So, I looked at my morebeer.com order history...

I keep telling myself I am saving money by making my own beer... turns out my order history says otherwise. Thus is the lifestyle of a homebrewer. It really is funny, as I type this, my other tab is my shopping cart for a march pump and fittings to make my brewing a little easier. I have even been toying with the notion of going to 10 gallon batches now that I have a keezer to hold it all. "Where does it end?" one might ask, it really doesn't. So when you realize that in the last year you have spent over $1200 at your homebrew supply, RDWHAHB.

Cheers!

Methinks you have a nose problem, you just don't know when to say your nose.
If one brews to save money, one can't have all the bells and whistles and automated brewing systems but if one brews for the enjoyment of the hobby, why not indulge yourself as long as it doesn't affect the rest of your life.

That's $100 a month... you can't take it with you, so what else are you going to spend it on?

All-in-all, once you're set up and running, this is a very, VERY inexpensive hobby. Sure, store-bought beer might be less expensive overall, but then again, eating off the McDonald's dollar menu is cheaper than making food at home.

I am guessing overall it is a wash for me. Batches of beer run between 10 and 15 bucks for 6 gallons just because I brew low gravity beer and reuse the yeast. But I give away a lot more beer so it is about the same as when I was buying beer. Turns out I am a better brewer than drinker and if I want to brew very often I need help emptying the bottles :rockin:

Don't feel too bad. Add a zero to the end and you could catch up to me. Thats been just this year and only on gear.

First, I didn't mean to say I that I started this hobby to save money. Like many here, it started from two things:
#1 A love of good craft beer, and
#2 Some family member (perhaps a SWMBO) purchasing a Mr. Beer kit (or for all intents and purposes, a generic version of Mr. Beer).

It was the end for me, next thing you know I am "archiving" that old 2 gallon hopped-extract kit for a DIY mash/lauter tun, 10 gallon kettle, and multiple fermenters all complete with a PID controlled keezer.

I am on my 8th year for home brewing, 6th in the online community. It has been a great journey and I do not regret one minute of it (except a small batch of a tripel gone awry). I have learned, and am continuing to learn things about brewing beer in nearly every encounter on these forums.

Looking back, it is really a fun little anecdote to add up my total spending. Which bring my 8 year hobby to about $9000.00 and not more than $100 or so of that "wasted".

Cheers folks, and no regrets to quite possibly the most affordable, rewarding, and revolutionary hobby of all time.

And thats what it's about!
Keep up the brewing and enjoy it!

hoppedup75 said:

And thats what it's about!
Keep up the brewing and enjoy it!

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Oh I will, and I hope everyone else does at some point. It gets especially rewarding when you get the process down to the point of having a consistent pipeline of homebrew and never having to purchase commercial brew again (save for the occasional seasonal by your favorite craft brewery, or the two growlers from Iron Horse Brewery on your way home from taking an exam at CWU in Ellensburg, WA).

That probably going to be me this year.

After building a MLT, buying a lagering fridge, and making the switch to all grain, I took 4 years off of buying new equipment.

The fridge ended up going to my wife's shop.

Now I'm looking at a new fermenting/lagering fridge and building a HERMS this summer.

Beernik said:

That probably going to be me this year.

After building a MLT, buying a lagering fridge, and making the switch to all grain, I took 4 years off of buying new equipment.

The fridge ended up going to my wife's shop.

Now I'm looking at a new fermenting/lagering fridge and building a HERMS this summer.

Click to expand...

I could see myself doing nearly the same thing soon. I have a background as an electrician, maintenance technician, electronics and instrumentation, and I will be soon wrapping up my BS in Computer Science with an emphasis in software development. Combine all of that with 8 years of military experience in management and engineering and you have a homebrewing financial conundrum.

The trick is to order from different websites on different cards and NEVER add the total up...

That's the logic I use for holidays and bicycles as well.

Also, making your own great beer is MUCH cheaper if you compare it to the Craft Brewing beer at stores. For example, many beers cost $2 - $4 EACH if you are buying craft beer that is good. So if my IPA is almost as good as Crafting Beer that is $9 - $12 for a 4 pack, I have saved a ton of money, since I have 2 cases of IPA for about $20 - $25. If I bought 48 bottles of a quality IPA, that may cost me close to $80 or more depending on the brand.

Personally I buy used equipment like a keg, and make my own brew kettle. I made my own mash tun out of a cooler. I use buckets to ferment in, etc. Have I spent $200 - $300 on equipment, yes. But that will keep me going for quite some time.

I personally am not one of those people that have 3 beautiful Blickman pots, with pumps, etc. If you do that, then yes, it will take some time to get your money back saving on beer.

I buy all of my ingredients in bulk so a 25 gallon batch runs from $30 to $50. I built my brewery years ago so I haven't spent any money on equipment in a long time except for the $250 in cam locks a few months back.

Once you have everything set up your costs will drop and the beer does get cheaper.

I don't know when it will ever end. My MoreBeer history is pretty bad as well.

At some point you have to draw the line... and then re-draw it after you've crossed it a few times.

I seriously need to stop ordering stuff. My problem is I'm a nerd and I geek out on new gear. I'm also the type that needs the right tool for the job so in the process of assembling my setup I've accumulated a dremel, hacksaw, soldering iron, misc mallets/screwdrivers/hand tools, drill bits, wiring junk, new toolbox etc.

My girlfriend says it's an addiction. I think she's right

Monster Mash said:

I buy all of my ingredients in bulk so a 25 gallon batch runs from $30 to $50. I built my brewery years ago so I haven't spent any money on equipment in a long time except for the $250 in cam locks a few months back.

Once you have everything set up your costs will drop and the beer does get cheaper.

Click to expand...

I bought a 55 lb bag of Briess 2-row for only about $38. My LHBS sells those for around $45, and I waited for them to have a store wide sell. When they did I bought that 55lb of 2-row, plus enough other grains to brew 3 different recipes. I also bought a couple of 1lb bags of hops. So that is also a good way to save money :rockin:

Another benefit of homebrewing vs buying craft beer I being able to have exactly what you want and being able to get it fresh.

Examples
English and German styles
Historic styles not produced any longer
Styles that are only regionally available. As an example, I just brewed a Pliny clone. That beer is not available where I live.

As bumstigedy said: I can't buy the beer I like at any cost.

I can feel myself falling into the great abyss already with this hobby, and I've only ever done 1 Mr. Beer kit that my mom got be for this past Christmas (Mom's are awesome, and so is Amazon for literally delivering beer to my door). Now I'm 1 partial mash in (scotch ale that somewhere along the lines veered off into becoming a scotch porter ale of some sort) and I'm looking at 3 different recipes (blue moon clone this weekend, barley wine for when I get my dad's carboy for bulk aging, and then either a cream stout or a chocolate oatmeal stout that will be ready for fall).

What's gotten me is, most of my jobs growing up I was cooking in kitchens/bars/restaurunts, and I learned to cook from my mom (seriously, this is probably the best skill to teach to your kids ever). So I spend time most nights of the week cooking dinner for myself and SWMBO, and it sort of occured to me, "I can make good food in little or no time with no recipes and I never measure anything, and I love craft beer, what's really stopping me from making my own beer so I can mold it to exactly the way I love beer". Ended up bringing a 1 liter bottle of my porterscotchale to a party on Saturday and all the BMC drinkers we're like "Holy **** you made this? How?".

Basically I'm doomed, and I blame my mom (I tell SWMBO to blame my mom since she bought me the Mr. Beer kit).

Also, its just like any other hobby I've gotten into. I build my own desktop computers, I could go buy the 500 dollar processor, but, really the 250 dollar one will be more than enough power for the next 3 years or so. I applied the same logic, I could have bought a nice carboy and all kinds of neat stuff for my first batch, but, I'll just collect things over time, see what I can find on Craigslist, see what I can MacGuyver into being usefull brewing tools. I'm mostly brewing for myself, SWMBO, and my friends, so I don't need to make GABF award winning beers (not that I wouldn't lose my mind if something I entered into a local contest was good enough to go all the way there).

Honestly, until it gets to the point where I am looking for acreage for growing and malting my own barley, this will be a hobby that will grow for years to come.

As far as hobbies go this one is cheap. Building a control panel, have custom kettles on their way, all TC fittings and it is still far cheaper than the motorcycles of my early 20's, or my '68 cougar I once had, or so many other things. Besides, I need something besides bud for fishing season...thank god my friends own boats so I can afford stainless. I do swear that one day I will save some money though, I just have to drink faster than I upgrade equipment .

In my case its self inflected. I have found with other hobbies I start small and grow to bigger & better gear. In the long run the money is all the same (ballpark-ish). So with this I went "all-in" so to speak. SWMBO get's to say "I Do" or "don't" in Oct so until then I'm being liberal with my gear. All she has to say is "it better be good!!!"
The fact that my brew count is 0 gal to date don’t help but we all start somewhere....... right?

Boils down to how much and at what speed do you want it to hurt?

My brew budget is $100 per month for both ingredients and equipment. Some months it's less, some it's more. I spend at least 20 hours a month brewing, tinkering, reading, messing around on HBT (that's probably 20 hours by itself), etc. So this hobby costs me less than $5 per hour, and I get beer out of it. Better than golfing, skiing, cars, boating, and a lot of other hobbies for the most part. I get to sit in my driveway and drink beer all day, and when I'm done, I have more beer than I started with. If I golf I just end up drunk and pissed off. I'd rather brew.

mragin said:

/snip ... If I golf I just end up drunk and pissed off. I'd rather brew.

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Amen to that! What other hobby can you have that you can drink while you do it and end up with more beer than when you started?

I cannot say that I budget specifically for brewing, but here are the rules I follow:
#1: Have saved three months of bills and rent.
#2: Put away 10% pre-tax from my paycheck for 401k
#3: Set aside $25 per paycheck on hobbies (read homebrewing).

That is what I do, and it has worked quite well. I have a brand new march pump coming and a few convenience pieces to suite my brewing needs and I didn't have to break the bank in doing so. But to the original point of this thread.... all I can say is "Well at least I can drink my hobby!".

I have spent, but not all that much. There is plenty I still want to invest, but I do not keep track of costs because I will not spend what I cannot afford.

The cost to me is justified when I take that first drink off a new batch. When someone is given a sample and you see that spark of fear and hesitation in their eyes which after that tentative sip turns to this bright flame of startled amazement. Not to mention the Zen state I get in when I brew.

My equipment costs are probably under $200. But even the $1200 mentioned would only buy about a case of beer a week, so you're still doing ok.

I hear you! Have only brewed twice this year so far because I have been putting the pieces of a kegging system/fridge together and have to get those purchases by the Mrs, so the money going to ingredients is being redirected to equipment.

I just got this email today and i thought i would share...

Woman: Do you drink beer?
Man: Yes
Woman: How many beers a day?
Man: Usually about 3
Woman: How much do you pay per beer?
Man: $5.00 which includes a tip
Woman: And how long have you been drinking?
Man: About 20 years, I suppose
Woman: So a beer costs $5 and you have 3 beers a day which puts your
spending each month at $450. In one year, it would be approximately $5400 ...correct?
Man: Correct
Woman: If in 1 year you spend $5400, not accounting for inflation, the past
20 years puts your spending at $108,000, correct?
Man: Correct
Woman: Do you know that if you didn't drink so much beer, that money could have been put in a step-up interest savings account and after accounting for compound interest for the past 20 years, you could have now bought a Ferrari?
Man: Do you drink beer?
Woman: No
Man: Where's your Ferrari?

I think my investment in brewing equipment will probably never "pay for itself" because I would never buy and drink as much premium craft beer as I brew and I always seem to find some new gadget to invest in or some existing hardware I need to repair or replace. If I did actually replace what I was buying in craft beer with homebrew it wouldn't take that long to pay back the capital investment if only because craft beer is so dang expensive here.

I figure each ten gallon batch I make is about 17 six packs, times roughly $10 a sixer (though I just paid $13 with tax for some Victory Pils!) equals $170 of craft beer per batch of homebrew. I typically use $30-$40 in ingredients per batch since I reuse yeast but I'll say $50 just to factor in every possible variable cost.

That means I would "save" $120 for each batch of homebrew I make if I bought that much craft beer. Since I've brewed 6 times since homebrewing was finally legalized here in July that comes to $720 to apply towards equipment outlays. Between the keezer ($600), fermentation freezer ($100), cfc ($25), brew structure ($400), pumps ($150), new mash tun ($100) and keggle with fittings ($150), and other miscellaneous items I've probably invested around $1,800 this year. Brewing every three weeks on average (I'm actually averaging every 2.5 weeks since July) puts my break-even date at 40 weeks from my first brew of 2013 on July 21st, which will be sometime in June 2014.

Anyway, that is how I plan to explain it to my wife if she ever asks to see the books.