What am I missing?

[Tactical-Brewer]

So, just out of curiosity, every other thread (exaggerating a bit) says to a newcomer "don't expect to save money with this hobby" or something of the sort.

Now I didn't truly get into this hobby to "save money", I got into it because I enjoy craft beer, enjoy drinking craft beer, enjoy the control and experimental part of making good craft beer.

Firstly I had no idea what I was getting into "money" wise as far as equipment etc goes, but as I grew in the hobby, of course I wanted more and more equipment. I don't have deep pockets in the slightest so I was forced to shop around for all my gear.

Right now my gear includes,

10 gallon round mlt
Cooler - 15 bucks craigslist

Parts to make manifold - 25 dollars ish lowes

8 gallon aluminum pot - 20 dollars yard sale

Turkey fryer set up w/ 7gal aluminum pot - 40 bucks used

Homemade stir plate - 40 ish used

Random odds and ends, siphons, tubes, hydrometers, thermometers, strainers, etc - 75 dollars ish maybe less

8gal ss kettle w/ ss ball valve, 14" false bottom 5 gallon glass carboy, ss 21" mash spoon, various beer glasses, another thermometer - 50 bucks Facebook sales page find

Various other carboys and brewing equipment - 50 dollars (different buys) craigslist

Starter flask (Walmart vases) x 2 - 6 dollars

Propane tank - 20 dollars

So my total "brewing" set up is approximately - $341.00

Now I'm sure I am probably right around that number and I enjoy doing things myself and not buying kits and what not so maybe that's a little cheaper, maybe a little more expensive than some people because you don't really need a stir plate etc.

Now I drink quite a bit of good craft beer every other weekend, say 2 six packs every other weekend, so 4 six packs a month. Average price of a good six pack around me is around 8-12 dollars so we'll say an average of 10 dollars I spend per six pack making each beer approximately $1.67 dollars a beer. Not too bad.

Now my average 5 gallon, all grain brew cost me approximately 25-30 dollars a brew (I don't do any ipa's which saves me a lot of money per batch). I also just started washing my own yeast (which is super easy for those who are intimidated by doing it like I was) which will drop the cost of my brews by approximately 5 dollars per batch.

We'll go with the higher end of my brew cost of 30 dollars per batch, and I average 50 bottles per batch making each 12oz serving of my homebrew .60 cents a bottle. Essentially saving me $1.07 dollar per beer.

If the cost of my equipment, which I could easily settle here for a while (of course I won't because there's goodies out there I want like an emersion chiller - 50 dollars making it myself) was $350, rounded up for ease, and I average a $53.5 "savings" per 50 bottle batch, that means I will be in the green "saving money" after 6.5 batches of beer with my current set up.

I brew once a month usually which will mean at my 7th month brew, I will be saving money on my beer if I don't upgrade any equipment. Now with upgrades you save time but doing a hobby I don't count that as a "cost"

Anyways, just a random thought. 3.60 cents for a damn good six pack is hard to beat. My last batch of a BMC clone was like .35 cents a serving coming in at $2.10 a six pack... That's saving money in my opinion.

Brew on folks!

 

[Spokangeles]

Most people are not satisfied with their initial setup for very long. Also, kegging can be expensive.

If you keep your initial setup and don't change anything over a long enough period you can "save" money versus buying beer at the store, all else equal.

 

[Kee]

Belgian beer that I like to drink cost $10-$12 a bomber. I can easily save money brewing, but like Tactical-Brewer that's not been my focus.

 

[PADave]

Once you get all your equipment and don't buy anything but ingredients, yes you can save money. Until then, don't think so. I'm really close to 100% home brew, not buying any commercial beer. But now it's summer and my basement temps are climbing, so today I spent $220 on a chest freezer and controller so I now have fermentation temp. control. My want list is still long, but I'm making good beer with what I got. All told I've got over 1k in equipment, but it's all quality stuff. It's a hobby that once I get where I want to be will save me money.

 

[brewcat]

It is interesting enough to me that I've thought about setting my brewery up as a fake company. Just to do general accounting and see more in depth numbers.

Sometimes I look at bomber prices and laugh. Wow! I can do two cases for maybe three or four bombers. Or two to three cases for every four six packs of craft. And I haven't even started harvesting yeast or buying in bulk!

Besides for hoses and such, most equipment should last years.

I find homebrewing to be a relatively cheap hobby even if you bought all the best equipment.

 

[tgolanos]

Once you get all your equipment and don't buy anything but ingredients, yes you can save money. Until then, don't think so. I'm really close to 100% home brew, not buying any commercial beer.

No truer words have been spoken. A 24-case of domestic beer in Sydney can run $40-45 (US$30-35). I started homebrewing because I loved cooking and experimenting with food and drinking good beer while doing it- brewing was my next adventure in cooking. I had my up-front costs at the beginning but now I'm definitely saving money. I can make 3-cases worth of beer, including ingredients and utilities, for the same price as one case from the shops.

 

[edb]

I started the same way turkey fryer, craigslist for other bits. Went in pretty cheap on the hobby but been adding new equipment each year. This year my 10 year old turkey fryer is getting retired, lol I looked at it today and said "damn thats so ghetto".

 

[Tactical-Brewer]

Without a doubt you aren't "saving money" if including all the equipment bought to brew with, but if it's a hobby you're passionate about, does that even really count? Haha, that's what I tell SWMBO anyways.

No, I guess the ideals behind the comments of "you won't save money home brewing" are with the mindset of always upgrading equipment etc, which I totally get. I have all electric system in my future, I can almost smell it. It'll be a shock when I finally get it (yes pun intended lol)

But I sure love pouring friends a brew and saying "yep, that one only cost me .35 cents" and hear them say "whaaa?" or "no way?!?"

I guess the point of the thread was more of a, how are you not saving money by Homebrewing vs buying regular, good craft beer in the long run type of thing. I'm always going to drink beer, always, which means I'll either get to a point where I can brew it efficiently enough and timely enough to to always have a hb on the ready or keep buying 8-12 dollar six packs. I'll choose the other route. Even if/when I have a few k in my system but I'm able to produce some bad ass brew in no time, I'll eventually be in the green.

I guess it's just getting to that point

 

[Sammy86]

My initial investment was similar to that of @tactical-brewer 350 on sale for beginners kit which included a keg and 5# co2...210 on sale chest freezer and temp controller plus another 50 for cool brew bag...

I went all 2014 without buying commercial brew...it was glorious...2015 however was another story but 2016 so far I've only bought 4 six packs twice...like most have said in this thread it isn't about saving money but creating craft beer and besides you need to do R&D right???

 

[Calder]

I partial mash, partial boil, (8.5 lbs of grain a batch), so not too much extract added. I make pretty good beer, and for the most part prefer mine to Commercial.

I have kept records of almost everything I have bought for beer, except water (tap) electricity (I use a stove), and simple sugar (probably runs an average of 0.5 lbs a batch + priming).

My average beer is 1,059, 6.5% abv, with 6 ozs hops per batch.

After about 10,000 bottles, my average cost per bottle (including equipment) is 47 cents. This includes cost of ingredients not yet used (enough hops, grain, and extract to cover the next 20 brews). You can absolutely save money with this hobby.

I buy grain, hops, and extract in bulk, and re-use yeast.


Yes, it could be easy to spend a lot more; a thousand bucks + on a brew sculpture with burners and pots, or electric mashtun, or conical fermenters. $500+ on kegging equipment and fridge.But I don't need any of them and have no-where to store them.

 

[Sadu]

I got into this to save money so it's important that the numbers work out. So I have been logging every item spent.

Way I see it is that I spend a pretty fixed amount on beer at the shop each week. I can only afford to buy cheap mass-produced lagers.

With homebrew, my first 2 Coopers kit batches are already on-par with those cheap commercial lagers, except mine were 1/4 of the price. Winning already. All that money saved went into gear.

Then I went all-grain BIAB. Spent a few hundy on gear. Ingredients cost about the same as the Coopers kits, strangely. It's early days, but quality seems really good so far. Maybe on par with an entry level craft beer?

Except my beer costs NZD$1 per 500ml bottle (ingredients, power, gas, caps, starsan) plus $1 to cover equipment (if I spread those costs over 6 months). Craft beer in the local shop starts at $6 per bottle for entry level and even cheap revolting mass-market lagers start at $3.50 a 500ml bottle.

So assuming no infections, worst case scenario is that my homebrew tastes like commercial cheap lager but costs half as much. I can live with that. Best case scenario is that it tastes like good craft beer but costs 1/4 the amount, even including equipment costs.

I don't expect to stop buying equipment, my rule is to keep my equipment spend roughly so that it doesn't exceed what I was spending on beer per month beforehand. That way for the same $$$, I get better quality beer and more of it.

If I wanted to purely save money on beer and still get reasonable quality, I would do toucan Coopers kits using reharvested US-05 yeast. The gear and time required to do that is absolutely minimal, taste is comparable or better than mass-market lagers, cost is a lot lot less.

 

[Devon]

As a Canadian, it's almost impossible not to save money making my own beer. One can of craft around here goes for about $4, and I'm down to about $.50 per bottle of homebrew. I figure I'm doing pretty good.

 

[Tactical-Brewer]

For sure guys/gals!

I just don't see how it's possible not to save money.

 

[shellsbells]

As a Canadian, it's almost impossible not to save money making my own beer. One can of craft around here goes for about $4, and I'm down to about $.50 per bottle of homebrew. I figure I'm doing pretty good.

This is absolutely true. Beer prices here (at least in Ontario) are ridiculous. I definitely save money home brewing. I think, though, that a lot of the time when people argue that home brewing does not save money, it's due to the time spent making beer. They view it as a lost opportunity cost. But I brew for fun and don't do it at the expense of earning a living, so to me that's a non-argument

 

[Devon]

This is absolutely true. Beer prices here (at least in Ontario) are ridiculous. I definitely save money home brewing. I think, though, that a lot of the time when people argue that home brewing does not save money, it's due to the time spent making beer. They view it as a lost opportunity cost. But I brew for fun and don't do it at the expense of earning a living, so to me that's a non-argument

Exactly. It's a hobby, that also provides a consumable product.

At least when I brew a batch of beer I get something out of it, as opposed to when I play a round of golf when I'm out a bunch of balls, greens fees, etc. It's a net win in my book.

 

[Tactical-Brewer]

@Devon I'm usually scrounging for golf balls by hole 6 as I've sliced all mine into the deep woods haha