So what's the real cost?

[matthewgardner]

@FifteenTen - I do love the art of homebrewing. It's a hobby that I am really enjoying, but what I am getting at is that I can't really afford to do this all the time (even though if I could I would brew every week) and I was wondering if the switch to all grain was really worth it financially.

 

[scottieo2]

haha yeah...

You get a recipe with 9lbs of LME, and you're already looking at $50 out the door, forget about hops or steeping grains.

Take a 30 min trip down to Foxboro....at Witches Brew you can get 7 lbs of LME for I believe $18-$19.

 

[Yooper]

Do you ever BIAB....

Brew in a boat?


$85 for extract is insane. I finally took a trip to my LHBS in Chicago and found the prices for extract comparable to the best online prices, without the hassle and cost of shipping. Why not just buy online instead of paying absurd prices locally?

No, but I DIAB. (drink in a boat).

I think the great thing about brewing is it can be as simple or as complex as you like. Great beers are made with the "bucket-in-a-bucket (zapap)" system, and great beers are made with a $2500 all-electric system (I hope!). I've had some wonderful beers made with extract and steeping grains, and some terrible AG beers. And vise-versa. As long as each person is happy with their beer, and their process, it's all good.

 

[RMitch]

Do you ever BIAB....

Brew in a boat?


$85 for extract is insane. I finally took a trip to my LHBS in Chicago and found the prices for extract comparable to the best online prices, without the hassle and cost of shipping. Why not just buy online instead of paying absurd prices locally?

No need. Simply made the switch to AG, and face much more reasonable prices.

 

[motobrewer]

I'm pretty much all set for 5 gallon batches (AG setup, nice thermometer, digitally-controlled ferm chamber, kegerator) and the equipment didn't cost close to the remainder, $1,350. All profit, baby.

really? my 3-tap keezer was over $550 itself to build. i'd like to know how you set yourself up that cheaply!

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Around $30 for .050 batch. That's ten gallons, BTW

 

[RMitch]

Are you guys including priming sugar, fining agents, other misc. things, etc. in your "costs"?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Don't use priming sugar or finings. But I do need CO2. A five gallon tank lasts a long time, so the cost for that is minimal.

 

[Golddiggie]

Whirlfloc tablets, or Irish Moss is maybe $0.25 per batch... Priming sugar is someplace in the $0.25-$0.50 range, per batch (I don't use corn sugar)... Not enough to talk about... It also doesn't matter when you're comparing extract to all grain, since you'll use those in both types of brews. BTW, I do put a Whirlfloc tablet on each of my recipes, so it is factored into my costs...

When I do start kegging, I won't count the cost of CO2, or beer gas, into each batch cost. That's post brewing, so really shouldn't matter. You could spend a tiny amount to bottle/keg a brew, or you could spend a lot.

 

[Yooper]

Don't use priming sugar or finings. But I do need CO2. A five gallon tank lasts a long time, so the cost for that is minimal.

Me too. Well, I do use whirlfloc in almost every batch. That's about 25 cents for 10 gallons. Otherwise, no priming sugar, no finings.

I reuse yeast (check out Bernie Brewer's yeast washing sticky) and grow some of my own hops. I buy my grain in bulk. My cream ale recipe costs $11 (including yeast) for 5 gallons, but my house amber uses more hops and grains and costs $40 for 10 gallons. Even so, the cost is not all that much. It was buying all the gear that set me back a bit.

 

[beninan]

hmmm, I posted a reply here, but somehow it didn't show up... I'll try to recall what I typed originally....

I bought the ingredients for my partial mash (OG 1.073) and it came to $30.40 without yeast. There's 9.5 lb of grain, 3 lb of light DME, and 2 oz of Hallertau. The recipe calls for another pound of DME, but I already had some.

It's a mock-bock using some harvested Pacman.