I looked through a few old threads on this important topic, but have a couple of questions for the forum dwellers.
I've been brewing mainly from the Cooper's kits up until now and I want to phase into some grain/extract combination.
I can get one of those kits for about $16, prehopped and with a little packet of yeast. They're about 3.3 lbs of extract, I think. The directions call for you to add 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of sugar to most of them, so the total all-in cost for this is about 20 bucks give or take, and I will end up with 6 gallons of sugary beer.
I just bought and brewed my first half-batches from Dry Malt Extract (DME). It cost me about $12 each for 3 lb bags of amber extract, a few dollars for some hops and yeast, the total was about 30 clams, and I will get about 6 gallons of hopefully excellent beer.
When I transition to grain, most of the formulations in Palmer's book call for 7-8 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch, so for my 6 gallon batches will be about 9 lbs, bulk pale barley around here is selling for about $1.75 per pound, so we're looking at about $16 for the grain, another $3-5 for the hops, and a couple bucks for the yeast, so $20-$25 bucks for an all grain batch, if I ever get to that level of sophistication. I also think that you can get grain by the 55 lb bag for around $1 per pound, which would actually reduce my batch cost to about $17, once I got the yeast and hops. Dunno about the beer quality, but I am optimistic that I will figure it out. But, that's about what I am paying for the kits.
So my questions are:
In #2 above what will happen if I try to reduce my cost by cutting back on the amount of DME and adding sugar, like the Coopers kits? Yeah, it will undoubtedly make the beer crappier.... or will it?
Am I about right on my calculation in #3? Seems like this is the thriftiest way to do the brew.
What happens if I add less grain and more sugar to #3? I know, I will probably end up with something tasteless that will give me a headache, like Budweiser.
Help guide me, forum dwellers.
I've been brewing mainly from the Cooper's kits up until now and I want to phase into some grain/extract combination.
I can get one of those kits for about $16, prehopped and with a little packet of yeast. They're about 3.3 lbs of extract, I think. The directions call for you to add 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of sugar to most of them, so the total all-in cost for this is about 20 bucks give or take, and I will end up with 6 gallons of sugary beer.
I just bought and brewed my first half-batches from Dry Malt Extract (DME). It cost me about $12 each for 3 lb bags of amber extract, a few dollars for some hops and yeast, the total was about 30 clams, and I will get about 6 gallons of hopefully excellent beer.
When I transition to grain, most of the formulations in Palmer's book call for 7-8 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch, so for my 6 gallon batches will be about 9 lbs, bulk pale barley around here is selling for about $1.75 per pound, so we're looking at about $16 for the grain, another $3-5 for the hops, and a couple bucks for the yeast, so $20-$25 bucks for an all grain batch, if I ever get to that level of sophistication. I also think that you can get grain by the 55 lb bag for around $1 per pound, which would actually reduce my batch cost to about $17, once I got the yeast and hops. Dunno about the beer quality, but I am optimistic that I will figure it out. But, that's about what I am paying for the kits.
So my questions are:
In #2 above what will happen if I try to reduce my cost by cutting back on the amount of DME and adding sugar, like the Coopers kits? Yeah, it will undoubtedly make the beer crappier.... or will it?
Am I about right on my calculation in #3? Seems like this is the thriftiest way to do the brew.
What happens if I add less grain and more sugar to #3? I know, I will probably end up with something tasteless that will give me a headache, like Budweiser.
Help guide me, forum dwellers.
