Which is cheaper??

[dyennie]

Not taking hardware/time into consideration and knowing that exotic ingredients can cost more no matter which type of brewing is being done; in general terms which brew method is cheaper??? Extract, partial mash or all grain???

Just wondering

 

[brieuxster]

All grain, buying mostly in bulk if you can.

 

[JoeyChopps]

If ur just counting ingredients as in like beer kits or recipes and given ur using the same kind of yeast all grain. Even if u don't buy grain in bulk. Check out ahs and look at just about any of there kits and when u select all grain as type it will subtract between 2 and 10 bucks from the kit price

 

[BryceL]

AG for sure, extract is expensive. Start washing yeast to save even more...of course that can be done with either type of brewing.

 

[Beezy]

Buying base malt in 55 pound bags can make your beers pretty damn cheap. Group buys or tacking some ingredients on to a local breweries bill can save you even more. Pretty tough to make a cheap extract brew.

 

[Airborneguy]

There really shouldn't be a disagreement on this unless someone chimes in who owns an extract producing company

AG is WAY cheaper than any extract/partial, especially if you are not counting the equipment. If you do count the equipment, it just takes a little longer to make up the expenses but then still beats extract/partial.

 

[Mongrel]

You can go all grain pretty cheaply too. A propane burner, a 10 gallon pot, and a converted cooler pay for themselves pretty quickly. After a couple extract batches, I was getting booted to the deck anyway, so I was going to have to buy the propane burner anyway, but even with it, I think all three together were about $200. Could have done it cheaper, but wanted a SS pot.

 

[dilbone]

yeah, my last batch was a SMaSH with American 2-row(I have a 50lb bag of it), Centennial hops, and notty yeast was $13.50 for 5gal...including caps and priming sugar...25.4cents a bottle.

I do BIAB and it takes between $100-$150 of equipment depending on the quality of your pots, propane burner, and grain mill. I'm over 80% now in efficiency and loving it.

 

[Malticulous]

AG does costs less for ingredients. Some spend so much for a brew rig for AG that they my not ever see any real cost savings. A simple all grain system will pay for it's self in a few brews. There are a lot of ways to do it.

 

[shelly_belly]

Extract. 1 can Premier Malt Extract + 3 lbs sugar = 5 gals beer < $10. However, my college days are long over and I brew all grain now.

 

[Malticulous]

Now that's exotic.

 

[remilard]

Not taking hardware/time into consideration and knowing that exotic ingredients can cost more no matter which type of brewing is being done; in general terms which brew method is cheaper??? Extract, partial mash or all grain???

Just wondering

By rendering the analysis meaningless, as you have, with constraints around counting non-ingredient costs, growing and malting your own barley is the cheapest. I choose D.

 

[bottlebomber]

Extract. 1 can Premier Malt Extract + 3 lbs sugar = 5 gals beer < $10. However, my college days are long over and I brew all grain now.

Did you pray for some good wild yeast, or did you just gather up the dregs from last nights 40s and pitch that?

 

[bottlebomber]

By rendering the analysis meaningless, as you have, with constraints around counting non-ingredient costs, growing and malting your own barley is the cheapest. I choose D.

Hey your one of those guys that participates in "is homebrew cheaper" debates aren't you

 

[Airborneguy]

He's actually the guy who takes "is homebrew cheaper" debates personal.

 

[ArcLight]

All Grain is less expensive in terms of material costs. But it takes hours longer than Extract brewing. My time is precious, and while doing an AG batch now then would be fine, I'd prefer to save those hours and pay a bit more.

 

[Mongrel]

All Grain is less expensive in terms of material costs. But it takes hours longer than Extract brewing. My time is precious, and while doing an AG batch now then would be fine, I'd prefer to save those hours and pay a bit more.

Yeah, it takes more time, but I find it really relaxing. Wouldn't go back to extract brewing for anything. If it came down to time, I'd just buy some Rogue, Deschutes Sierra Nevada, or Ninkasi at Costco.

 

[corkybstewart]

I brewed extract for about 3 years before I put my first Ag system together-the Papazian ZapPap drilled bucket. The bucket was free, an hour to drill 500 holes in it cost nothing, I sparged with a saucepan with water heated on the stove. All grain for under $10(bottling bucket w/spigot wasn't free). Then I built a 3 tiered propane system for $400, including 3 converted kegs. I'e brewed at least 150 10 gallon AG batches on it since 2000 so that's about $3 per batch for brewing equipment. Buying bulk at cost from brewpubs let me brew 10 gallon batches for under $30 including the $3/batch equipment charge.
In 1995 when I brewed my last extract 5 gallon batch it cost me $30 and probably wasn't very good.

 

[bottlebomber]

I brewed extract for about 3 years before I put my first Ag system together-the Papazian ZapPap drilled bucket. The bucket was free, an hour to drill 500 holes in it cost nothing, I sparged with a saucepan with water heated on the stove. All grain for under $10(bottling bucket w/spigot wasn't free). Then I built a 3 tiered propane system for $400, including 3 converted kegs. I'e brewed at least 150 10 gallon AG batches on it since 2000 so that's about $3 per batch for brewing equipment. Buying bulk at cost from brewpubs let me brew 10 gallon batches for under $30 including the $3/batch equipment charge.
In 1995 when I brewed my last extract 5 gallon batch it cost me $30 and probably wasn't very good.

How can you say an hour and the electricity to drill 500 holes cost you nothing? Your still trying to recoup on that my friend... and I hope your adding in the gas and wear and tear on your automobile/pro-rated insurance on those trips to the brewpub...

Just kidding. I was just taking a jab at the cost analysis Nazis. By the way, you have a serious alcohol problem

 

[RIT_Warrior]

Looks like it depends on your efficiency. Comparing Austin Homebrew's cheapest bulk 2-row vs bulk extra light DME, you can buy 2.9lbs of 2-row per pound of DME. 1lb of DME in a 5 gallon batch will yield an OG of 1.009. Assuming a brewhouse efficiency of 45%, you will get 1.009 out of 2.9lbs of 2-row. Any higher efficiency and AG is cheaper. There are a few complications, though:

1. Darker extracts cost the same amount as the Extra Light. They will already include body-increasing specialty grains like various Crystal malts, so if you are fine with using the darker DME instead of buying separate steeping grains the cost of AG will raise as opposed to the cost of extract for a given recipe.
2. I just used prices off of Austin Homebrew for a comparison. It is possible you could find extract of 2-row for cheaper for a given recipe at another retailer. It is certainly possible to buy bulk DME and 2-row straight from the wholesaler for a cheaper price.

 

[Airborneguy]

Anyone who is getting 45% eff. from AG brewing needs to go back to extract anyway.

 

[bottlebomber]

Lol...

 

[passedpawn]

Looks like it depends on your efficiency. Comparing Austin Homebrew's cheapest bulk 2-row vs bulk extra light DME, you can buy 2.9lbs of 2-row per pound of DME. 1lb of DME in a 5 gallon batch will yield an OG of 1.009. Assuming a brewhouse efficiency of 45%, you will get 1.009 out of 2.9lbs of 2-row. Any higher efficiency and AG is cheaper. There are a few complications, though:

1. Darker extracts cost the same amount as the Extra Light. They will already include body-increasing specialty grains like various Crystal malts, so if you are fine with using the darker DME instead of buying separate steeping grains the cost of AG will raise as opposed to the cost of extract for a given recipe.
2. I just used prices off of Austin Homebrew for a comparison. It is possible you could find extract of 2-row for cheaper for a given recipe at another retailer. It is certainly possible to buy bulk DME and 2-row straight from the wholesaler for a cheaper price.

Nice analysis.

In other news, I can't believe this thread has stayed on track this long. I was certain it was troll bait (still might be... I'm here ).

 

[corkybstewart]

I hope your adding in the gas and wear and tear on your automobile/pro-rated insurance on those trips to the brewpub...

Just kidding. I was just taking a jab at the cost analysis Nazis. By the way, you have a serious alcohol problem

I pick up my grain on the company tab.. When I have business near the brewpubs I'll pick up my grain
But you may be right about my alcohol problems. When I get down to 30 gallons of homebrew on hand I get the shakes and consider buying store-boughts.

 

[dyennie]

Thanks for all the responses... I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I was just wondering since I am educating myself on different aspects of home brewing so I can jump in head first when I get home. But it looks like I'll start off with extract before moving on to all grain. I want to get a keg system setup first to split up the cost of equipment.

Thanks again for the information.

doug

 

[bottlebomber]

Oh so you haven't brewed at all? Id definitely do an extract batch or two, mostly to understand how the fermentation process works, and work out some of the newbie kinks. Plus, if you just get yourself a nice big brew kettle that will serve you well when you make the switch to AG

 

[shelly_belly]

Did you pray for some good wild yeast, or did you just gather up the dregs from last nights 40s and pitch that?

It comes with a pack of dry yeast and instructions to make beer. If I remember correctly, it's not that bad. I'll know for sure soon as I picked up a can recently. I'm going to make a batch of it to celebrate the first batch I made 30 years ago.

 

[IffyG]

Oh so you haven't brewed at all? Id definitely do an extract batch or two, mostly to understand how the fermentation process works, and work out some of the newbie kinks. Plus, if you just get yourself a nice big brew kettle that will serve you well when you make the switch to AG

Agreed. I did about 8 or 10 batches of extract over 18 months before deciding to make the jump to all grain. My biggest hurdle was getting adequate temperature control. Eventually I gave up and reclaimed my old college minifridge that spent 6 years in my parents basement. Using that made the single biggest increase in the quality of my beer (plus it has the added benefit of being pretty much set it and forget it). Essentially, once you feel comfortable with the product you are turning out with extract, make the jump to AG and you'll minimize the amount of variable on the AG, there are enough of them to begin with, you don't want to complicate things.