LOL - its been a fun ride so far.. and be forewarned - Im kinda rambling here...
All hobbies can be costly and I got into this because my tastes in beer changed which started to greatly impact my wallet. 2 of my friends let me enjoy their homebrew and told me how much they saved by brewing their own. After drinking some of their delicious brew, I wanted to see if I could make something that duplicated the taste of the more expensive beers my palate was becoming accustomed to.
My friends made all-grain brew which they said was better so I proceeded to build an all-grain setup.
It started with the search for a brew kettle. - My buddies had one built by someone out of a 15 gallon keg with welded taps, thermometer and sight glass. - they ended up spending a pretty penny on it - Almost $300. I wasnt about to spend that much so I looked on craigslist and found a bar owner who was getting rid of some old Kegs. Picked a nice one up for $40.
After cutting the top off with my angle grinder and a cutting wheel, I drilled 2 holes in the bottom and picked up 2 weldless bulkhead kits, a 2 piece ball valve, a thermometer and sight glass from bargainfittings.com for about $80. After assembly, I had my finished brew keg for about $120.
Next I needed a mash tun. I picked up a 70qt coleman cooler from Walmart for about $45, a cooler bulkhead kit from bargainfittings for $25 and I used a washing machine hose for a filter for $6 - so lets call it $80 for the completed mash tun.
OK next was a Hot Liquor Tank. I searched craigslist and found someone who was selling a home depot cooler built as a mash tun as well as some carboys (2-6gal, 1-5gal, and 1-3gal) a smaller copper cooling coil, a funnel, a thermometer, and some tubing all for $100.
While searching craigslist I also found someone selling 2 bottling buckets, 2 bottle cappers, 2 bottle brushes, 4 bubblers, an auto syphon, a large metal stir spoon and a hydrometer all for $25.
I had a propane burner from an old turkey fryer. $0
So at $325, I figured I was done and I did well.........umm I was wrong.
When I brewed with my friends they had the equipment to make the yeast starters - which was necessary to achieve the results we were looking for in our 10 gallon batches.
But the next brew was solo. So I needed to make yeast starters for the large batches I was doing so 2-2000ml flasks, 2 stir plates, and a scale. (all from Amazon) Not too bad but about another $100 for all that.
Decided I wanted to try whirlpooling and easier transfers of wort so I needed a pump. $90 for pump, $40 for fittings, barbs, silicone tubing and valve (bargainfittings) and $40 for whirlpool wand (not sure where i got this but Im sure looking back I couldve gotten it cheaper., . - $170
So now Im up to $595...- cant tell the wife.....
Solo brewing I realized how I was missing some items that my friends had that I didnt. Needed to pick up Star San ($15), PH5.2 ($10) Bottling wand ($4), more tubing ($10) Hop basket ($35) and a strainer for sparging ($7), Bottle caps ($5), DME ($6) sugar for bottling ($6) all these I picked up at the local homebrew supply store - Sunset Hydroponics. - ~$100
$695.....sheesh - I just wanted to make beer......
So after buying the ingredients (I wont include that) I finally made my first solo brew - came out ok but bottling sucked and I got too much oxygen into my beer.
Decided I needed to keg my beer from now on.
Bought a used pinlock 2 -corny keg setup from AIH for $120 - this included 2 used corny kegs, a regulator, fittings, tubing and 2 picnic taps.
Got a 5lb Co2 tank for $70, a freezer for $90 (craigslist), and an inkbird temp controller for $40 (Amazon) - oh and I bought a new autosyphon $15.
$1030 in and I think I have everything I need for a little while. I just had some time and needed to figure out how much I spent. Im wondering if there is anything I missed.
I know I plan to buy 2 forward seal - stainless steel beer faucets and shanks along with a drip tray so Im looking at at least about $125 -$150 for all that.... heh heh - it never ends..
I never thought I would spend this much trying to save on my beer costs but to be honest - its a ton of fun trying to duplicate flavors, creating new recipes and learning some chemistry along the way.
Like I said its been a helluva ride and looking at other setups in this forum, I may have gotten off pretty cheap - what do you guys think?
Anyway, I couldnt have done it without the help of the people on this forum. I appreciate you guys and I am learning more everyday,
All hobbies can be costly and I got into this because my tastes in beer changed which started to greatly impact my wallet. 2 of my friends let me enjoy their homebrew and told me how much they saved by brewing their own. After drinking some of their delicious brew, I wanted to see if I could make something that duplicated the taste of the more expensive beers my palate was becoming accustomed to.
My friends made all-grain brew which they said was better so I proceeded to build an all-grain setup.
It started with the search for a brew kettle. - My buddies had one built by someone out of a 15 gallon keg with welded taps, thermometer and sight glass. - they ended up spending a pretty penny on it - Almost $300. I wasnt about to spend that much so I looked on craigslist and found a bar owner who was getting rid of some old Kegs. Picked a nice one up for $40.
After cutting the top off with my angle grinder and a cutting wheel, I drilled 2 holes in the bottom and picked up 2 weldless bulkhead kits, a 2 piece ball valve, a thermometer and sight glass from bargainfittings.com for about $80. After assembly, I had my finished brew keg for about $120.
Next I needed a mash tun. I picked up a 70qt coleman cooler from Walmart for about $45, a cooler bulkhead kit from bargainfittings for $25 and I used a washing machine hose for a filter for $6 - so lets call it $80 for the completed mash tun.
OK next was a Hot Liquor Tank. I searched craigslist and found someone who was selling a home depot cooler built as a mash tun as well as some carboys (2-6gal, 1-5gal, and 1-3gal) a smaller copper cooling coil, a funnel, a thermometer, and some tubing all for $100.
While searching craigslist I also found someone selling 2 bottling buckets, 2 bottle cappers, 2 bottle brushes, 4 bubblers, an auto syphon, a large metal stir spoon and a hydrometer all for $25.
I had a propane burner from an old turkey fryer. $0
So at $325, I figured I was done and I did well.........umm I was wrong.
When I brewed with my friends they had the equipment to make the yeast starters - which was necessary to achieve the results we were looking for in our 10 gallon batches.
But the next brew was solo. So I needed to make yeast starters for the large batches I was doing so 2-2000ml flasks, 2 stir plates, and a scale. (all from Amazon) Not too bad but about another $100 for all that.
Decided I wanted to try whirlpooling and easier transfers of wort so I needed a pump. $90 for pump, $40 for fittings, barbs, silicone tubing and valve (bargainfittings) and $40 for whirlpool wand (not sure where i got this but Im sure looking back I couldve gotten it cheaper., . - $170
So now Im up to $595...- cant tell the wife.....
Solo brewing I realized how I was missing some items that my friends had that I didnt. Needed to pick up Star San ($15), PH5.2 ($10) Bottling wand ($4), more tubing ($10) Hop basket ($35) and a strainer for sparging ($7), Bottle caps ($5), DME ($6) sugar for bottling ($6) all these I picked up at the local homebrew supply store - Sunset Hydroponics. - ~$100
$695.....sheesh - I just wanted to make beer......
So after buying the ingredients (I wont include that) I finally made my first solo brew - came out ok but bottling sucked and I got too much oxygen into my beer.
Decided I needed to keg my beer from now on.
Bought a used pinlock 2 -corny keg setup from AIH for $120 - this included 2 used corny kegs, a regulator, fittings, tubing and 2 picnic taps.
Got a 5lb Co2 tank for $70, a freezer for $90 (craigslist), and an inkbird temp controller for $40 (Amazon) - oh and I bought a new autosyphon $15.
$1030 in and I think I have everything I need for a little while. I just had some time and needed to figure out how much I spent. Im wondering if there is anything I missed.
I know I plan to buy 2 forward seal - stainless steel beer faucets and shanks along with a drip tray so Im looking at at least about $125 -$150 for all that.... heh heh - it never ends..
I never thought I would spend this much trying to save on my beer costs but to be honest - its a ton of fun trying to duplicate flavors, creating new recipes and learning some chemistry along the way.
Like I said its been a helluva ride and looking at other setups in this forum, I may have gotten off pretty cheap - what do you guys think?
Anyway, I couldnt have done it without the help of the people on this forum. I appreciate you guys and I am learning more everyday,