Poll: What is your investment in homebrewing?

[Jaybird]

GIGGLE...OK OK OK A TOTAL LOL was in order! I couldn't answer the poll

It all started with a basic home brew kit, a borrowed kettle and a membership on HBT!!!

 

[meich75]

I got most of my stuff for free. Several glass and several plastic carboys for free when my work was cleaning out storage space. Mash tun from a cooler someone was throwing out because the outer shell had a crack. Brew kettle for free because my mom bought a turkey fryer on clearance then realized she was afraid to use it. Honestly my most expensive piece of equipment is a $20 bottle capper.

 

[shizzy77]

Rule # 1 of hobbies is to NEVER add up receipts.

 

[Mojzis]

$460.17 according to my spreadsheet. Most expensive piece is my freezer which I paid $125 for. Only use/need 2 carboy's. Kettles were free so that helps. I can't see going much over 500. Maybe when I have a permanent place.

 

[BarnyardFunk]

I wanna see the setup for the person who answered <$100,000

 

[Red_Scooter]

I have tried to go cheap. I would say that i have spent around $150 on equipment out of my pocket. Got a few things as gifts that i am not including. I have a pretty good BIAB setup. I still need to make a wort chiller. The ice bath takes too much time trying to cool 5gal batches. But, I have more time than money.

 

[iaefebs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bysmW4juI8&feature=player_detailpage

GIGGLE...OK OK OK A TOTAL LOL was in order! I couldn't answer the poll

It all started with a basic home brew kit, a borrowed kettle and a membership on HBT!!!

Need another choice? >$100,000 ?

 

[twalte]

Rule # 1 of hobbies is to NEVER add up receipts.

Hah...too true. I was following that rule until this thread started. My wife has been REALLY REALLY cool about this one (she has hounded me for years to find a hobby), so she has yet to ask me to account for my spending. However....the number was much bigger than I expected.

The good news is that I am almost done. I have come to the conclusion that I must have a way to cold crash these primaries if I am ever going to have clear beer. After that...nothing but ingredients and good times.

 

[corkybstewart]

As for the question the OP asked about expensive stuff making better beer there's no correlation at all. My conical is my most expensive piece of equipment, but the beers fermented in it are no better than the beers I still ferment in my 20 year old $7 buckets. I spent about $225 to build a temp controlled fermentation chamber for my conical(or my buckets), that investment improved the quality of my beer tenfold.

 

[Denny]

I have no idea and I don't care...it's a hobby.

 

[J-Pizzel]

Although I did get into this to save money and carry on the family tradition, the money saving dream was the first thing to get thrown straight out the window. Most expensive investment would probably be all the innards to my keezer at 350ish. Easily my favorite toy though! It was a gamble with SWMBO, but she loves it too!

 

[VladOfTrub]

IMO, buying brewing equipment or upgrading brewing equipment is kind of like riding a bike. We probably all started with a tricycle, smashing into walls. Then came the 20 inch 2 wheeler with training wheels, still smashing into things, until getting use to the brakes. Then, later. Off came the training wheels, but still smashing into things. Later on came the 26 inch 3 speed. Then, the ten speed or the mountain bike. All the bikes had tires and peddles. They all went down the hill, consistently. The difference being, some of them made it easier and faster. When coming back up the hill.

 

[Runyanka]

The majority of my money was spent on equipment:
Top Tier stand
3 blichmann kettles
therminator
pump
hop blocker
auto-sparge
misc QD's, tubing, spoons, mash paddle
grain mill
hop rocket (newest addition)

All of the above I consider sound purchases, simply because they will last a long time.

Luckily I was given two working fridges for free, so one is a fermentation chamber with temp control. The other is a 3 tap keggerator. I would consider these pieces of equipment a luxury, simply because I wasn't looking to keg, the fridges just kind of fell in my lap.

I will never add up what I have spend this far, nor post it, that is a paper trail I don't want floating around.

 

[shizzy77]

Although I did get into this to save money and carry on the family tradition, the money saving dream was the first thing to get thrown straight out the window.

Not necessarily. Even though I've spent some coin here or there, even brewing extract, I can brew 5 gallons of quality beer for the same price or even less than some low quality BMC beer.

2 cases of PBR runs about $40

all the ingredients to make a 5 gallon extract batch are $30-$60ish dollars.

 

[TheLastDamnBatch]

It would be interesting to know the equipment each level of spending bought.

I'm guilty of investing several thousand dollars over the years; it was well worth the investment. Of course that doesn't include ingredients.

As an aside another interesting poll would be one examining the amount of time invested in homebrewing!

 

[DrakeSuperbus]

My mom bought me a basic kit for my birthday. Aside from ingredients, the only equipment I have bought has been a bayou burner, a larger kettle, some bottles, a second fermentation bucket with an airlock, a wort chiller and two hoses, a small growler for starters/yeast washing, and other sundries.

I'm in for less than 500 bucks.

 

[dpatrickv]

Between me and my buddy we have spent under 500. Our kettle, worth chiller and burner were all second hand from another buddy of ours, then our mash tun was dirt cheap as we found a deal on CL for coolers and another buddy gave us the rest of the parts. Then all of the other misc things(buckets, autosiphon, etc).

We are very simple brewers and don't find it necessary to have all the bells and whistles. We also make pretty damn tasty beer IMO.

 

[carbonzx]

Deluxe brewing starter 180
Two brewpots bc i lost the first one 120
extra carboy 35
some growlers 25
Custom fermentation setup 40
odds.and ends 30
thats about $430

 

[Bamsdealer]

Im probably around the 2k mark si ce I started less than a year ago.

The bulk of that went into a
5 tap kegging system
Chest freezer
Mlt
Chiller
Pot
Burner
Extra kegs

 

[norsk]

Spent way to much in the beginning and have since gone back to the basics. The beer tastes just as good from my Ice Chest Mash Tun as it did from my B3 setup. Have plenty of money and time, just other priorities to spend it on....

 

[Echoloc8]

Been doing this for 10 years now, but with a few hiatuses until last year when I found a brew buddy. I'm going to count gifts.

Let's see how accurate my <$2000 estimate was:

Kegerator: $545
- 2 cornies (130)
- CO2 tank and regulator (110)
- fridge (120)
- tower (120)
- temp controller (65)

Pots: $140
- 10G Al brew pot: (40)
- 5G SS pot: (60)
- 4G SS pot: (40)

Fermenters: $292
- 2x6G better bottles: (60)
- 2x5G better bottles (50)
- 3x7G buckets (45)
- 1x5G carboy (30)
- 3x3G carboy (75)
- 2x1G carboy (32)

5G MLT: $85
Mash paddle, autosiphon, wine whip, tubing, etc.: $15
Airlocks (8ish): $16
Refractometer: $35
Stir plate: $40
Erlenmeyer flask: $20
50' Immersion chiller: $70
2x Nice (metal-handle) growlers $50

$1308, very roughly. Not bad for a decade in the hobby. I didn't get everything for the best price, either. Didn't bother counting bottles.

-Rich

 

[ShootsNRoots]

Probably spent close to 2k over the coarse of many years. No fancy electric setup, just an igloo cooler, etc... got a 7 cu. ft. freezer from lowes for ~160, which was probably my biggest one time investment. Meh, it's a hobby and like any hobby it costs money, as long as you enjoy it and can share it with others, the amount spent is irrelevant.

 

[DarknMalty]

I don't think I'm really into my equipment for much money at this point, I'm guessing <$1000. Most everything I got for free, as gifts, or made myself. I'm also all about buying stuff on sale, even if I don't "need" it.

Things I've bought:
5 gal glass carboy $30
6 gal better bottle $25
2 cornys $75
10 lb co2 cylinder $50 (filled!)
Dual output Regulator $35
Auto siphon $10
Random hoses and hardware $100
Propane burner $25
2L Erlenmeyer $15

Only $335 total


Free parts and home built/things I've "inherited":
Keggle
Immersion chiller
Igloo MLT
Kegerator with 2 taps
5 gal kettle
Refractometer
Stir plate

Gifts:
6 gal better bottle
Capper
Wine thief
7 gal bucket
Other small stuff like spoons and the like

 

[Face Eater]

Well I just spent around 3 grand on my new kettles and conical so I would guess I'm somewhere in the 6,000 plus range. My kegerator build was somewhere around 1400. All the other odds and ends....

 

[plumber_bob]

I'm running around $2500 so far. Not counting my, "F150", beer sculpture.
Bought alot of mistakes. Prolly $500 worth.

One thing I've found, I'm always almost done buying stuff to make my system better.

pb