What was your initial investment into your home brew setup? How has it changed?

[nostalgia]

Yeah I'm with Ed - I'd be terrified to add it all up.

Started with an $80 kit from my LHBS - bucket, glass carboy, brushes, Joy of Homebrewing, etc.

I now have an all electric, PID-controlled, 11000-watt system with 25 gallon stainless kettles, two pumps, a stainless conical fermenter, built in CIP and chiller...it's a disease.

-Joe

 

[OldBunny]

DO I have to count the $1100 plumbers bill for getting water feed, utility sink and drain (upflush) installed in my basement brewery shop?

 

[Fly_Rodder]

~$150 on the equipment kit and an extract kit. Since then: more carboys, S/S IC, 4 kegs, built a keezer with a tower and twin perlicks, a floor corker for her wine, a bottle tree, and miscellaneous bits and doo-dads. I'm still doing extract because the next step is going all-electric BIAB and that's going to cost a bit of cash. So, I'm saving up to make the leap to all-grain and the home brewery.

Edited to add: that the first thing I purchased after the kit was an immersion chiller. The icebath and sink was just too much of a pain in the rear.

 

[MoPhunk]

I used birthday money to buy my first brewing kit, wort chiller was purchased via eBay business, turkey fryer was a gift and i use my buddies mash tun. So I probably have around $50 of my own money invested

 

[Polboy]

wow i simply dont remember how i started, i was doing extract batches for years, boiling in pot iuse for big cooking (so free), but where did i get fermenting bucket from i dont remember, later i got carboys+ more buckets from CL, capper from ebay but i dont know how much was it. This year i started AG and i forked about $300 for it (shelf, 2 kegs, 2 burners, converted cooler and CFC)

 

[Piratwolf]

Initial investment -- $27 for my extract kit. Equipment was a Christmas gift

Since then? Can't answer in case SWMBO reads this!

 

[Hammy71]

I started with a MoreBeer extract kit and brewing set up. I think it was around 200 bucks. Now, I'm sure I'm in the thousands. I never really keep track of my hobby's expenses. Not heathy for the soul...or the marriage.

 

[bessieflames]

Good question. I've never really added it up before so maybe this is a good time to do it.

Started with a used kit from a friend for $60. Included a glass carboy, capper, caps, hydrometer, autosiphon, 5 gallon kettle, thermometer (miscalibrated), brushes, hop bags, and some other misc. items.

I got great advice from my LHBS and got kegs and a CO2 system at the get-go.

Initial kit from friend - $60
CO2 tank and reg - $100
Pin lock connectors, ring sets - $40
8 corny's @ $25 each - $200
New thermometer, funnel, star san, caps, airlocks etc.- $50
10 gallon pot - $100
Turkey fryer - $50
Mash tun and false bottom - $125
Copper pipe and fittings for making immersion cooler - $40
Freezer and temp controller - $60
Tap and tap handle - $60
Second carboy - $45
Stir plate, stir bar, and 5000 ML flask - $110
Williams O2 system and tank - $60
Total - $1,100
Drinking homebrew from my garage kegerator - priceless!

 

[erikhild59]

First a mr beer for $40 or $50 with a few kits. Then a basic 5 gal kit, 2 buckets ,airlock, autsiphon. $75. Added a couple carboys$80, a homemade chiller$50, 2 5 gal igloo coolers $60, homemade slotted copper manifold$25. Miscellaneous brushes , chemicals , hydrometers thermometers...over $300 total.oyeah the mill another $125...

 

[TomRep]

I started with a $30 eBay turkey fryer kit, Brewers Best equipment kit, and a DIY immersion chiller. Total- $180ish Did one batch with that (extract) and ended up buying two Igloo Coolers and parts needed for valves (another $150 or so). Used that for about 8 months and jumped up to 3 keggles with propane. (never figured it out, but I would guess $4-500) Used that for about 15 months and am now working on my ultimate electric/brewery buildn(hate to even think about it, but probably around $4k). Only upgrade (major) that I plan after this would be to jump to 55 gallon kettles.
Tom

 

[newbrewguy11]

Awesome thread, thanks for all the replies and votes. As expected, lots of different experiences! Great to hear!

I am still on the fence about a few of my purchases, but I always seem to want to buy once and be done with it...rather than more incremental steps.

 

[KFH]

I started with one of Northern Brewer's starter kits and spent roughly $160.

I don't want to think about how much I've spent since then.

 

[corkybstewart]

After getting a $75 beginner kit from a short lived LHBS here in Carlsbad back in 1992 I almost immediately started upgrading-new kettle and homemade wort chiller came first. Now I have the 12.2 gallon stainless conical in a homebuilt fermentation chamber, CFC chiller, Beergun, a 6 keg kegerator and a 6 keg fridge, numerous CO2 bottles, spare taps, faucets, 3 tiered brew stand with converted kegs, pumps, cooler mash tun, etc. I probably have spent another $4000 over the years.

 

[jmprdood]

Read Papazian and went out to a brewshop in Colorado Springs in early '89 and pretty much bought what Charlie said to buy - 2 glass carboys, cappers, wawawawawa...

Over the years I've gotten simpler - homemade plastic fermenters, only primaries for everything and mostly extracts with hop additions.... love it as much as ever

 

[stbnj]

I think the Midwest Groupon starter kit was about $70 bucks if I recall. I think I also added a steel spoon, 5 gallon better bottle and some other stuff to that order as well. I think I spent about 130 bucks on that initial order. I also picked up a pot for 40 from my LHBS and the autosiphon. And of course there was the Papazian book, the Palmer book and Extreme Brewing that I read to get started. Since then I have added more carboys in 6-3 gallon sizes, stir plate, 2000ml flasks, 10 gallon pot, refractometer, bench capper, Colonna corker, IC, mash paddle, numerous other books, Beersmith and a homemade mash tun. I am hoping Santa brings me a valve, side pick up, and thermometer for my kettle. I think my next investment will be an oxygen system from Williams and I am looking into the best way to get the most out of my chiller. I am trying to decide between the pond pump or just adding a prechiller in and ice bath.

 

[chezhed]

Bought some buckets, hose, and extract about 10 years ago. Had a pot and a burner. Made beer using my wife's candy thermometer and stainless spoons. Added things for 4-5 years such as grain bags, hydrometer, thermometers and a kegging set up with one keg.
Switched to all grain several years back...now have fridge with three taps, 20 lb CO2 tank, five spare kegs, two small fridge femeneters with heat pads, homemade brew tree, multiple pots from 5 to 15 gallon, bottles everywhere, and more and more stuff.....like others said, I'd be afraid to total it all up. Kind of like owning a boat.......

 

[passedpawn]

$50 of junk from a friend's dad. He pulled into work with the stuff (carboy, IC, bottling bucket, couple of cases of bottles, capper, etc) in the back of his pickup. I bought it on the spot. It's taken me about 10 years to figure out what to do with it all. (I've easily spent another $2000 on "upgrades")

 

[GTaylor]

Nothing initially, was a fathers day gift this year from swmbo, but have probably spent about $500 since then upgrading to burner and kegs. Looking for a freezer to make into a fermentation chamber and then who knows from there.

 

[Yooper]

I was a winemaker first, and just picked up a brew ingredients kit (after unsuccessfully starting with a Beer Machine 2000). That was almost no outlay.

But, later on, I have about $3000 or more invested.

 

[mfox79]

If someone said I would get this into the the hobby even 7 years ago I would have laughed. I started off with a brew kettle, extracts and bags of ice. turn the clock to last year and 15.5 gal keggle, burner, march pump/plate chiller set up, 7 soda kegs, 3 tap kererator, fermentation fridge, 10 gal cooler with cpvc manifold, 4 gal sparge pot, beakers and stir pleates,8 fermenters and and aration system later and im scared to add it all up.this does not include syphones and other missalanious gear scattered across the house

 

[cowgo]

A can of premier malt extract from the grocery store with the yeast in a pack taped to the lid it came with. A used 5 gallon pickle bucket, vigorously washed, free from a restaurant. No boil. Had to come home frequently to burp the beer (never heard of an airlock) Actually turned out pretty decent. $5.00

Moved to stove top extract and delved into Papazians book. $100.00

Usual progression to 3 tier all grain with an igloo mashtun. $300.00

Just jumped to all electric ($1500) but I'm going to soon try the eBIAB, no chill method in the hopes of getting hooked and reducing my brewing footprint (equipment wise) and time.