The Cost of Brewing

[billf2112]

I see many post from people new to brewing (as I am one of those).

It appears many folks are looking for ways to not buy the items needed to properly brew. Why? You are going to spend $30.00 to $50.00 on a ingredient kit, plus you may be buying bottled water and ice (another $5 to $10 dollars). Why chance ruining that investment because you didn't want to spend the money on the proper equipment?

I am not letting the lack of a $13.00 bucket or something like that) allow me to ruin a $30 to $50 beer kit.

I know money is tight for any people, and when first starting up you do put out a fair amount of cash. I just got the basic kit and stuff I needed to brew, I am adding stuff as needed (example, last night I moved to the secondary so I went out and bought the auto siphon).

The folks who have been brewing for a while all say the same thing, do not cut corners it will only ruin your brew.

So here is the minimum you need to start your first brew.

1, Brew kettle
2. Primary Bucket/carboy (no spigot) with lid and/or drilled rubber stopper.
3. A large spoon
4. Thermometer (long one with a way to attach it to the brew pot)
5. Sanitizer (buy the Star San the small bottle is only around $10)
6. An ingredient kit
7. A way to cool the wort (either an ice bath or make some blocks of ice, for the blocks of ice simply get some of those cheap food storage containers from your grocery store, they come in 3 packs, you can sanitize them and fill them with water you boiled, my local store suggested the half gallon size. You will simply add the ice right into the boiled wort one at a time).
8. An airlock.
9. A hydrometer (although some have suggested that the pre made kits are so well worked out you may even skip this).
10. A sanitation bucket.
11. 2 cheap spray bottles (one for sanitizer the other for boiled or bottled water to spray into the boiling wort to help stop the hops break).

After you brew you then have a week or more to buy the next stage of items.

1. Secondary (carboy with drilled stopper for the airlock).
2. Siphon and tubing.

A week or more later when you get to bottling, you will need the last stage of items.

1. Bottling bucket with spigot.
2. Tubing with bottling wand.
3. Capper.
4. Bottle caps (most kits come with them).

This is the minimum you will need but as you can see it can be spread over weeks of buying the needed items. (I get paid every other week, so for me it was over 3 paychecks and could have been more).

I may have missed something being a newbie hopefully the real brewers here can edit or confirm my babbling.

 

[cruckin78]

The ice block method is a good idea....I never though of that duhhhh LOL

I've been using the ice bath, but most of the time my ice is gone well before my wort is to an acceptable temp. Which leaves me just running cold water into the sink.

 

[borden]

4. Thermometer (long one with a way to attach it to the brew pot)

This kind of thermometer is probably ideal, but I use a small digital food thermometer and haven't had any problems. The only time it's too hot for me to hold my hand over the wort to check the temperature is when it's boiling -- and at that point, I don't give a rip if if it's 213 or 214.

 

[billf2112]

I used the ice bath for my first brew. To make an ice bath work it needs to be a bath. If you are just using ice it will not work correctly.

A bath needs water. I bought t bags of ice. I put about half of one bag in the bottom of the sink, then place the brew pot centered on top of the ice, I then put the rest of the ice around the pot. After that I topped it off with cold water. The ice and water together make the bath work, the cold water will slow down the ice melt and the now almost freezing water will touch every inch of the brew pot that is under the water/ice level. It is simply physics that the more of the pot in direct contact with cold the faster it will cool. Ice alone will melts faster and only actual touch about half the surface the water ice mixture will.

After my wort cooled (at 23 minutes) I needed to melt off the remaining ice in the sick. May have only needed 1 bag.

The ice blocks saves water. I dumped 2 bags of ice and a few gallons of water right down the drain, a real waste. The blocks in the wort will cool it down faster and becomes part of the beer. I used 3 gallons of bottled water to get up to the 5 gallon mark in my primary.

Less water used to brew allows longer showers with a friend.

 

[IrregularPulse]

You also don't need a secondary.

 

[Brewmiser]

I'm always affraid of adding ice to my wort, But I do fill ziploc bacs with water & freeze them & after adding ice to my sink bath I dump some Salt on top of the ice. I'm not sure why but it drops the temp & cools the wort very fast

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

I fill my bathtub with cold water and walk away. An hour later it's room temp. KISS

I <3 corneys and plastic fermentation buckets (6.5g with NO bottling spout)

 

[Bensiff]

Any respectable LHBS will have a starter kit, generally the more basic one is the best so you don't buy stuff you don't really need or will replace with better versions in short order. If you go to a top notch LHBS they will give you a good discount on your first beer kit if bought along with a starter kit like a crack dealer giving out the first hit free.

 

[Clann]

well i just got a turkey fryer and went to get a propane tank.......48$. now its only 18$ to exchange one, but I dont have a trade in tank.

 

[bakeup]

You can make a wort chiller for about $20-30, and will make back the cost of ice in just a few brews.

 

[Bensiff]

well i just got a turkey fryer and went to get a propane tank.......48$. now its only 18$ to exchange one, but I dont have a trade in tank.

Avoid the trade-ins unless you like getting ripped off. Most all U-Haul's sell gas at a good price or your local Hank Hill shop of propane and propane accessories (my local one does CO2 trade-ins for cheaper than I can get my tank filled so they are doubly awesome).

 

[tnbrewer371]

dont know how i lived without my wort chiller. cost me around 70$ to make but i made mine with fifty feet of 3/8inch copper and it will cool 4.5 gallons of boiling wort to 70F in around ten minutes depending on the ground water temp. if you have a few extra bucks this is the best money i have spent since my initial investement, and I honestly dont know how i did it before, I actually find myself brewing more because cooling isnt such a PITA.

 

[FoundlingOfDollar]

well i just got a turkey fryer and went to get a propane tank.......48$. now its only 18$ to exchange one, but I dont have a trade in tank.

I bought my tank at Costco for $37, now I buy gas at U-haul, it's great because I don't have to send back unused gas because I am worried that I don't have enough for the next brew or BBQ, I just top it off. I know they called that extra first payment a "deposit", but you bought the tank, so just take it somewhere for a refil when you run low.

 

[jdlev]

(example, last night I moved to the secondary so I went out and bought the auto siphon).

1. Bottling bucket with spigot.
2. Tubing with bottling wand.
3. Capper.
4. Bottle caps (most kits come with them).

I may have missed something being a newbie hopefully the real brewers here can edit or confirm my babbling.

The auto siphon is God's gift to brewer's! I just got mine last weekend and love it too

I recommend (even for newbs cause this is how I started) invest in the a kegging kit. You can usually find a cheap old frig for around $100 bucks, and the keg conversion kits are anywhere from $150-200.

I love my tap. It also makes carbonating the beer a breeze because you can forget about priming sugar, and filling bottle by bottle, and cleaning all the bottles, etc. Lot of time savers. Plus, I drink 3-4 a night, so bottles won't last me very long

 

[jdlev]

dont know how i lived without my wort chiller. cost me around 70$ to make but i made mine with fifty feet of 3/8inch copper and it will cool 4.5 gallons of boiling wort to 70F in around ten minutes depending on the ground water temp. if you have a few extra bucks this is the best money i have spent since my initial investement, and I honestly dont know how i did it before, I actually find myself brewing more because cooling isnt such a PITA.

How bout this...I HAVE a copper coil wort chiller that's a hand me down, but I don't have anything to attach it to!!!

My wish list for my next house definitely includes a nice big sink in the garage!

 

[tnbrewer371]

jdley just get a couple of really long hoses and run them into than out of your house, thats what i would do honestly, or just bring your wort outside especially since its cooling down now this time of year. i personally cant stand to wait on an ice bath for my wort to cool, just takes to long and to much risk of contamination I would guess. make the chiller happen it will change your world it did mine..

 

[jfr1111]

I see many post from people new to brewing (as I am one of those).

It appears many folks are looking for ways to not buy the items needed to properly brew. Why? You are going to spend $30.00 to $50.00 on a ingredient kit, plus you may be buying bottled water and ice (another $5 to $10 dollars). Why chance ruining that investment because you didn't want to spend the money on the proper equipment?

I am not letting the lack of a $13.00 bucket or something like that) allow me to ruin a $30 to $50 beer kit.

I know money is tight for any people, and when first starting up you do put out a fair amount of cash. I just got the basic kit and stuff I needed to brew, I am adding stuff as needed (example, last night I moved to the secondary so I went out and bought the auto siphon).

The folks who have been brewing for a while all say the same thing, do not cut corners it will only ruin your brew.

So here is the minimum you need to start your first brew.

1, Brew kettle
2. Primary Bucket/carboy (no spigot) with lid and/or drilled rubber stopper.
3. A large spoon
4. Thermometer (long one with a way to attach it to the brew pot)
5. Sanitizer (buy the Star San the small bottle is only around $10)
6. An ingredient kit
7. A way to cool the wort (either an ice bath or make some blocks of ice, for the blocks of ice simply get some of those cheap food storage containers from your grocery store, they come in 3 packs, you can sanitize them and fill them with water you boiled, my local store suggested the half gallon size. You will simply add the ice right into the boiled wort one at a time).
8. An airlock.
9. A hydrometer (although some have suggested that the pre made kits are so well worked out you may even skip this).
10. A sanitation bucket.
11. 2 cheap spray bottles (one for sanitizer the other for boiled or bottled water to spray into the boiling wort to help stop the hops break).

After you brew you then have a week or more to buy the next stage of items.

1. Secondary (carboy with drilled stopper for the airlock).
2. Siphon and tubing.

A week or more later when you get to bottling, you will need the last stage of items.

1. Bottling bucket with spigot.
2. Tubing with bottling wand.
3. Capper.
4. Bottle caps (most kits come with them).

This is the minimum you will need but as you can see it can be spread over weeks of buying the needed items. (I get paid every other week, so for me it was over 3 paychecks and could have been more).

I may have missed something being a newbie hopefully the real brewers here can edit or confirm my babbling.

I really hate black and white statements such as you NEED this, you CANNOT do that, you MUST act this way, etc... There's no real minimum you need, apart from a way to ferment the beer and a way to transfer it to bottles or keg. I'd put having an hydrometer a lot higher than having an airlock or StarSan.

If you can control your fermentation temperatures swings and you are anal about cleanliness, you're 90% there and you don't need a whole lot of equipment to do brew good beer (but some of it is still missing from your list).

 

[KevinW]

How bout this...I HAVE a copper coil wort chiller that's a hand me down, but I don't have anything to attach it to!!!

My wish list for my next house definitely includes a nice big sink in the garage!

You should be able to find a garden hose/kitchen faucet adapter for about 5-7 bucks at any home depot type place. Buy the shortest and cheapest lenghth of garden hose you can find.

Attach the adaptor to the sink, cut the hose in two pieces then you can hook the chiller to your kitchen faucet and drain into the sink!!

I did this for my first 4-5 batches before I got my outdoor setup!!

 

[Frodo]

well i just got a turkey fryer and went to get a propane tank.......48$. now its only 18$ to exchange one, but I dont have a trade in tank.

You can likely have your tank filled at any propane company... and that's probably cheaper than the exchange anyway.

 

[bja]

It appears many folks are looking for ways to not buy the items needed to properly brew. Why?

It's quite possible that people just getting into brewing don't want to invest a lot of cash if they're not sure that it's something they'll enjoy, and I completely understand that.

 

[billf2112]

Good stuff from everyone. That is why we have these boards to share thoughts and ideas. As a new brewer, I find the knowledge is the best thing to have. Yes the equipment needed varies for the most part from person to person, but the main concept is the same. As a newbie I find the fail proof methods are a good starting point and as I learn I can modify my methods.

The start up cost can be a huge wall that blocks someone from starting. It was for me. I have wanted to do this for years. I buy everything cash, so for me the start up was one thing that held me back.

Not wanting to be "stuck" with the kits and equipment was never a hurdle to overcome, a quick listing a craigslist can help you recover a good portion of your starting money.

At the same time not doing it right the first time could lead some to quit a craft they may end being excellent at.

I did consider sharing the start up with a friend and doing it together, but in the end (mostly do to scheduling issues, I went on my own). If anyone wants to try brewing but is worried about buying all the start up maybe contacting a local brew club may help them out. You can "help" someone else and learn a craft. Besides you may make some new friends.

 

[FoundlingOfDollar]

I buy everything cash, so for me the start up was one thing that held me back.

+1 to this. I haven't had a credit card in 3 years. As the guy whose post on fermenting in a bottling bucket seemed to provide the inspiration for this thread, when I found the deal on Craigslist on my starter setup and failed to find another bucket free from my old bakery or any of the others I visited, I chose to brew a cheap beer now and start getting experience. This seemed to me an at least equally valid option rather than hold on to all the equipment and wait a month to buy a tool exactly like my bottling bucket, but minus the spigot.

 

[Plastered_Marble]

How bout this...I HAVE a copper coil wort chiller that's a hand me down, but I don't have anything to attach it to!!!

My wish list for my next house definitely includes a nice big sink in the garage!

Well, that does kinda suck

You can pick up some instant cold packs at most athletic stores, (or just buy some ammonium nitrate online if you're not afraid of a friendly officer of the BATFE visiting you)

The ammonium nitrate pellets, in addition to an ice bath makes a great cooler. You can also carry a pack or two to "revitalize" an ice box at the beach.

 

[Justibone]

Minimum needed to brew beer:

a coffeepot

Heh!