What's your cost of a 5 gallon batch?

[spaceyaquarius]

I used to buy the $40 kits from Brewer's Best, then switched over to the Barley & Vine clones for about $50 per 5 gallons. Then to try and cut costs, I finally bought ingredients from my local home brew shop to make a Hoegaarden clone, but the cost was still $45 for 5 gallons (used 6 pounds DME).

I thought that buying the ingredients would cut costs at least a little. What's the deal?

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

All grain is where its at. DME is ridiculously expensive. Kits are also a waste of money. Buy a good recipe book and go from there. But I dont think you will see any cheaper prices till you are all grain. I pay about $15~$30 a batch usually. I can make a Miller Lite clone for $12

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Another money saving step is washing your liquid yeast. Its not hard and you will have quite the yeast arsenal built up before you know it and no more buying that strain for about a year!

 

[DudeAbides]

Yep, if you want to cut costs go all grain. You can build a batch sparge mashtun for fairly cheap. It will actually pay for itself in just a few batches.

 

[podz]

I can make a Miller Lite clone for $12

You can't give rednecks money because that's what they do with it: go out and make Miller Lite clones!

Credit to Jeff Foxworthy:

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

You can't give rednecks money because that's what they do with it: go out and make Miller Lite clones!

Credit to Jeff Foxworthy:

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1I3goR2CSk

And its still better than what you buy in the store. And im pretty far from being a redneck

 

[Jupapabear]

Any recipe book suggestions?

I'm brewing my first time this weekend. I am set up for AG and just recieved my grains and what not in the mail. $38 total including caps, yeast fuel, and alc booster on top of the grain, hops and yeast. Not tok bad IMO. AHS delivers recipe kits free.

I plan on buying @MLHBS for my next batch to cut cost.

 

[brokebucket]

Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Z. All recipes can be easily brewed with extract/partial mash or all grain.

 

[brokebucket]

Also, I brew mostly extract and only use bulk LME from my home brew shop. I usually dont have to buy yeast and my costs average $35 or so. Buying bulk hops is a saver as well.

When I do all grain, it is shockingly cheaper though.

 

[RM-MN]

Any recipe book suggestions?

I'm brewing my first time this weekend. I am set up for AG and just recieved my grains and what not in the mail. $38 total including caps, yeast fuel, and alc booster on top of the grain, hops and yeast. Not tok bad IMO. AHS delivers recipe kits free.

I plan on buying @MLHBS for my next batch to cut cost.

Once you have brewed all the beers in the recipe section on here you can look for a book but until then I suggest you try a few. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

 

[nasty_rabbit]

I just bought 20 lb 2 row,1.5 lb crystal 40, 1.5 lb Munich, 1 lb crystal 120, 1 lb victory, 1 oz chinook, 4 oz cascade, 3 oz centennial, 1 oz magnum and 2 vials of San Diego Super (wlp090) for an amber and a pale ale for $65.00. You don't have to invest all of the money in equipment up front to do all grain. I BIAB and am able to save on grain as opposed to extract.

 

[Jupapabear]

Once you have brewed all the beers in the recipe section on here you can look for a book but until then I suggest you try a few. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

I am most intrigued by the Oirats Strong Ale!

 

[Transamguy77]

If all grain is not an option for you, then I would look into bulk buys for hops and as stated start washing yeast.

I buy my base malt in bulk, wash my yeast and buy hops in bulk whenever possible and I can normally brew 10 gallons for around $45.

Find a few styles you like that use similar hops and yeast then you can build recipes around those so you don't feel like you bought a pound if hops for 1 brew.

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

Yes, all grain is the real answer to saving money - eventually. There's a higher initial outlay, but the improvement you get in your results is worth it, anyway.

Buying malt in bulk is a big part of that, but it is easy to overdo it. Again, the initial outlay is high, but if you get into a group buy with a local club, you can get even the expensive malts for about $1 per pound or less. You generally don't want to buy specialty malts this way, but foe the base malts it is well worth it. You'll need a malt mill, but again, you'll get better results crushing your own grains in most cases anyway.

 

[brewmcq]

morebeer.com

 

[dyqik]

Morebeer also puts the recipes for most of their kits on their site - look in the "Documents" section for the kits. Some of their extract kits are a lot cheaper than $40 as well, particularly if you wash yeast and combine several kits in one order to get the free shipping.

Buying the pale LME/DME and a few common hops online, then getting the speciality extracts/steeping grains and hops at your LHBS should bring the price down without losing the option for spontaneous brew days.

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Any recipe book suggestions?

I'm brewing my first time this weekend. I am set up for AG and just recieved my grains and what not in the mail. $38 total including caps, yeast fuel, and alc booster on top of the grain, hops and yeast. Not tok bad IMO. AHS delivers recipe kits free.

I plan on buying @MLHBS for my next batch to cut cost.

Clone Brews. I use it as a guide to writing my own most times

 

[newbrewer001]

Big fan of more beer .com but they just jacked the prices of the kits in the " 10 beers for .50c a beer" area.Now they call it 10 kits with yeast. Vienna lager went about $7 a kit i think. Loved their products and pricing prior to now.Guess we have to pay for the east coast warehouse .

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Plus if you have a lhbs use it! Why would you give your business to a online vendor???

 

[brewmcq]

Big fan of more beer .com but they just jacked the prices of the kits in the " 10 beers for .50c a beer" area.Now they call it 10 kits with yeast. Vienna lager went about $7 a kit i think. Loved their products and pricing prior to now.Guess we have to pay for the east coast warehouse .

Wow.. they had to have changed that in the last couple of days.. SWMBO ordered a couple kits from the "beers less than 50 cents" category just this past Sunday.

I never noticed that extract kits were more expensive... makes sense though, since you're paying for the convenience of not having to mash.

 

[NickTheGreat]

...I can make a Miller Lite clone for $12

My Miller Lite clone is made for free. About 8 hours after an evening of drinking real beer.

 

[NickTheGreat]

But on topic . . . seems like when I go to my LHBS I would out around $30, depending of course on what I'm making.

I'm going to start saving my yeast I think. A packet of yeast is $4 or $5

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

My Miller Lite clone is made for free. About 8 hours after an evening of drinking real beer.

It was an example but get on your "I hate bmc" highhorse if you must. :smack:

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Plus if you have a lhbs use it! Why would you give your business to a online vendor???

because their ingredients sit on the shelf and the hops are yellowish not green.

EDIT: aaaaand, 70% of yeast is past its prime. My cost is about 40-60 depending on what method i'm doing

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

because their ingredients sit on the shelf and the hops are yellowish not green.

EDIT: aaaaand, 70% of yeast is past its prime. My cost is about 40-60 depending on what method i'm doing

Bummer you have a crappy store

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Bummer you have a crappy store

+1 ^ Your LHBS must not be too good. Our yeast is constantly fresh and I am in Canada.

 

[Jupapabear]

Clone Brews. I use it as a guide to writing my own most times

Thanks, its now on my list.

 

[strambo]

My partial mash pale ales are about $17. I have a LHBS with killer prices though.

 

[Whattawort]

My citra apa was essentially free since I already had everything. But were I to avg the cost of a session ale I would put it somewhere between $8-12/batch.

 

[jrc64]

I used to buy the $40 kits from Brewer's Best, then switched over to the Barley & Vine clones for about $50 per 5 gallons. Then to try and cut costs, I finally bought ingredients from my local home brew shop to make a Hoegaarden clone, but the cost was still $45 for 5 gallons (used 6 pounds DME).

I thought that buying the ingredients would cut costs at least a little. What's the deal?

I'd have to agree with the majority here. All grain can save you quite a bit as you buy your base malt in bulk, then just pick up the specialty malts and hops as needed. This saves a ton of money. For example, I just brewed Midwests Pumpkin ALe. I think the kit was around $27 or so. But when you factor in the pumpkins I needed to get, plus vanilla beans, I was up to around $37.

This weekend my son and I are brewing an all grain version of Southern Tiers Pumking and my cost will come out to around $22-$24 or so. That will yield me a 5 gallon keg.

I probalby could save a bit more buying a few specialty grains and hops in bulk, but I like to try different recipes and experiment, so this works for me.

cheers!