Newbie questions about home brewing

[YoDadio]

I’ve always wanted a kegerator at home and recently stumbled across this forum. In reviewing the numbers, it doesn’t make much sense to get a kegerator solely for commercial beer for the typical home user. Per my review of the cost of bottles vs kegs at bevmo.com, I would have to buy half kegs to save money, even then the savings was sometimes nominal.

I am intrigued by the idea of brewing my own beer, but must admit that a) I am intimidated by it and, b) I have never really been a big fan of the exotic, chewy, and/or high abv home brew beers I have been exposed to. However this forum opened my eyes to home brewing clone beers and youtube videos make the process look fairly painless.

Having said all of that, I have a few questions;

1. Obviously the sky is the limit, but how much are you paying for your “average” 5 gallon batch (excluding your labor of love) once you have all of the equipment?

2. I can already tell that bottling is a PITA, so I would most likely jump into kegging the second I was certain I enjoyed home brewing. For those of you that keg your beer, did you find yourself drinking more? I can see it going either way, cans/bottles are convenient for doing honey-dos around the house (better at keeping dirt/dust/buts out of) and are easily put into an ice chest for chilling on the patio, whereas a keg is well a keg…

3. How long does it take to actually set up, brew, and clean up a 5 gallon batch of beer (excluding fermintation or other waiting it out processes)?

4. How long does the "typical" home brew take to go from water to drinkable beer? What is a "short" time period?

Well I guess that does it for me, for now... Thanks in advance

 

[leolee86]

I have about 30ish dollars in a standard brew..I love my keg for the ease but I do bottle beers from time to time just for ageing..my average brew day takes 6ish hours including clean up..and average turn around on my basic ale, 2 to 4 weeks on the keg

 

[evrose]

I'm very new at this myself, but I've done a ton of research and can take a stab at answering some of your questions.

1. Extract kits can be bought online for about $20-$50 each. That's enough to do a 5 gallon batch, or about 48-52 12oz beers. So about $0.50 to $1.00 per beer. All grain brewers can get those costs even lower. Reusing yeast can save money as well. Remember, that's just for the consumable materials (malt, hops, yeast), hardware is more.

1a. Go to Northernbrewer.com and look at their extract kits. They have a great webpage that lists just about every major style. They also list prices for 5 gallon batches and approximate time it takes to brew. Bear in mind that those times are based on bottling, not kegging, so your times will be shorter.

2. I don't keg, no idea.

3. About 3 hours with an extract kit. I bought my first one from Northern Brewer. It came with everything I needed, a set of very well written instructions. If you can make mac and cheese, you can make beer. It's that easy. I started my brew at about 9am and was done and cleaned up with the beer pitched and in the fermenter by noon. All grain brews take a bit longer since there are more steps involved.

4. You will get a million answers to this. It varies greatly depending on the specific type of beer. Some can be ready to keg in 2 weeks, others are best aging for 2 months (or more). If you called a month from brewing to kegging an average, you wouldn't be wrong in most cases - plus or minus a bit. (let the debate begin again!)

 

[SmoothSmoke]

1. About 30 bucks
2. Don't keg. You have to drink your beer out of a glass anyway because of the sediment that lays on the bottom of the bottle.
3. About 3 hours.
4. I'm shooting for 4-5 weeks on my first batch. 2.5 weeks in the primary and another 2-3 bottled.

 

[Golddiggie]

Since I'm all grain it only costs me about $18-$25 to get 6 gallons of brew into kegs. That's for my 'normal' 6-7% abv batches and using fresh liquid yeast.

For time, depending on the mash and boil schedule it can take anywhere from 5 hours on up to brew a batch all grain.

You can brew clones if you like as well as select from a wide range of brews others have made that are available in the recipe section. I recently made a MO SMaSH batch that came in at 5.7% and finished at 1.011 SG. Very easy drinking brew. One of the 3 gallon kega kicked last night. The second is almost ready and the third is still in reserve.

Fot time from boil to glass, I primary (I don't secondary) for 3-8 weeks depending on the batch. Then its two weeks in the fridge at serving temperature and pressure to carbonate before pulling pints.

 

[WVBeerBaron]

Me: brewing 3+ years, first year was extract recipes, last couple of years have been all-grain recipes and some extract recipes here and there. I keg almost everything because i hate bottling. I'm a cheap SOB.

1: I like big beers so I typically spend $40-$50 per batch. If you just wanted to make simple, good beer, and you get some experience brewing all-grain beers and reusing your yeast you can brew for $15 per batch.

2: I keg and love it. There is just something awesome about pouring a draft beer and double so if you made it yourself. I had a kegerator for commercial beer before i started brewing just because i love draft beer.

3: typically 3 hours for extract recipes and around 5-6 hours for all-grain recipes. cider, mead and wine take a lot less time if your not heating anything. the time delays are waiting for water to heat up, soaking grain, and boiling for 1 hour or more.

4: a lot of brewers follow the 1-2-3 method of brewing. 1 week in primary fermentation, 2 weeks in secondary fermentation and 3 weeks in the bottle before its ready to drink. big beers take longer. on the other side i have brewed beer ready to drink in 1 week but its not recommended (at all).

hope this helps!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

1) $10-30 ish dollars depending. Buying your ingredients in bulk saves money. My avg ~5 gal is around $20.
2) I drink less beer now that I've been brewing for a couple years. Sure, when I have a great brew kegged, I may drink it faster than if it were in bottles, but no, homebrew doesn't make me drink more.
3) Extract batches, 2 or so hours. AG, depends, anywhere from 4-6 hours.
4) Typical, with a keg, a few weeks. Fast, I've gone grain to glass in ~2 weeks with a keg, some have gone quicker. It depends on the style of beer you're doing.

 

[ludomonster]

I do partial mashes for $30 - $40 a batch. this includes priming and yeast. I've gotten some recipes to go below $30. You should include shipping in your cost estimates. Sometimes your LHBS will carry things that are competitive if you factor in shipping. I'm lucky enough to have two shops near me. I can usually get things for better than what NB can get me except for yeast. Also, if you're bottling factor in caps.

I would prefer to keg, but I'm having a hard time convincing my wife.

Once you taste how a beer changes over the course of a few weeks after conditioning, you'll have more willpower to let some of your beers age. 5 - 6 weeks after bottling is about when many beers get to be really good.

 

[stratslinger]

A couple other answers to questions implied, but not asked: First off, lots of folks do have kegerators at home for commercial beers not necessarily for cost savings, but because draft beer often really does taste diferent than the same beer in a bottle or can. So there's that.

Also, by excluding equipment costs, you're excluding a LOT of costs. Before you get into this hobby, make sure you understand that. It's perfectly possible to start brewing extract beers, doing partial boils on your stovetop (don't worry, if you get into this, you'll learn exactly what that means!), which really only requires a minimal equipment outlay, and stay there forever. You can make quite good beer that way. But you're going to get that Northern Brewer magazine in the mail every few weeks, with all the shiny, new gear that looks so damn cool. You're already on HBT, so you're going to see threads here with tons of ideas from other people that will give you ideas. You will be sorely tempted to constantly invest in more new equipment at every turn. Chances are, you will never really be done buying equipment, once you get started. Make sure you understand this!

OK, now that that's done:
1) Excluding equipment costs, folks have covered the costs pretty well. You can find all kinds of ways to save a little here and there - use dry yeast instead of liquid to shave off a few bucks, learn to wash yeast so you can re-use it, there's a few more. If you eventually go to all grain (a bit more equipment investment), then there's some more savings. I think my typical extract batch averaged around $40, while my typical all grain is closer to $30, and will get cheaper once I get a mill and start buying bulk grains.

2) Yes, at first - but I'd imagine the same would have held if I had a few cases of bottles around. Someone touched on it earlier, but one thing to be aware of with bottled homebrew: you typically don't want to drink out of the bottle! There's a layer of yeast in the bottom of the bottle that you want to pour the yeast off of - especially while you're getting your body used to drinking homebrew. If you drink down all that yeast, your digestive system will be less than pleased!

3) Extract batches, where you'll likely start off, are right around the 3 hour mark. All grain, if you choose to start there, or eventually wind up there, are closer to the 5 hour mark, though when things are really cranking I've hit close to 4:30 on an all grain day.

4) Generally speaking, fermentation can be done inside 2-4 weeks, depending on the style. If you keg, depending on how you choose to carbonate, you can then have the beer ready to serve in as soon as 2 or 3 days out to as long as 2 weeks (many of us, myself included, for simplicity's sake, use a "set and forget" carbonation method that takes 2 weeks time). If you bottle, they take about 3 weeks in the bottle to carbonate after fermentation, then a few days in the fridge to be ready to drink.

 

[oze152]

I agree with evrose on pretty much all points. I can get supplies for a 5 gallon extract brew for between $20-45. And it takes me about 3 hours from start to finish on brew day. The first couple days may be a little longer until you get a routine down, but it is much easier than it looks or sounds.

I have not kegged yet but I am definitely looking into that method because bottling is a pain. And bottling takes longer to carbonate your beer than kegging. (Bottling takes between 2 and 6 weeks sometimes for a beer to full carbonate depending on the style, whereas kegging I have heard can have your beer carbonated and ready in a couple days) AND if you want to bottle some beer, I have read where many who keg bottle straight from the keg with already carbonated beer, which makes that process a little quicker/easier.

I have had batches of beer that were ready to drink in about 3.5-4 weeks with bottling, but that is the minimum time, and most people will tell you that it takes longer, usually about 6 weeks.

You will get a number of different opinions from people on here, all with very valid points. The key is to find what works for YOU, and just go with that.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your endeavor!

 

[opiate82]

Double, sorry

 

[opiate82]

Years ago my roommates and I set up a kegarator to buy kegs. It was 40%-50% cheaper per beer to buy via the keg at the time (excluding foam). We found that the amount of money we were spending on beer per month came out exactly the same, but we were drinking 40%-50% more. Maybe a good thing, maybe a bad thing, depends on your feelings on it.

That was back in my college days however, with homebrewing it is tough for me to tell if my kegarator leads to more consumption or not since I skipped bottling (did not want to deal with all those bottles).

If cost savings is all you are concerned with and you exclude the cost of building your kegarator (since it sounds like you planned on building one anyways) you can get an equipment set-up that lets you brew great beers for as little as $100-$150. Doesn't take to many batches to recoup that cost. But be warned, a majority of the homebrewers here will tell you they do not save any money by brewing their own beer. Like any hobby, the more you get into it the more you end up spending on it.

I will also tell you, don't be intimidated. You will see a lot of brewing-related terms being thrown around here on these forums but extract brewing (which is what you start out doing) is literally as simple as following a recipe.

 

[HawksBrewer]

Double post, sorry.

 

[HawksBrewer]

Raise your hand if you got into homebrewing thinking you could save money. Hands down please.

Now, raise your hand if you have spent 300% more on beer related goodies and gadgets than you would have spent on commercial beer. Hands down please.

We all get into homebrewing for various reasons and money is usually on that list (not necessarily first, though). As opiate stated, it is a hobby that WHEN it takes off (not iF) you will be spending more than you imagined and it will all be justified. OOH SHINY OBJECT, MUST BUY FOR BEER.

All this being said, I have brewed 5 gallon batches of beer for under $10, but that includes bulk grain, homegrown hops and washed yeast. A typical 5 gallon batch w/ fresh yeast will run you around $20, which is approximately $0.42/beer. Extract costs will be much higher.

So what are you waiting for? I think I saw an MLT setup on CL...

 

[ak-71]

I may have spent a bit more my own beer and equipment (only 4 batches AG and some kits), but it is better than what I had to buy before or cheaper than if I had to buy same kind of beer as I am making (and I am not making anything exotic). But I am in Canada now..... it will eventually be much cheaper (at least it's the story I pitch to my wife).

 

[YoDadio]

Wow, thanks for all of the (quick) input folks.

Looks like home brewing is pretty much relagated to being a labor of love and/or for the true aficiando that wants exceptional variety/quality and is willing to pay for it (in both time and money). Based on the responses above, home brew generally costs roughly a buck a beer, excluding gear and labor.

I have to say that I am surprised commercial beers don't have a significantly larger mark up on bottles (small unit sales vs bulk). A quick review of Bevmo.com lists a half keg (the only option that is actually cheaper than buying bottles) of Sam Adams and Bud Light at $1.06 and $0.72 per 12 oz serving respectively...

A (large) keezer is nothing short of awesome for the home brewer, but pretty much any sort of kegerator is limited to simply being a (really cool) toy, once you factor in the expense of time and labor. But then again, what hobby actually pays for itself? I really need to stop flip-flopping on this

 

[Golddiggie]

Actually, it costs me about $0.50 per pint for my normal OG brews (around 6.5% ABV) with lower ABV/OG brews being less... That's brewing all grain mind you, using new yeast each time. IF I washed/harvested my yeast (might do that again in the future) then my per batch cost will be lower, as will my per pint cost. I'm not counting any hardware costs here, just ingredients.

 

[SmoothSmoke]

I got into brewing for fun. Not to save money but at the same time not to spend a whole lot doing it. I like doing new things and the challenges that come with it. Keeps me busy. Plus I like drinking.

 

[Rexorotten]

Once you figure in your time, you're not saving any money. However, it's an awesome feeling knowing you can make drinkable, even great beer. Really, it turns into a passion, and that's pretty much it. The quest to make the perfect batch of beer. It hasn't happened to me yet, but I can make some really good beer, and I"ve only been brewing for a short time. It's like being a kid on Christmas Morning when your ingredients show up at your door and you are going to brew the next day. Also, homebrewing has made me appreciate many different styles of beer. I used to only drink BMC beers. I still do, but I look forward to buying a mix and match 6 pack of beer and trying each of them. Best of luck to you should you try your hand at homebrewing. I will warn you that it is addictive.

 

[dford]

1. I buy in bulk and mill my own so my cost depending on style usually fall's in the $18 to $35 range.
2. I keg 75% of the time but it seems that I tend to drink more out of the bottles for some reason.
3. My brewday for a 10 gallon all-grain batch usually takes @ 5 hours.
4. My average brew to drink time is 5-6 weeks.

 

[emjay]

Once you have all your equipment? Ha! That's a good one.

You never have "all of your equipment". There's always something else you've gotta have, if homebrewing is a passion.

If you're passionate about it and you truly have all the equipment you're going to need/want, then you've already spent so much money that you'll never break even. And if it's not a passion, it takes up so much of your time that it's not ever going to be worth it, even if you get the equipment and ingredients for free.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

Brew a few one gallon batches to see if you're into making beer. If you find that you want to brew, you may want something other than a smallish kegerator with a single faucet. I've got two kegs but didn't have the foresight to get a two faucet tower on mine, so that was a mistake that's going to cost some money to remedy. I kind of wish I'd made a 3 or 4 tap keezer, instead. Also, the beer and gas connections that came with my kegerator are for Sanke kegs, not the Cornelius kegs that most of us homebrewers use. Not expensive, but still necessary to buy.

I do 5 gallon batches of extract and steeping grains that cost about $25 from my local homebrew store. I plan to try some 2.5 gallon brews of different all grain styles, because I don't have the equipment for full 5 gallon.

I drink about the same amount of beer, and maybe a bit less, since a keg lets you pour a smaller glass if that's what you want. Sometimes I do get a bit carried away though, because I never really run out of beer!

Most of us brew as a hobby rather than a money-saving effort, so the equipment costs tend to add up.