What are your tips for keeping costs down

[An Ankoù]

The best way to save on beer is to not drink be... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I couldn't even say that with a straight typing face

Yeah, avoid the effects of air pollution by not breathing would be preferable to not drinking.

 

[geezerpk]

About a year ago I decided to cut back on any attempts to make "big beers". I don't mean "huge beer", 5-6 gallon recipes employing 12-14lbs. of fermentables. Too many calories, and too many extra pounds for we geezers. By cutting back fermentables to 8-9 pounds, using higher percentages of darker roasted grains. grains that improve body – wheat and oats – lessened the impact of inflation without sacrificing much, or any, of the flavor. At least they taste damn good to us. Price, about $17-$19 per 5-6 gallon batch, reusing yeast more times than I'm willing to admit and very modest amounts of the less pricey hops like nugget, chinook, willamette.

 

[Protos]

In all my life, I've never spent as much money on drinks and never consumed as much alcohol as I do now, after having picked up the brewing hobby. And I used to think I consumed a lot of alcohol (a bottle of hard liquor every other weekend). Little did I know, what's a "lot". Even though I don't drink hard liquor anymore.

Hobbies are meant to be expensive. I think I'm lucky it's just brewing. If I had a passion for yachting, equestry or chicks three times younger than me, my life would have been way harder.

 

[hottpeper13]

Like I always say, sooooo happy I'm not a model rail roader. No return on that investment. Yachting might be fun.

 

[T Murph]

Grow your own hops. Plant a field of barley and wheat. Cultivate yeast from beers that you bought. But don't count the cost of land, seeds, machinery and fuels etc. Much like brewing, the cost of ingredients is minor compared to the cost of equipment and energy to brew.

Oh sorry OP. You ask how to keep cost down, simple. Stop drinking.

 

[z-bob]

Building (and improving) your own "ghetto" brewing equipment is a hobby unto itself. It's something I enjoy, to an extent. You can brew surprisingly good beer with surprisingly crappy-looking and cheap gear. You ought to see my 5500W electric kettle for heating the strike water. But I've moved past that and seldom use it now; I use hot tap water now (about 140°F) and then bring it up to temperature over low heat on the stove supplemented with a 1650W emersion heater. But if I ever need 4 gallons of boiling water ASAP for some reason, I've got it covered

 

[robertus]

I found that my costs dropped a bit when I went all-grain, but there were a couple sacrificial batches in there while I dialed in the process. Helps if you can buy in bulk.

 

[Upstate12866]

Using morebeer.com I can usually get base grains around 1.60/lb these days in 10lb bags, and certain hops around $1/oz if I buy a pound. Free shipping over 59 bucks, a pretty killer deal in my opinion. Not as cheap as 50lb sacks but cheaper than shipping them actually.

I think you can do a 5% smash beer for 4 bucks a gallon this way.

Make sure you reuse yeast if you can, it's not delicate and should not be a significant cost if you reuse it. Eg, half a pack in a 2-3 g small batch, now you have a massive starter that can create a dozen new lines, each line reused 3-5 times. I suppose not every strain works so well but every one I've tried has.

You can get more extreme by adding a bit of sugar (maybe 10% of gravity points, but maybe more. I've seen very old recipes with a LOT of sugar). 25c per pound typically.

Basic rice or corn starch is 50c, nicer jasmine rice or grits 1 dollar per pound. All fine ways to stretch base grains if so inclined. I explored these during our recent grain price surge. Made a few room temp Japanese and Mexican inspired lagers for ridiculously cheap while I shivered with fear over what prices tomorrow might bring.

 

[bracconiere]

to the don't drink people, per calorie, beer is a pretty cheap source.....

 

[z-bob]

K1V-1116 is one of the few wine yeasts that can be used for beer. If you buy the packets 10 or 12 at a time, you can get them for about $1 each. They will store in the refrigerator for years.

 

[An Ankoù]

K1V-1116 is one of the few wine yeasts that can be used for beer. If you buy the packets 10 or 12 at a time, you can get them for about $1 each. They will store in the refrigerator for years.

If you want to use some authentic beer yeasts then this supplier in Scotland discounts heavily for multiple orders. You don't have to buy multiples of the same yeast, either. I've used several varieties and they're very good. Postage is kept to a minimum. I think you have to pay in GBP, but PayPal can easily handle that.
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store/Yeast-c112262299

 

[RM-MN]

My way of keeping costs down is that when looking at fancy equipment, keep my mouse pointer off the "buy it now" button".

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

quit the hobby if you really want to save money

That's the only viable solution

 

[An Ankoù]

My way of keeping costs down is that when looking at fancy equipment, keep my mouse pointer off the "buy it now" button".

Wish I had your strength of character!

 

[Saunassa]

Wish I had your strength of character!

That's how I ended up with an anvil and 2 tilts and 2 wifi temp controllers when I only needed 1 of each. Just hard to keep the geek down.
If you use liquid yeast at least repitch it one time to bring the cost down to dry yeast pricing.

 

[An Ankoù]

On this side of the pond, one way to keep prices down is to buy base malts by the sack and not by the pound. I'd recommend this especially if you use European malts as the prices are going up and are going to increase even more due to the mess in Ukraine. A sack of whole (unmilled) malt should be good for 3 years or more if kept properly, by which time things should have sorted themselves out one way or another.

 

[Protos]

Hoard. No, seriously, hoard.
In a couple of years, in regard of the rising prices, you'll be brewing REALLY cheap.
That's what I do. Pipe tobacco hoarding taught me a lot. I don't believe the prices I paid for the tins I'm smoking now. Because I bought them 5 years ago. If I were buying them now, I'd pay three times more.
Despite the common misconception, essential brewing ingredients (malt, most hops, dry yeast) survive a long storage pretty well, if stored right. They do change with time but the change is negligible in most cases.

 

[aceluby]

I always have a cheap beer on tap. $.90 a pound grain ($45/55 lbs), $1 an ounce hops in bulk, harvested yeast, maybe $1 total on misc treatments (campden, whirlfloc, gelatin, water, cleaner, sanitizer). I can do a warm fermented 4% lager for $10. The citra IPA I brew is probably closer to $25, but those beers are still significantly cheaper than anything at the store - and my neighbors can’t believe it’s homebrew. For specialty beers, I just do a gallon at a time to keep costs down

 

[Martys1]

I keep costs down by only brewing and drinking on days that end in the letter Y

 

[bracconiere]

I keep costs down by only brewing and drinking on days that end in the letter Y

good one.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Shoplifting.

 

[bracconiere]

Shoplifting.

so you work in an online homebrew retailer, and they let you take expired product or something for lifting the boxes and putting them out for shipping?

 

[FloppyKnockers]

so you work in an online homebrew retailer, and they let you take expired product or something for lifting the boxes and putting them out for shipping?

Uuhhhhhh...yeah...exactly that...uh, what you said.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I keep costs down by only brewing and drinking on days that end in the letter Y

I also limit my drinking on those days to only one glass. I might fill that glass a few times though!

 

[odie]

keeping costs down?

repurpose equipment you already have (free).
buy bulk ingredients (sacks of grain, hops by the pound, brick of yeast)
buy used stuff cheap (it will make beer as good as the shiny fancy stuff)
harvest/reuse yeast (free again)
improve your efficiency (free)
collect free beer bottles (more free stuff)

less is more

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

So I'm curious what do you do to keep costs down?

Not a damn thing. Some dudes buy boats or fast cars. I buy shiny, fancy homebrewing equipment and high end ingredients for a tiny fraction of that.

 

[Pkrd]

I also limit my drinking on those days to only one glass. I might fill that glass a few times though!

You know if you keg your beer and drink directly from the faucet you can get by entirely without glasses.

Cost wise taking a break from brewing and taking up fishing will help enormously with putting hobby costs into perspective.

 

[bracconiere]

damn, i thought this was a zombie thread for a second

 

[Jayjay1976]

When you buy beer, you're actually paying someone else to have all the fun of brewing, but also to cut corners on ingredients and underpay their employees so they can use your hard-earned money to buy a yacht. Then they sit on their yacht, listening to yacht rock while sipping commercial beer Champagne.

Friends don't let friends buy beer. Instead, they invite them over to their basement, ply them with pint after pint of free homebrew while rattling on nonstop about the virtues of 3724 vs. the evils of 3711, and how free pickle buckets are practically just as good as stainless conicals.

 

[T Murph]

The best way I've found to brew and save money is to move away and don't invite friends and relatives over to drink up your brews.