possible recipe?

[daum]

Alright in efforts to stop hijacking the other thread going to start my own. I am trying to bring down the cost of my brewing to sub 20 per batch. Currently here is one of my ideas for a recipe, 3lbs DME, 1 pound corn sugar, 1.5 oz hops(cascade perhaps), then maybe some sort of fruit to add a flavor or other spice.

I have been told that grain brews are much cheaper but you need special equipment. In the other thread was told that I might be able to do grains with my hot plate and 16 quart pot. What do you think?

As always, any other thoughts would be and are appreciated.
Daum

 

[FlyingHorse]

Yes, this is the beginnings of a possible recipe. Depends on your tastes, I guess.

You're looking at a pretty low OG (around 1.033). Throw your hops in for 60 minutes, and you'll have a semblance of an ordinary bitter (though you might want to use somthing other than cascade...EKG, maybe?...again, depends on your taste). Or save 1/4 oz or so for flameout, if you want a little hop aroma.

 

[Yooper]

Unless you're doing 2.5 gallon all-grain batches, no way to do AG in a hot plate and 16 quart pot. I have a 30 quart pot and it's barely big enough.

For beer, you need to have enough fermentables. If you have 3 pounds of DME and 1 pound of sugar, that gives you an og of 1.035, or at best an ABV of 3.4%. If you get 3 pounds of DME for $12 or so, you'll not be able to stay under $20 per batch unless you buy DME in bulk. Liquid malt extract (LME) is $2.49 a pound or so, if you don't buy in bulk. Add 2 pound LME to your 3 pounds DME (and absolutely ditch the sugar!!!!) and you'll have an og of 1.041, or about 4% ABV.
Add some hops and dry yeast (Cascade is $1.19 an ounce, so figure $1.75 for hops and $.99 for dry yeast) for a total of= $12 + 5 + 1.75 + .99 = $20 (more or less). I'd recommend buying a pound or two of grains to steep, to add flavor and interest to your beer. Buy a pound of corn sugar, to use in priming your beer and that will be good for 4 batches. Same with caps- buy a bunch as they're cheaper that way.

If you can buy in bulk, it'll be cheaper. Leftover hops can be stored in the freezer and DME can be stored in an airtight container. If you pitch the next batch right on the yeast cake, you don't need another package of yeast.

I personally don't like fruit beers or "flavored" beers, so I can't give you advice on that. And I would never use corn sugar in my beer, unless I was making a big barleywine or something and needed to boost the ABV and dry it out.

 

[daum]

I assume that a little hot plate or even an indoor stove won't be enoguh for doing these large pots if I were to buy one? Would prefer to stay with electric appliances.

I would prefer to try to break into the all grain brewing as it seems a bit more interesting to me, gives me more control, and also is cheaper.

Daum

 

[FlyingHorse]

An electric stove won't cut it for full, AG boils. It may eventualy boil, but will take forever and there's some risk of damaging the stove.

You *could* conceivably do partial boil AG batches, but your efficiency would be so low (hard to extract a lot of sugars when you run only 2-3 gallons through the grain) that it won't be any cheaper than extract. Or much fun.

The $40-$50 turkey fryer setup at WalMart / Home Depot / Lowe's and a $30-60 cooler conversion is probably your minimum investment for AG.

 

[Yooper]

I'm one of the few people around here who can get 6.5 gallons to a rolling boil inside on my stove. I have a very nice gas stove with one high BTU burner.

Before I had the 30 quart pot, I split my boils. What I mean is, I had two 5 gallon pots. I would drain off half of the first runnings in one pot, then the other. Then drain off the sparge the same way- 1/2 in each pot. I did this so the s.g. would be about equal for the hops utilization. Then added 1/2 the hops into each pot at each addition. There were some advantages to this- I could easily cool the two pots in my two kitchen sinks without a wort chiller. Also, it was light enough for me to easily handle. It also comes to a boil relatively quickly (two pots with about 3.5 gallons in it to start). Cooled them, then strained them into my fermentor. The only disadvantage- I had greater evaporation than I accounted for at first and ended up having to top up with water so I lost some efficiency.

You can do like bike said and get a cheap turkey fryer and a propane tank and do it outside if you have a place, too.

 

[brewt00l]

I think you have to ask yourself where your balance point between cheap batches and brewing really good beer lays. If cheap is the primary factor, finding a good inexpensive case of beer at your local might be your best bet.