5 gallon batch for about $8, or about $.16 for a 12 oz beer. I’ve also experimented with re-using dry hops in the boil, and it actually works pretty well, so that’s another cheapskate option. Reportedly you can make a brew even cheaper by using all unmalted barley and amalyze enzyme, or using the enzyme and reducing the amount of malt and increasing the percentage of unmalted barley. I actually have an oversupply of brewing grain and a backlog of beer that I haven’t consumed, so I’m probably not going to try it any time soon. Anyone else considering how to make a super cheap brew? https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...place_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

Well I reckon you could make an alcoholic drink out of just about anything that contains sugar or starch, but it's likely to taste pretty horrrible. The best bet is to wait for the apple and pear harvest and make a few gallons of cider. I used to make some great drinks when I was a kid, mainly from foraged stuff. Some of it- blackberry wine was excellent to my 16-year-old, alcohol starved palate. I still had to buy (or nicked my mum's) sugar, though. We had some excellent hops growing by an abandoned gas works, but I still had to buy (in those days) malt extract.

 

[hottpeper13]

Buying in bulk and reusing yeast, most of my beers are around 20$ a 5 gal keg. I did brew yesterday a Belgian Dupple Quad at 1.100 that was 40$. Hope the deer find the pile cause the drainings from the sparge were 1.074

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I second buying in bulk when it makes sense. Remember that most ingredients need to be stored properly too.

We all want to shave off some costs to brew but it's going to cost something. If someone is looking for super cheap then I would consider a different hobby or just buying super cheap beer at the store

 

[Miraculix]

Been there, done that my friend.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/hazy-cheapskate-miraculix-forbidden-ale.710855/

Needless to say that I am a big fan of adjunct Beers with a high adjunct amount.

 

[Agent]

If you have the time and inclination to pick up a hobby within a hobby, you can malt your own too!

I did a 100% home malted wheat beer with reused yeast and homegrown hops last year for <$10 for 10 gallons. So cheap can be done, but it gets farther from easy as you do.

 

[crazyjake19]

My recent Czech pale lager was $12 for a 4.5-gallon batch. Probably the cheapest batch I've made.

I never homebrewed with the sole intention of saving money on beer, but I definitely do.

 

[Shenanigans]

Well the below prices are why I ordered a few 5kg bags of wheat flakes instead of just the 1 or 2kg I originally planned on ordering.
Next up is a Witbier with 2kg of wheat flakes and a White IPA with 3kg of wheat flakes.
Also some cheap store-bought oat flakes in each.
Perfect beers for Spring/Summer.

 

[madscientist451]

So it turns out there are some historical references about the use of unmalted barley in beer. Shut up about Barclay
Perkins is one of my favorite brewing blogs, and edition linked below has plenty of great material. It seems that the use of unmalted barley was prohibited for tax reasons. In addition, there are some references to the use of unmalted barley in Germany in Belgium. I might be trying this someday soon. https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/small-beer-brewed-from-unmalted-barley.html

 

[Snuffy]

I keep waiting for Bracc to join in...
I think he could brew 5 gals for about a nickel.

 

[lumpher]

Cheap alkeehol... Grow your own fruit trees and let wild yeast do the ferment. Don't get no cheaper than that...

 

[MaxStout]

I keep waiting for Bracc to join in...
I think he could brew 5 gals for about a nickel.

And it would still taste good. From the discussions he took part in, Bracc seemed to know his brewing.

Back OT...brew a SMaSH. Buy the cheapest 2-row you can find, use the minimum amount of high-alpha hops, re-use yeast.

 

[mac_1103]

Back OT...brew a SMaSH

A 6% ABV SMaSH runs me just about 50 cents a pint without doing anything to cut costs other than buying grain, hops and dry yeast in bulk. And the yeast isn't really bulk - just ten packs each of a couple of strains at a time to get the quantity and shipping discounts at RiteBrew. I can live with 50 cents a pint.

 

[Miraculix]

Nothing beats 30% Pale malt and 70% generic wheat flour price wise.

 

[Bramling Cross]

When I was a broke grad student I used to make batches of Australian Sparkling Ale as a cheap thinking fluid. I've lost the original ProMash recipe to a HD crash, but I still remember it well enough:

8lbs of domestic pale malt (Klages malt was a big deal for me back then)
1lb of granulated sugar (.5lb is obviously a better idea, but grad students run on ethanol)
4oz of C-40

Magnum at 60, maybe .33oz? Can't really remember.
1oz Pride of Ringwood if you want to be authentic (I used whatever) at 5.

Buy a sixer of Coopers Sparkling ale and farm up the yeast and reuse it for a year.

It was cheap and it kept me well lubricated.

 

[corncob]

If you live in the sunny south, grits can be bought in bulk from various places for well under the price of malt, especially considering the cost of shipping. If you have access to a few hundred square feet of ground that isn't in the shade, enough dent corn to brew for years is trivially easy to grow for $0. You'll need a shovel, a hoe, and a corona mill. Industrial sugar is the king of cheap and easy. There is a good reason that both of those ingredients show up in various brewing traditions.

Forsake not the old paths.

 

[Shenanigans]

Think I'm just about to brew my cheapist batch of beer ever, especially for extract.

5kg of hopped LME, three months past it's sell by date for under 3 euros and I also got some old packs of BE-134 Saison yeast for 1 euro each.
I need to check the instructions on the LME when it arrives so im not sure what OG I will get for a 5 gallon batch.
I'll have to add some cheap table sugar but it will still be under 7.5 euro all together.
It's already hopped so I'm assuming it's about 20 to 30 IBUs with extract from some high alpha German hop like Herkules or Magnum.
So it should be hoppy enough for a Saison as is but I might boil it for 10 minutes and add a whirlpool addition of one of the hops I need to use up in my freezer.
Maybe Enigma.

 

[Miraculix]

Have you guys considered acid mashing unmalted barley?

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/small-beer-brewed-from-unmalted-barley.html?m=1

It's basically a prolonged mash of unmalted grain within slightly acidified water.

 

[Miraculix]

Think I'm just about to brew my cheapist batch of beer ever, especially for extract.

5kg of hopped LME, three months past it's sell by date for under 3 euros and I also got some old packs of BE-134 Saison yeast for 1 euro each.
I need to check the instructions on the LME when it arrives so im not sure what OG I will get for a 5 gallon batch.
I'll have to add some cheap table sugar but it will still be under 7.5 euro all together.
It's already hopped so I'm assuming it's about 20 to 30 IBUs with extract from some high alpha German hop like Herkules or Magnum.
So it should be hoppy enough for a Saison as is but I might boil it for 10 minutes and add a whirlpool addition of one of the hops I need to use up in my freezer.
Maybe Enigma.


View attachment 875950
View attachment 875951

Wow, that sounds disgusting

I hope I'm wrong!

 

[Shenanigans]

Wow, that sounds disgusting

I hope I'm wrong!

I hope you are
It won't be my best beer ever but should hopefully be a refreshing easy drinker.
The LME is supposed be decent quality, they have been selling if for years on Hopfen und Mehr.
BE-134 is IMO the best available dry Saison yeast so the phenols from the yeast and a big fruity hop whirlpool should help mask any off flavors from the not so fresh malt extract.
The big plus is that I will at least have some light home brew for the Summer as I only have bocks, barley wines, stouts, porters and strong brett beers in stock.
It was looking like I wouldn't find time to brew again until September, but this should just take a few hours instead of half a day so I can sneak it in sometime soon.

 

[Miraculix]

I hope you are
It won't be my best beer ever but should hopefully be a refreshing easy drinker.
The LME is supposed be decent quality, they have been selling if for years on Hopfen und Mehr.
BE-134 is IMO the best available dry Saison yeast so the phenols from the yeast and a big fruity hop whirlpool should help mask any off flavors from the not so fresh malt extract.
The big plus is that I will at least have some light home brew for the Summer as I only have bocks, barley wines, stouts, porters and strong brett beers in stock.
It was looking like I wouldn't find time to brew again until September, but this should just take a few hours instead of half a day so I can sneak it in sometime soon.

Theoretically a good plan, practically, the downside is the old lme. That's what I'm scared off.... If this turns out to be not a big factor, it should be ok!

 

[Miraculix]

I hope you are
It won't be my best beer ever but should hopefully be a refreshing easy drinker.
The LME is supposed be decent quality, they have been selling if for years on Hopfen und Mehr.
BE-134 is IMO the best available dry Saison yeast so the phenols from the yeast and a big fruity hop whirlpool should help mask any off flavors from the not so fresh malt extract.
The big plus is that I will at least have some light home brew for the Summer as I only have bocks, barley wines, stouts, porters and strong brett beers in stock.
It was looking like I wouldn't find time to brew again until September, but this should just take a few hours instead of half a day so I can sneak it in sometime soon.

One additional comment regarding the yeast that I've forgot to mention. I haven't tried 134 or if I did, I don't remember, but for now lallemand farmhouse is my favourite dry saison strain. If you haven't tried it, give it a try some day. It has decent attenuation, very good expression for a dry yeast without being a diastatic strain itself. If you mash accordingly, you can get almost into diastatic fg territory.

 

[Shenanigans]

One additional comment regarding the yeast that I've forgot to mention. I haven't tried 134 or if I did, I don't remember, but for now lallemand farmhouse is my favourite dry saison strain. If you haven't tried it, give it a try some day. It has decent attenuation, very good expression for a dry yeast without being a diastatic strain itself. If you mash accordingly, you can get almost into diastatic fg territory.

Yes I got a discounted pack last year and used it to help bottle condition a co-pitched brett saison I had stored for a few months.
Worked like a charm as it was about 10% but the lallemand farmhouse has a tolerance of 13%.
I kept some over and plan on brewing a Taras Boubla or De Ranke XX clone with it sometime.

 

[Shenanigans]

Think I'm just about to brew my cheapist batch of beer ever, especially for extract.

5kg of hopped LME, three months past it's sell by date for under 3 euros and I also got some old packs of BE-134 Saison yeast for 1 euro each.
I need to check the instructions on the LME when it arrives so im not sure what OG I will get for a 5 gallon batch.
I'll have to add some cheap table sugar but it will still be under 7.5 euro all together.
It's already hopped so I'm assuming it's about 20 to 30 IBUs with extract from some high alpha German hop like Herkules or Magnum.
So it should be hoppy enough for a Saison as is but I might boil it for 10 minutes and add a whirlpool addition of one of the hops I need to use up in my freezer.
Maybe Enigma.


View attachment 875950
View attachment 875951

Well this is in the keg since last night.
Got an OG of 1.055 and an FG of 1.002 - so it's around 7% abv.

The LME was indeed fairly dark and has a bit of a twang to it so the color is more dark amber than straw.
I've only tasted it flat and warm but don't have high hopes for it, as long as it's drinkable I'm happy enough
I will try it again in few days when it's fully carbed.