Make your own beer, they said. You'll save money, they said.

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To me micro brewing is like scratch baking. Once you get the idea what's going on and make adjustments you can tell what you'll have in the end.
Anything more technical and it takes the fun out of it for me. If I wanted to brew the exact same thing I'd be a commercial brewer.

I really like this philosophy and I hope to get there at some point once I have made some I really like. Im sure after many brews I will get to the point where I just throw the stuff together but Im still learning and need to follow recipes and document for now.
 
I did all this, also took it to the extent that I bought a homebrew shop that was going out of business and ran that not very successfully for just about 4 years before running out of money and being forced to go under. So I lost numbers that are significantly higher than others are posting.

Metal detecting is another great hobby to take a loss on:
- Metal detector: $379 (for a cheap one)
- digging tools: $60
- gas: $40
- tolls: $12
- lunch: $10
- bottled water: $4
- batteries: $8
- Suntan oil: $7

-Spending a day on the beach rounding up $1.90 in new clad coins, 47 pulltabs, 36 bottlecaps, 7 pieces of aluminum foil, 2 drug needles, a bobby pin and a broken toy car: priceless.

An outing doesn’t usually even pay for the batteries I use, let alone anything else.
 
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Like many hobbies, it comes down to differentiating between what you want versus what you need. There’s always going to be someone manufacturing some new gizmo which invents a need for the equipment junkie. My needs are dictated by a tight budget and the fact 5 gallon batches are enough for me as I only give small amounts away and my friends don’t brew. I think some home brewers convince themselves they’ll make better beer with more gear when in fact many home brewers with very basic setups make great beer due to consistently executing the basics. To be fair, some are simply brewing at a higher level. Of course how much beer one consumes affects cost and for those who brew a lot of very high gravity beers, you will save money over time.
 
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Although I have around 3 grand i equipment, I also have beer that is very good, and styles not available anywhere near me. Closest home brew supply is 150 miles and that is the distance to quality crafted beers as well. My wife really only wants to drink big rich syrupy imperial stouts, you can't get one for less then 15 buck a bottle. I like sours, a good sour like you get from The Rare Barrel is $15 + for a 375 ml bottle, 12 oz consecration is 12ish. Although we don't drink those all the time, we have definitely saved 3 grand plus over the last 10 years to cover the cost of just those types of beers. The lighter session ale I make cost around 50 bucks (propane included) for a 15 gallon batch. thats around 24 6 packs at 8-10 a pop. so if your going to do this long term it will eventually cost you less for top quality beer, and that the beer of your choice, not just what the local grocery store carries.
 
LOL - its been a fun ride so far.. and be forewarned - Im kinda rambling here...

All hobbies can be costly and I got into this because my tastes in beer changed which started to greatly impact my wallet. 2 of my friends let me enjoy their homebrew and told me how much they saved by brewing their own. After drinking some of their delicious brew, I wanted to see if I could make something that duplicated the taste of the more expensive beers my palate was becoming accustomed to.

My friends made all-grain brew which they said was better so I proceeded to build an all-grain setup.

It started with the search for a brew kettle. - My buddies had one built by someone out of a 15 gallon keg with welded taps, thermometer and sight glass. - they ended up spending a pretty penny on it - Almost $300. I wasnt about to spend that much so I looked on craigslist and found a bar owner who was getting rid of some old Kegs. Picked a nice one up for $40.

After cutting the top off with my angle grinder and a cutting wheel, I drilled 2 holes in the bottom and picked up 2 weldless bulkhead kits, a 2 piece ball valve, a thermometer and sight glass from bargainfittings.com for about $80. After assembly, I had my finished brew keg for about $120.

Next I needed a mash tun. I picked up a 70qt coleman cooler from Walmart for about $45, a cooler bulkhead kit from bargainfittings for $25 and I used a washing machine hose for a filter for $6 - so lets call it $80 for the completed mash tun.

OK next was a Hot Liquor Tank. I searched craigslist and found someone who was selling a home depot cooler built as a mash tun as well as some carboys (2-6gal, 1-5gal, and 1-3gal) a smaller copper cooling coil, a funnel, a thermometer, and some tubing all for $100.

While searching craigslist I also found someone selling 2 bottling buckets, 2 bottle cappers, 2 bottle brushes, 4 bubblers, an auto syphon, a large metal stir spoon and a hydrometer all for $25.

I had a propane burner from an old turkey fryer. $0

So at $325, I figured I was done and I did well.........umm I was wrong.

When I brewed with my friends they had the equipment to make the yeast starters - which was necessary to achieve the results we were looking for in our 10 gallon batches.

But the next brew was solo. So I needed to make yeast starters for the large batches I was doing so 2-2000ml flasks, 2 stir plates, and a scale. (all from Amazon) Not too bad but about another $100 for all that.

Decided I wanted to try whirlpooling and easier transfers of wort so I needed a pump. $90 for pump, $40 for fittings, barbs, silicone tubing and valve (bargainfittings) and $40 for whirlpool wand (not sure where i got this but Im sure looking back I couldve gotten it cheaper., . - $170

So now Im up to $595...- cant tell the wife.....

Solo brewing I realized how I was missing some items that my friends had that I didnt. Needed to pick up Star San ($15), PH5.2 ($10) Bottling wand ($4), more tubing ($10) Hop basket ($35) and a strainer for sparging ($7), Bottle caps ($5), DME ($6) sugar for bottling ($6) all these I picked up at the local homebrew supply store - Sunset Hydroponics. - ~$100

$695.....sheesh - I just wanted to make beer......

So after buying the ingredients (I wont include that) I finally made my first solo brew - came out ok but bottling sucked and I got too much oxygen into my beer.

Decided I needed to keg my beer from now on.

Bought a used pinlock 2 -corny keg setup from AIH for $120 - this included 2 used corny kegs, a regulator, fittings, tubing and 2 picnic taps.

Got a 5lb Co2 tank for $70, a freezer for $90 (craigslist), and an inkbird temp controller for $40 (Amazon) - oh and I bought a new autosyphon $15.

$1030 in and I think I have everything I need for a little while. I just had some time and needed to figure out how much I spent. Im wondering if there is anything I missed.

I know I plan to buy 2 forward seal - stainless steel beer faucets and shanks along with a drip tray so Im looking at at least about $125 -$150 for all that.... heh heh - it never ends..

I never thought I would spend this much trying to save on my beer costs but to be honest - its a ton of fun trying to duplicate flavors, creating new recipes and learning some chemistry along the way.

Like I said its been a helluva ride and looking at other setups in this forum, I may have gotten off pretty cheap - what do you guys think?

Anyway, I couldnt have done it without the help of the people on this forum. I appreciate you guys and I am learning more everyday,
Wait until you start buying shiny SS stuff or buy new stuff to replace stuff that is actually still working....
I knew going into it there was no money to be saved.
I also don't answer to my wife on purchases.
Enjoy the hobby, it's as much about the process/tinkering as it is the beer
 
I’m surprised to hear so many people were told you would save money brewing your own? The shop I went into years ago to learn about home brewing said just the opposite. If your looking to get into brewing to save money, you’re going to want to find a different hobby. That couldn’t have been more true.
 
"Homebrewing to save money on beer is like buying a boat to save money on fish."


but i just posted this pic in another thread, and i can brew a 99 cent twelve pack of 8% beer...

"You can always save money and just buy a fishing poll and fish from the pier!"

100_0502.JPG


;)
 
but i just posted this pic in another thread, and i can brew a 99 cent twelve pack of 8% beer...

"You can always save money and just buy a fishing poll and fish from the pier!"

View attachment 707017

;)

Not saying I subscribe to the homebrew/beer/boat/fish analogy, just surprised it hadn't come up yet.

Speaking for myself, I have a dead-simple BIAB setup that paid for itself ages ago and I buy ingredients in bulk, so I definitely save money brewing (though that was never the intention).
 
(though that was never the intention).


when i first started brewing a twelver of milwaukee's was 4.99. and it cost me $25 to brew a five gallon batch. now a twelve pack of "The best from milwaukee" costs ~$9 and i brew a 10 gallon batch of 8-9% for $28. or $8 depending if i feel like malting my own or not......
 
I really like this philosophy and I hope to get there at some point once I have made some I really like. Im sure after many brews I will get to the point where I just throw the stuff together but Im still learning and need to follow recipes and document for now.
The more brews you do, take notes. You dial in your system and see the times bad beer happens it's the usual initial learning curve mistakes. Not being sanitary, bad yeast management, yeast pitch temp, etc.
Things I remember, once in winter before going all grain letting the extract get cold and dumped it in without stirring. So it got scorched. Drinkable but could taste it in background. Watch out for boilovers adding hops. Where I'm at the water is fine so not a problem but still use a bit of campton just in case.
As for saving money I oven roast soaked pils to my liking for crystal malt and roast pale for a munich like taste. Going too dark stinks up the house though. Rather buy.
 
The more brews you do, take notes. You dial in your system and see the times bad beer happens it's the usual initial learning curve mistakes. Not being sanitary, bad yeast management, yeast pitch temp, etc.
Things I remember, once in winter before going all grain letting the extract get cold and dumped it in without stirring. So it got scorched. Drinkable but could taste it in background. Watch out for boilovers adding hops. Where I'm at the water is fine so not a problem but still use a bit of campton just in case.
As for saving money I oven roast soaked pils to my liking for crystal malt and roast pale for a munich like taste. Going too dark stinks up the house though. Rather buy.

Yeah ive learned from a few mistakes - luckily they didnt ruin the beer to the point it was undrinkable.

Oxidation in my hazy IPA was so far the biggest one. - gray colored and off tasting after about a week.
Over carbing the bottled beer was one - foamed but when it got done foaming I could still drink some of it.
I had boil over once - only need that to happen once...what a mess.
Took the leftovers from two different batches of beer (stuff that wouldnt fit in the carboy) added a packet of dry yeast. This stuff was baaaaddd - still drank it though.
My water is good but I add the 5.2 just to try to even out the PH.

Sanitation has been paramount... of everything I have read... it seems to be the #1 cause for bad beer. I sanitize the **** out of everything.
 
My water is good but I add the 5.2 just to try to even out the PH.


is that a future prediction, for your next mistake. most people around here say it doesn't work. makes me want to try it again with a $100 ph meter! ;) lol, damn and i just had to drop over 40 on a new probe too!
 
Certain brews do pay to brew vs what you buy them for. I would guess nobody here is brewing Budweiser - because you can’t brew it for what they sell it for, let alone you can’t brew it as well as they do. Economy of scale. You can just buy Budweiser for less than your ingredients would even cost, not even taking your time and energy or anything else into account.

Now if you like old ales and barleywines, you can definitely brew those for way less than you buy them for. Price a case of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. These are wonderful beers to drink all winter long when its freezing cold outside.

I also like to read about and try to brew beers I cannot buy. Commercial examples of Mild ale do not exist in the US, yet this has been one of my pet styles for about as long as I have been brewing. Bitters, etc that are from the UK and not readily available in the states. This is where I put my energy.

Somebody hook me up with a solid recipe for Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate. Not available within 200 miles of where I live.
 
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I got a good chuckle out of many posts in this thread. I took up homebrewing as a hobby and experience has shown me my hobbies are hardly ever about saving money. I want to be cost effective but I also want to master the art of brewing as much as possible. I know guys who make good beer fermenting in plastic buckets. But as I have spent a lot of time explaining to my wife, you need some really shiny things to make great beer. :yes:

It should be about enjoyment and fun. If you save some money in the process, then good for you.
 
I'm a gadget nut and love to design, build, and use what I build. I get great satisfaction seeing my DIY electric system work as planned and the beers win in competition. It is definitely true you don't need expensive equipment to brew great beers. My beers have gotten better and my wins are more frequent because of experience not elaborate equipment but it is nice to sit back with a cigar and beer listen to jazz and let the system handle things for awhile.
Prost
 
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Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of the process, plus they're easy to share, ration, and you can see when you're going to run out.

We'll see if I change my tune once I've bottled a NEIPA.
I remember bottling. I started brewing 25 years ago with a wedding present starter kit. That was a true friend! I loved brewing from the start even from the Coopers Extract kits. Now of course all grain. However the one thing that almost ruined it for me was the PIA of bottling. I saw the laborious process of collecting bottles, cleaning bottles, drying bottles, and sanitizing bottles even before you could bottle 30 something individual containers from a brew day laborious to say the least. Then another friend turned me on to 5 gallon ball lock kegs. Were cheap and widely available back then used. The move to one bottle (keg) saved me with brewing. Now with a home built kegerator, growlers, a beer gun, and even a few bottles around I feel like I have the best of of both. Keg all the time, bottle when I need to. Growler to a party. Or keg to a larger gathering. Everyone sees it differently and what works for me doesn’t work for everyone. I admire your patience and dedication to bottling. If you really enjoy it don’t ever start kegging because you might never look back! Cheers.
 
Great post!

I started AG brewing 5 months ago, because we had a hard lockdown in South Africa due to C19 and all alcohol sales were prohibited. Not knowing how long the lockdown would last, my mission was to not run out of beer.

Little did I know that it will change the way I look at a beer forever!

I make and enjoy drinking beers now I never would have even considered ordering at a pub. I also remember there used to be a time when I thought about things other than my next brew.
 
Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of the process, plus they're easy to share, ration, and you can see when you're going to run out.

We'll see if I change my tune once I've bottled a NEIPA.
I’ve gotten back to bottling this year in a big way. I have 9 batches in bottles and 3 more soon to be bottled. Granted, they are 3 gallon batches. 30 bottles is not as bad as 50. Prior to this year, I had not bottled anything for years.
 
I started home-brewing because... Well, because I wanted to make beer and then make better beer than the last time. I had no delusions that it would somehow save me any money.

That said, with $20.00 - $40.00 4-packs showing up on the shelves these days I'd say there's some money to be saved by making your own. You just cant factor in the equipment costs! :p
 
Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of the process, plus they're easy to share, ration, and you can see when you're going to run out.

We'll see if I change my tune once I've bottled a NEIPA.

I'm with you on this one. Although, I do see real value in terms of space/time in kegging, until I have my "man bar" built, I don't really have a good place for kegerator. I don't care for cleaning either, but I do get a weird sense of OCD satisfaction during the bottling process, especially while capping and stacking. Therefore . . . I bring you Beermagedon . . . Cheers!
Full House.jpg
 
speaking of bottling.... what would be the result of pouring my kegged beer into a sanitized beer bottle and capping it? - not a growler or even one of those bottles with the swing top caps.... just a regular bottle and cap attached with a capper.
 
I didn't go into home brewing because it would make cheaper beer. Heck, if anything home brewing has increased how much craft beer I am buying as opposed to lowering it as I want to try more and different styles to see what I want to try making next. I did however get into the hobby telling my wife that to start it would be a minimal outlay of money to see if I enjoyed the hobby. I neglected to mention how quickly costs would spiral when I found I did enjoy it. Than again, we have been married twenty years and she has seen enough of my hobbies to have had to have known where this would go!
 
speaking of bottling.... what would be the result of pouring my kegged beer into a sanitized beer bottle and capping it? - not a growler or even one of those bottles with the swing top caps.... just a regular bottle and cap attached with a capper.
you would want to purge the bottle with co2 first and use some sort of counter-fill arrangement to bottle or you will just get a huge bottle of foam that oxidizes quite quickly. You can either buy something like the blickman beer gun or look to diy a simple one. There is a thread on here somewhere about how to make your own counter-filler with a siphon and bottle stop which I have used with some success.
 
Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of the process, plus they're easy to share, ration, and you can see when you're going to run out.
I’m happy enough bottling but frankly I don’t have the space or money to keg. Also, I bottle 5G batches, not so bad. I can’t imagine bottling if all I brewed was 10, 15G batches.
I thoroughly rinse a bottle immediately after pouring it. I then do a couple of squirts (fine spray) of StarSan into the bottle and set it aside for a few hours or a day and then when I get around to it, rinse it once and turn it upside down to drain and dry before putting back in the box. When it’s time to bottle, I bake 50+ bottles in my oven the night before bottling. Then I sit on a stool next to the open oven, bottling bucket in front of me and the kitchen counter next to me — goes pretty quickly.
 
speaking of bottling.... what would be the result of pouring my kegged beer into a sanitized beer bottle and capping it? - not a growler or even one of those bottles with the swing top caps.... just a regular bottle and cap attached with a capper.
sounds like another purchase, haha... blichman beer gun is the answer. i bought one maybe a couple years ago and it works great. i rarely bottle, but have recently been doing more of it and the convenience and functionality are great.
i imagine you could hook a hose up to your tap and fill the bottle from the bottom up, let the foam run out the top, cap it, wipe it down and would be "ok" to transport somewhere. but i wouldnt expect to get any shelf life out of it. essentially the same thing as filling a growler at that point.
 
I'm around 700€ of actual gear over the years, with about 500€ worth I still use. This is over 5 years.
I can brew 2 and a half crates worth of good beer for 20€, even the cheapest swill in the store costs 25€ per crate(24 bottles).
This means at minimum, I save 30€ per batch I brew, at 20 batches average per year over 5 years, that's 100x30€, so I can spend 2000€ before I'm losing money on this deal :cool:
 
Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of the process, plus they're easy to share, ration, and you can see when you're going to run out.

Easy to share !! And if you have even the smallest skills with a printer and the inter-webs, you can make your own labels which really up your presentation on the gifting/sharing side of bottling
 
One needs to "rationalize" better when comparing brewing to other popular hobbies. Golf at $60+ a round, twice a week adds up quickly. How about snow skiing at $100+ a lift ticket. Then there is tennis at $200/racket, $3/new balls, 3 times a week..not counting new shoes at $80/pair every 6 months. New pool table...$2500. Then of course we have scuba diving...$2500 will get you some decent gear but then the airfills at $5/fill add up...or a boat charter at $125+ now and then. Pick your poison...home brewing is right in there with the best of hobbies.

I started in order to make better beer since 22 years it was near impossible to get a good "craft style" beer delivered to Hawaii...plus I needed a new hobby as weekly golf was beyond my budget in Hawaii.

The big move in my brewing process came when I got rid of my two refrigerators I used in my garage to ferment in and built the back yard brewery, with temperature controlled chill room for fermentation and bottling/storing/aging....a mere $6000 later. Hey, it could have been 100 rounds of golf over the past 22 years.
IMG_20190320_183051.jpg
 
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I wish I could have got off that cheap. I am up to $4k.... I bought not one, but two Grainfathers ($1000 ea.) and neither boil so now I am looking at a 220/240v System..... That should be cheap, right?
 
it is sweet to brew inside, i wont tell you what i spent on my equipment but at 36 years old i have lots of years for it to "pay for itself" in money saved by brewing. i love this hobby and i wouldnt change any of the decisions ive made on equipment purchases. btw you save more money when you buy in bulk .... so your gonna need a grain mill.. :mug:

I'm twice your age, so I guess I have to drink it twice as fast. Unless I drink twice as much. But then I'd have to have at least twice as many years left to drink than you do, so maybe I have to drink four times as much, or brew 16 times more often....or..or..or.....

Oh, hell. It's time for another home brew.
 
Whenever I see one of these threads I recalculate my total cost of brewing since I started 9 years and 8 months ago.

I have about $1600 in equipment, which includes a ghetto quality, 3 vessel system at our farm (where I do most of my brewing), a ghetto quality BIAB system at our city house, a 3 tap kegerator and a dedicated ferm fridge. At an average of $25/batch (which is a little high but I’d rather estimate on the conservative side) I’ve spent about $2800 on ingredients, for a total cost of around $4400. If I had bought the equivalent amount of cheap swill, at $20/30 pack, I’d have spent about $4500. But, I don’t drink cheap swill. Craft beer which is comparable to the styles I brew costs $8-10/6 pack. At $9 average I would have spent a little over $11,000 on beer.

If you’re not saving money by homebrewing you’re doing it wrong. Either you spend too much on equipment, or you don’t drink enough to justify the equipment you have. Gear doesn’t make beer. Buy inexpensive, basic equipment, brew often enough to develop a simple, easily repeatable process, buy quality ingredients, and save money. If building a brewery is more important than brewing, well, that’s a hobby, too. The only money that will save you is by comparing your cost/pint to what that pint would cost in a brewpub. You can claim a “savings” but you won’t live long enough to pay for your brewery that way.

Either way, we’re discussing a hobby. Whether the way one chooses to participate in that hobby saves money, or doesn’t, is immaterial, as long as the hobbyist is having fun.
 
The other thing to consider is residual value of higher end brewing equipment. There is almost no "wear and tear" on stainless components that are properly used, cleaned, and maintained. Therefore, if you ever want (or need) to leave the hobby you have the resale value to gain back. If you bought most of your equipment used and at a fair price, you should be able to resell said equipment to get your initial outlay of cash back (or most of it anyway).

I look at equipment expenditures as an investment in an asset. The money I've spent on equipment would earn almost nothing for me in a savings account with today's interest rates, but it brings be great joy as a hobby to brew which brings a "non-monetary" value to my life much like pets, friends, family, dining out, vacations, etc. If I really need the cash money in American greenback dollars in the future, rather than withdrawing the money from the bank, I would be forced to sell my brewing equipment. Possibly going back to plastic buckets and bottling. It might take a little time and effort to sell everything but it would all sell in due time if priced fairly.

I also view brewing beer as one of my "survival skills" if civilized society breaks down (farther than it already has, anyway), but I'll save that rant for another post...
 
I make I'd have to go to my local bottle shop (Select Beer in Redondo Beach for example) and to get 2 cases of, lets say, 12% stout would run me a good 125 bucks.

you'd be burning a hole in your pocket. Russian River Brewing Co. cases break down to 7.25 for a single bottle. Their beer is good, but with my homebrew turning out quite nicely I will say I don't need to pay 84 bucks for a 12 bottle case of blind pig when I could make something equivalent to it or close for half that cost.

Ah... Redondo Beach. Back in my younger days (before I stopped working for a living and spending much of my life on the road) I used to waste brain cells down at the Redondo Beach Brewing Co., the Riviera for fantastic fish tacos, followed by a stop at Fatburger for a 'nightcap'. Loved trips to SoCal, but NorCal was where I gained an appreciation for craft beers like Sierra Nevada and even Anchor Steam. Did a road trip from the East Coast all the way to Russian River for a case of PtE a few years ago before the fires nearly destroyed the area. Good times.
 
I'm with you on this one. Although, I do see real value in terms of space/time in kegging, until I have my "man bar" built, I don't really have a good place for kegerator. I don't care for cleaning either, but I do get a weird sense of OCD satisfaction during the bottling process, especially while capping and stacking. Therefore . . . I bring you Beermagedon . . . Cheers!View attachment 707102

Man, you got it backwards. Guns go on the shelf. Beer goes in the safe!
 
You can claim a “savings” but you won’t live long enough to pay for your brewery that way.


i eat cheap too. maybe i should start a thread, is eating beans, and rice cheaper then eating meat? ;)

(and here's what a $1.49 bag of your split peas looks like on my end!)
yummypeas.jpg



now if i wanted it good, and fast, expensive, i could use my All-American pressure cooker, and cook them with ham shanks, a lot of cheddar.

but honestly i want it cheap and fast, so i'll run them through my wonder mill to make flour. throw 3oz's of the flour in a pot with some chicken broth and add some homemade curry powder. healthier, cheaper, and faster. but the mill was $200 that i bought 10 years ago.

DIY, or DITWYW
 
Funny. Good posts as well. Buying cool, useful and expensive equipment is definitely a thing. I wouldn't try and use "price" as the main factor for something you enjoy doing. It's not the avenue I chose to pursue but it looks fun.

I've been satisfied buying a couple 7.9 gallon buckets to supplement the equipment I was given plus a few odds and ends. Just bottling for me. I don't mind it and once you have a system down, not a problem.
Two four-packs cost $30. I can make a batch for $35. I'm drinking the next 40 beers for free.
 
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