Pound of Flesh

[3 Dawg Night]

I'm only getting ready to brew my fourth batch of beer. I made the mistake of adding up receipts thus far. Oh my. I'm not even counting ingredients/consumables: just equipment. Oh...my...

 

[Dland]

I guess it depends, my annual bill at the beer store cost more than complete set up, new keg freezer/fridge, and a year's ingredients.

Your results may vary, but I went from buying and drinking a lot of expensive beer to brewing 100% of my own. Now that fixed costs are well covered, I'm saving between $2 and $3 grand a year. Of course I'm not counting cost of my time, but that's a different story.

 

[Skram]

I'm getting ready to start buying grain in bulk and I have 3 hop bines growing right now. After initial investment in equipment, the 3 gallon batches I brew are going to be around $10 or so using nice ingredients - around $2 for a 6 pack of beer.

 

[Velnerj]

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I'm not really in it for the cost savings (although that would be nice in the long run). I don't regret anything; I just hadn't added it all up until now.

That fermentation fridge is going to set me back another couple of hundred bucks when I go after that in a couple of months. (It'll totally be worth it.)

 

[Immocles]

It can definite add up in a hurry. I try to keep my ingredient purchases to once a quarter. I reuse most yeasts, and just recently started buying base grains in bulk. I'm cheap and I have a hereditary knack for 'making things work' without being especially handy at anything. My fermentation fridge is a giant rubbermaid container, 8-10 half gallon ice bottles, and a towel that I found when I passed out in a train station in Munich. It drives my wife nuts that I will cobble together something that just barely works instead of buying a specific item that completely solves the problem. And thats probably why she's invested more into my equipment than I have, now that I think about it. She bought the starter kit, and my mash & boil unit.

I'm getting ready to start buying grain in bulk and I have 3 hop bines growing right now. After initial investment in equipment, the 3 gallon batches I brew are going to be around $10 or so using nice ingredients - around $2 for a 6 pack of beer.

Thats awesome!
I'm tempted to give growing hops a try. We don't have the space here, but if we found ourselves with another property (my wife is always looking for an art studio/home office thats NOT in the house), I might have to pull the trigger. I really, really debated planting a rhizome this year for the trellis thats leaned on our garage, but I have to get that section of the garden/jungle under control before I plant anything.

 

[camonick]

 

[bkboiler]

tough adage to learn as it hurts up front...buy once cry once...
really though when you think about it...you can get ingredients that are sometimes much better than what commercial breweries use because you really care about the quality, not profit...
and even then, if you spent $10 on yeast, $3 /lb on grains and $3 /oz on hops, you're usually less than $2 /pint...
once you get your beer to be realllly shelf stable, you can save a lot as @Dland mentioned...

 

[Bilsch]

I'm getting ready to start buying grain in bulk and I have 3 hop bines growing right now. After initial investment in equipment, the 3 gallon batches I brew are going to be around $10 or so using nice ingredients - around $2 for a 6 pack of beer.

I've been growing hops for years now and get about 3 pounds from the Hallertau bines in my yard. Through the season I put in about 40 hours of labor training, pruning, weeding and picking. Hops cost what now.. $15/lb? So you can do the math on what my labor is worth. Oh and thats not including the cost of fertilizer.

 

[srussell999]

I'm only getting ready to brew my fourth batch of beer. I made the mistake of adding up receipts thus far. Oh my. I'm not even counting ingredients/consumables: just equipment. Oh...my...

It's important to look at the various aspects of homebrewing differently. Equipment counts as a capital expenditure and is amortized over the use of the equipment. If you spend $3,000 on a brewing system (easy to do) and you brew one batch of beer, that's very expensive beer. However if you brew 25 batches a year and use the equipment for four years, then that only adds $30 to each batch. Grain, hops, water and yeast are batch specific and are added to the cost of that batch. I make 10 gallon batches and using the math here, my batches cost about $10 a gallon or roughly $1.25 a pint. Find good beer for that price at your local pub.

However, because it's a hobby I love and want to continue for years to come, I don't pay attention to the capital costs except when I make a purchase and don't worry whether I'm saving money. Last evening I had a wonderful saison and a Belgian style dubbel. Those beer can't be found anywhere except in my keezer.

 

[BrewMan13]

I'm not at all concerned with costs, but if I were to parse it out - accounting for everything - I bet I still save money. But like the previous poster said, it's a hobby I enjoy, so that's not a factor. It sure beats collecting things just to look at them (though I do some of this also).

 

[Stand]

http://www.supercenternation.com/beercalc/
This calculator is fun to play with.

Homebrewing is on average a fairly cheap hobby, and I could probably change the way I make beer to save a lot of money.

I won't though!

 

[3 Dawg Night]

http://www.supercenternation.com/beercalc/
This calculator is fun to play with.

I'm on Batch #3. I'm looking at breaking even on Batch #32. That assumes that I don't buy any more equipment. I still want a fermentation fridge and a grain mill. Adding those in, I'll break even on Batch #50.

Still totally worth it. I'm also a private pilot, and I'll never come close to breaking even on that hobby.

 

[Snuffy]

I find it more satisfying to compare the cost of a pint of beer you brew to the cost of that pint at a brewpub. I can brew 40 pints of beer of similar quality for less than one bar tab with 4 or 5 beers on it at those places. Granted, I'm not brewing mole' porters aged on chili peppers in oak Herradura casks, but I'm brewing some damn good fresh beer for cheap. If I considered paying myself 10 bucks an hour to prep, brew, clean-up and bottle - then it gets less cost effective. Way less. But hey - it's safer than driving home afterward. Usually.

 

[Horseflesh]

Beyond the initial sting I don’t much care about gear costs. I buy what I want to use (within reason) because it’s fun. But I find myself always looking for a way to reduce the cost of a batch.

 

[Stand]

Beyond the initial sting I don’t much care about gear costs. I buy what I want to use (within reason) because it’s fun. But I find myself always looking for a way to reduce the cost of a batch.

Couldn't agree more! Reducing the cost is part of the fun. Even though I will blow what I saved and more on Brewery Bling.

Yesterday SWMBO told me if I didn't make beer I would be impossible to buy for, so without beer I would probably just have more pairs of shoes. Price that in? Bah.

Most people who are going to stick with this long term (I am on year 12) do it for a host of reasons.

Hooray beer!

 

[deuc224]

Im a over 5K into this hobby, dont really care about the cost, just about brewing a beer i Want to have on tap whenever I want, thats it. I have gotten myself into thingsI dont need like a cereal killer grain mill instead of a crankandstein mill, but ill offload that for 50 bucks to someone whi is getting started and could get the most out of that mill. The one thing I value more than gear is convenience, which to me is the most important part in all this.

 

[Transamguy77]

I was like you, I didn’t add up anything until I made a few batches, I was keeping track until I lost that info but was around 2k in equipment and I’ve spent another $500 since. So I’m about $2500 but after 10 years that’s pretty good.

I DIY a lot of my stuff so I’ve saved a bunch of money (that I probably spent on ingredients anyway) so as far as equipment goes my investment is minimal

Im in this for the long haul so I don’t put a price tag on my costs now and just focus on making the best beer I can.

 

[bracconiere]

i love these threads....

 

[bracconiere]

i guess i can't bite my tongue and leave it at that....

for the price of a couple kegs and co2 tank, used fridge...i can brew 10 gallons of cider for $34, and at 9% ABV.....and beer is even cheaper then that!

 

[JAReeves]

I moved back into home brewing (after a 20-year hiatus) from another hobby, and so as I sell off the old, I invest in the new. I would say I spent, on equipment and brewing materials, $1,200 year one, and probably $500-750 in years two and three. As I am selling useless-to-me stuff to afford the equipment (mostly used) and fermentables (bulk buys, if possible), I have spent nothing out of pocket. As another poster mentioned, I am DIY-ing a lot of stuff I use as well.

I think I spend at most $25 in ingredients on 5 gal, and that's for a super-hopped DIPA. Even counting equipment, am I saving money on beer? Yes, as I love bitter, super-hoppy beers, and those aren't cheap at the local craft breweries.

Also, I've got friends that work at craft breweries (with a beer allowance!), and when they want to trade their empty bottles for my full bottles, I know my recipes are on the right track.

Truthfully, though, with all money issues aside, how do you beat a day spent in the garage, cranking music, tapping a keg (or bottles) with friends, and making beer?

 

[Stand]

Truthfully, though, with all money issues aside, how do you beat a day spent in the garage, cranking music, tapping a keg (or bottles) with friends, and making beer?

You don't. Full stop.

 

[Horseflesh]

$25 all up for a DIPA is an incredible value. I’m more like $40 for a hoppy ale and that’s already with buying hops online.

 

[Immocles]

Haha, I cringe when I read some folks recipes for 10-15G batches of heavily hopped beers. I bought half a pound of cascade last summer and still have about 2 ounces left. Probably brewed about 4-5 beers with it, plus I use it to flavor my kombucha. The pound of centennial that was just delivered this week will probably last me until next year Labor Day.

 

[JAReeves]

$25 all up for a DIPA is an incredible value. I’m more like $40 for a hoppy ale and that’s already with buying hops online.

I buy hops in bulk, so they work out to be about $1-2 per oz. (and take up a lot of freezer space), buy base malt in bulk (~$1/#), and I tend to get a few batches out of a single pack of liquid yeast, which helps cut costs a bit.

 

[Horseflesh]

If you’re getting malt for $1/lb online please share where... I’m looking to start buying sacks but haven’t seen any crazy values yet.

 

[JAReeves]

LHBS, no shipping cost for me. I have seen deals come up from some of the bigger OHBS listed in Homebrew Finds where you buy the grain in 1-10# packages, buying enough to get the free shipping discount and still getting the equivalent amount as a full bag.

Off-topic: Love the icon, by the way, I still have my 1MB MacPlus in a box somewhere...

 

[Horseflesh]

That’s a nice LHBS price, wow! I’ll have to keep shopping around.

(Wish I had an old Mac still!)

 

[Immocles]

I think if I really cared about following style guidelines, my ingredient purchases would be much, much higher than they currently are. But I tend to cobble together some 'close enough' recipes and it makes things a bit cheaper. Plus I liquidate resources before I go hog wild on a big order. I really, really wish we had a home-brew store around here, though. The nearest one is 40 or so miles away, and more geared towards winemaking. If it was focused more on beer with a wider variety, I'm afraid I'd spend an ungodly amount in there.

 

[BruceH]

If you’re getting malt for $1/lb online please share where... I’m looking to start buying sacks but haven’t seen any crazy values yet.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/briess-brewers-2row-malt.html
Just one example. Buy $59 or more and it's free shipping. All vacuum sealed.

Depending on where you live www.ritebrew.com might work out for you too. Great place but shipping is too much for where I live on bulk grain purchases.