How Much Money Is There To Be Saved?

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Mike_D

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I'm new here and I am considering brewing my own beer. I normally drink Bud Light... Alright no criticism or comments on how it taste like piss and what not haha. I grew up drinking the stuff and am just used to it. To each his own. But if I brewed my own beer I would definitely try a bunch of new kinds.

A 24 case (cans) of Bud Light here costs around $22 after taxes and all. For my first brew I'm going to try THIS recipe. I was wondering, not counting the cost of equipment, how much the supplies would cost? Basically how much money would I be saving?



Also I'm 100% new to brewing and had another question. I seen you can get some starter kits and what not. Do you guys recommend getting one of those, buying everything separately, or creating homemade items? Any sales I should know of? I'm looking for a good cheap way to do this.
 
None. If you are homebrewing to save money you will be disappointed.
Most people homebrew because they enjoy the hobby and they can make better beer.
 
I doubt you will save much, if anything when comparing to BMC beer. So far my beers are running around $35-$45 per 5 gallon batch (about 2 cases of beer) using extract with specialty grains and that doesn't include the water or natural gas, but does include about 22lbs of ice for chilling the wort. I might be saving a little as I am used to spending about $9-$11 on a 6 pack.
 
Well, $22 for one case, that is $44 for 2 cases, and you can get an extract kit for that much.

If this is a good reason to look into other styles, then by all means go for it. But as said before, your savings, if any, will not be significant. If you are only brewing your own to save money, then this might not be the hobby for you. If it is to be able to make your own for the sake of it, and perhaps learn more about beer and customize a brew to your tastes, then it is starting to be a good reason for a hobby.
 
I'm pretty anal about keeping an account of my costs.

Now I'm on brew 183, so a lot of my equipment costs end up being low when averaged over all the brews.

I estimate my ingredients = $0.34 a bottle. This is for an average 6.1% abv beer.

Including equipment and grain, hops, and extract in hand, my average cost of a 12 ozs bottle is $0.55.

But ...... this doesn't account for the 10 hours I spend prepping, brewing, racking, and bottling each batch, or the energy to boil the wort
 
Looks like you will get just over 2 cases out of this recipe. reim0027 is about right on price. In the long run, you might save some money. I haven't saved very much, but I enjoy the beers I brew and it is a fun hobby! Try craigslist for brewing equipment to get yourself started.
 
I am of the mind set of if you are getting into Home Brewing to save money, don't do it. Especially if you are going for a cheap Pilsner like Bud Light. For those of us that are craft beer drinkers that pay $10+ for a six pack, we save a little bit of money, but not much. You have to look at home brewing as a hobby and not as a way to save money. By the time you buy all the equipment, you would have to brew A LOT to make it back up, especially if you go all grain and then you keg. I am roughly $1000 into equipment and I still don't have the stuff to keg, which I want. Like I said, it's a hobby, not a money saver.
 
I agree. Homebrewing is a great hobby but you will no better save money homebrewing to get beer than you would fishing or hunting to get food.
 
It's a crazy fun hobby just like many others... In comparison, how much would you save rebuilding a car if you started from scratch as opposed to just buying a kia. By the time you buy all the equipment to build and work on the car... you really aren't saving anything, your spending, and spending lots. However, it's all about enjoying the hobby and the fruits of your labor in this hobby is beer :mug:
 
i drank bud light for years. started working into heavier beers and next thing i knew i found guinness to be a bit watery. this hobby is not about saving money, (which is??) but about a passion for beer and all things hoppy. your initial investment will be the biggest and your price per bottle drops after about 10 batches.

www.NortherBrewer.com will have a great beginners set up for about $80 and with a cream ale kit at $20. for a little over 2 cases of beer. then another kit and another kit and more gear and more gear and more kits and more pots and a cooler and a cooker and a 50lb bag of grain and kegs and fridge and seperate house addition for your brew house. as you can see, the price can really jump ifyou are interested.

when i started, i went to a local homebrew club and was flood at everything these guys knew about beer and hops and how to brew. (overwhelmed would be a better word) then i got on here and started researching. it has been great.

saving money was not on my mind.
 
With those ingredients, and two ounces of hops, and a package of S05 yeast, it'd probably be around $30 or so for the ingredients. If you can buy cheap reverse osmosis water, you could get the water for maybe $5 or so. The yeast is usually $3.25/package and the extract is $20ish. The grains might be a couple of dollars. Hops vary, but are probably $1.50/ounce and that recipe requires two ounces.

To be honest, though, the most difficult beer to brew even for advanced all-grain brewers is a light lager. It requires strict temperature control, special techniques, ingredients like adjuncts (rice or corn) and quality yeast. Making Bud Light won't be possible until you have expert techniques down. If you're expecting something similar, you will be sorely disappointed.

Brewing is great fun, but most of us wouldn't even try to duplicate a beer like Bud Light to save money- it'll end up costing more to do it at home if you consider the cost of a good quality lager yeast and good ingredients as well as the length of time in temperature control. It's much cheaper to buy that beer than to spend months making it and finding out that it's not as good as the commercial version anyway.

If you like expensive craft beers, brewing CAN save money. We were talking about this yesterday. The beers I like are $9-$12 a six pack. The two of us in my home drink a sixer every day. Not only are my beers cheaper to make than most of the craft beers I like, they are better tasting because I brew to my taste.

I don't want to dissuade you from brewing! It's a great hobby and I love it. While you can save some money by brewing craft beers, it's not really a realistic goal.

What I mean is this- the goal should be great beer with the possibility of saving money.

Homebrewing is like restoring a classic car. No one restores a classic car with the intent to save some cash. By the time you buy what you need and spend the hours on it, and actually have the car restored, you could have bought a brand new car. Homebrewing is sort of the same way in that respect. By the time you get what you need, and do enough batches where you are producing a quality product repeatedly, you could have purchased a LOT of beer! We're doing it for the love of the hobby, not to make beer cheaply. Doing it cheaper than store-bought is an added bonus.

I probably have $5,000 plus invested in my homebrewing stuff. None of it is necessary, though. You can make great beer with a mesh bag, a bucket, some siphon tubing, and a good water source!
 
What are you guys talking about? Homebrewing can save loads of money.

Let's say you've brewed 30 five gallon batches, not a particularly hard goal to reach over 2-3 years. At 53 bottles a batch, and the average craft beer costing about $1.50 per bottle, you've generated about $2400 worth of beer. If you average batch costs $30 to make, that's $900 on ingredients, so that leaves $1300. Speaking for myself, my equipment doesn't cost close to this, and I brew all grain beer and keg it.

And you have nowhere to go but up from there. Sure, there is the cost of time spent brewing, but brewing isn't exactly hard work. It mostly just means being committed to not straying too far from your house for 3-6 hours.

Also, you can brew beer styles that cost much more than $1.50 a beer if you want, and it really doesn't cost any extra for ingredients. You can further cut costs by buying bulk grain and milling it yourself, reusing yeast, and growing hops.
 
rexbanner said:
What are you guys talking about? Homebrewing can save loads of money.

Let's say you've brewed 30 five gallon batches, not a particularly hard goal to reach over 2-3 years. At 53 bottles a batch, and the average craft beer costing about $1.50 per bottle, you've generated about $2400 worth of beer. If you average batch costs $30 to make, that's $900 on ingredients, so that leaves $1300. Speaking for myself, my equipment doesn't cost close to this, and I brew all grain beer and keg it.

And you have nowhere to go but up from there. Sure, there is the cost of time spent brewing, but brewing isn't exactly hard work. It mostly just means being committed to not straying too far from your house for 3-6 hours.

Also, you can brew beer styles that cost much more than $1.50 a beer if you want, and it really doesn't cost any extra for ingredients. You can further cut costs by buying bulk grain and milling it yourself, reusing yeast, and growing hops.
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He's not talking about $1.50/beer- he's talking about $22/case or less than $1 a beer and a light American lager at that. Purchasing Bud Light is much cheaper than you can make it for, at least make it professionally well. Yeast alone is over $6 a pack for good quality lager yeast, plus temperature control requires some extra techniques. My last cream ale (I rarely make light American lagers) cost only $16 for five gallons, but the commercial equivalent is $9 a 30 pack (Genny Cream Ale). Not much of a savings! Brewing as an extract would cost twice as much, so figure $30 or so. In that example, a macroswill beer is indeed cheaper than brewing it. That's where I was coming from.
 
rexbanner said:
What are you guys talking about? Homebrewing can save loads of money.

Let's say you've brewed 30 five gallon batches, not a particularly hard goal to reach over 2-3 years. At 53 bottles a batch, and the average craft beer costing about $1.50 per bottle, you've generated about $2400 worth of beer. If you average batch costs $30 to make, that's $900 on ingredients, so that leaves $1300. Speaking for myself, my equipment doesn't cost close to this, and I brew all grain beer and keg it.

And you have nowhere to go but up from there. Sure, there is the cost of time spent brewing, but brewing isn't exactly hard work. It mostly just means being committed to not straying too far from your house for 3-6 hours.

Also, you can brew beer styles that cost much more than $1.50 a beer if you want, and it really doesn't cost any extra for ingredients. You can further cut costs by buying bulk grain and milling it yourself, reusing yeast, and growing hops.
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We are all going on the fact that he drinks BUD LIGHT! $22 a case is $0.92 a can. And I can get it for way cheaper here in Michigan. More like $16 a case here, or $20 for a 30 pack. On those prices, no, you aren't saving that much money.
 
Repeating the points that have already been said for the most part but ............

There is no way you will save money homebrewing vs. buying bud light. Factoring in basic starter equipment, sub-par batches (learning curve) before you can make a beer comparable to bud light. Equipment repurchases because you tried to go "cheap" the first time around on equipment. Once the "addiction" sets in you will be a couple grand in the hole ... guaranteed.

3 years and a few grand later I would say I pretty much have 2 of everything. I might break even in about 50 years .......... my goal was never to break even or save money though. If it had been I would have been horribly dissapointed.
 
Agreed, but the OP drinks a light lager... this was one of the mistakes I made when I first got into brewing. I got in planning on make Becks and Heineken. I fell, scratched my knees, and got back on the homebrew bike though, and now I'm brewing varieties that I never would have touched before.

I would encourage the OP to branch out on his beer tastes prior to getting into homebrewing (or concurrently) - I'm not one to give a list of beers to go try, (other people chime in here). Once you have a grasp of some other styles and know you like them, then you can be sure that you'll have something to brew without jumping straight into a fermentation chamber build.

You might also find a local homebrew club and attend a meeting, or perhaps even a group brew and see what goes into it. Also, make sure you understand the difference between all-grain and extract, and the costs associated.

Final thought: I used 'savings' as an initial reason to get into homebrew... that has since been proven completely laughable. The all grain setup, the kegerator, the... well it goes on...
 
Its not about saving money its about gaining quality. The first question i always get is how much does it cost. I usually tell them that i make 50 beers for 25 bucks(all grain buying bulk). I then tell them that i have spent $1000 on equipment lol. But seriously you can start out for 100 bucks and spend around $30 for kits to make 50 beers. Its still cheaper than bud light and better beers. Theres a whole world of beer i didnt know existed before i started brewing and i love them all :)
 
rexbanner said:
Sure, there is the cost of time spent brewing, but brewing isn't exactly hard work. It mostly just means being committed to not straying too far from your house for 3-6 hours.
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Working at Burger King isn't hard either and the 10 hours you spend end to end on an all-grain batch gets you $90 bucks there, enough to buy a couple of cases of craft beer. Also the Burger King job will get you more 18 yo ass than homebrewing, if that is your thing.
 
remilard said:
Working at Burger King isn't hard either and the 10 hours you spend end to end on an all-grain batch gets you $90 bucks there, enough to buy a couple of cases of craft beer. Also the Burger King job will get you more 18 yo ass than homebrewing, if that is your thing.
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18 yo ass and craft beer ......... if only that was a value meal option ......
 
Ok I will argue you could save some money by brewing your own BL clone. BL is weak ABV session beer so if you look at it from that vantage point yes, you could save some cash.

You could use all DME and still save money...I think ingredients would run you about $15 for a 5 gallon batch (That is 2 cases of beer give or take a bit)

The problem is making a light beer that is drinkable. If you can clone BL I would be shocked and here is why...What flavors can you taste in a frosty BL? (I am going to go with little to none.) The lighter the beer the more apparent any off flavors will become. We love to poke fun at BMC here but secretly we all know how hard it is to brew up a good tasting light lager beer (I am not saying BMC is good ;) ). IMO this is one of the hardest styles to make and do it well. (Yes, we have some folks here that I am sure can make an excellent light beer but they are the exception not the rule. I have never heard of a beginner being able to do this style well off the go.) Most people make ales to start with not lagers.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you try brewing, just not a BL clone. :mug:
 
I got into it to save money or at least that's what I told my wife! When I was buying beer I preferred Newcastle but didn't like paying for more than Bud. Now that I have the equipment I'm saving money but as countless others say it is getting to that point that you have the equipment.

If I kept drinking Bud my wallet would've been happier (because of the equipment) but not my taste buds.
 
Zamial said:
IMO this is one of the hardest styles to make and do it well. (Yes, we have some folks here that I am sure can make an excellent light beer but they are the exception not the rule. I have never heard of a beginner being able to do this style well off the go.) Most people make ales to start with not lagers.
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Yep. Homebrewers don't really make light lagers...it's a PITA for something you can buy dirt cheap. In the last local competition (~760 total entries), I think light lager had 7 entries and American IPA (a subcategory) had 54.
 
My magic number is $60. I won't bore anyone with how I got there, but if a 5 gallon batch costs less than that, I am coming out ahead of where I would be if buying serviceable commercial craft brews. I have yet to top $50 on ingredients.
 
You might, I say might, save money if you brew your own beer. But that's not the point: if this is the only reason why you want to brew, the hobby might not interest you that much. It does take some time to brew. It does take some space in your home to brew. It might upset SWMBO to brew :D. So if your only reason is just to have the cheapest beer ever, you might not enjoy spending time and "wasting" space.

I do not think many home-brewers do this hobby to save money, especially compared to store bought bud light. If you compared to imported Belgian beer, it would be different.

And let's face it, once you start with a basic kit, and if you enjoy the hobby, you quickly realize it is fun to have more equipment. A carboy, a chiller, a kegging set-up, go all-grain, ...
 
Shaneoco1981 said:
Huh?
Click to expand...

If you have ten hours of free time and you want beer and you are of the quality required to work at Burger King, or of a higher quality, homebrewing is not the most financially efficient way to get beer. It only makes sense if you enjoy it as a hobby.
 
You can definetely save money.

Wash your yeast, but hops in bulk and buy LME / grain from you LHBS and you can brew extract kits for 20 bucks. You would be saving over 50% over bud light. If you compare this to say Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (8 bucks a 6-pack is the price here) you would be paying less than 30% to brew your own.

Yes you save money
 
I'm making my first batch of home brew... it was $120 for all of the equipment and ~$20/$25 for the ingredients. It's supposed to be a beer like Killians... obviously, it's probably not going to turn out as good as Killians but I'm sure I'll enjoy it more than those cheap ass beers that are $20 after deposit for a 24 (Miller Lite, Bud Light, Budweiser, etc.).

I will never be able to find a deal of 48 beers for $25 around here ever... a lot of companies make money off of brewing beer, of course you can save or even make money off of it. It just seems like you would have to look at your home brewing as a business and not really a hobby because, apparently, a lot of these guys on this forum aren't ****ing around. My ingredients aren't top of the line but I'll take $25 for 48 beers of a ****ty Killians clone (while also learning how to brew) over $8 for a 6 pack of actual Killians.

The Bud Light thing seems to make sense, but who the hell's gonna try to brew that crap? I'm with malintent... piss in a cup, I wouldn't disgrace my fermenter with such bull**** beer haha.
 
I could brew my little heart out and never get back all the money I've dumped in for equipment, etc.
 
I think I save money only factoring in ingredients, but not if you factor in the equipment. The thing is, it costs a hell of a lot more for a 24 of beer here, even if it is Bud light or something. The cheapest beer here is around $1.00/beer, + tax (and taxes are more here) so you're about $1.25 for the cheapest swill available with bottle deposits and what not.

That being said, I only spent about $100.00 for my equipment (extract only) and don't really see the need for anything else right yet. It shouldn't take too long to bring the cost per batch down below the cost of decent commercial beer. I'm only on batch 4 right now, so it will only get cheaper.
 
If you flipped to all grain fairly quickly, washed yeast/use dry yeast, and bought hops in bulk you could get your costs down to or below the cost of bud light within several batches if the beer you made was a low hop, low alcohol session beer.

Most people don't make that transition early so you add a lot of cost into your brewing buying extract, multiple 1oz bags of hops, etc. Most people start wanting to make 6,7,8+% ABV beers, very hoppy beers, etc. which require more ingredients so that adds money. Then you get into wanting more equipment and more advanced equipment so that adds to costs. If you don't take cost efficient steps you're always going to make expensive homebrew when you price it out over time. Certainly brewing your first batch of anything is going to be way, way more expensive than buying commercial beer. It takes a while before your costs start to come down per bottle, especially if you buy a lot of expensive equipment up front.

I've been brewing for close to two years and I can make beers well below the cost of Bud Light, even at 6-7% ABV. Then again I don't have a lot of fancy equipment, I don't keg, don't have dedicated fermentation chambers, no fancy mash set up or expensive kettles, etc. and I buy hops in bulk, yeast wash and use a small number of strains. I also don't brew highly hopped beers. So for me my costs are very low. I think my first batch ran about $2.50 per bottle and now it's around $.50-90 depending on the beer.
 
just do it!

You may not be able to replicate any of the light commercial lagers, easily anyway, but your tastes will expand and you may find that BMC will no longer be your favorite!!

Worst case scenario is you can just sell all of your equipment if you don't really like the hobby!!

Good luck
 
I don't know, I think you can save a ton of money even doing extract brews as long as you keep your equipment purchases in check. You figure a typical craft beer, nothing fancy is going to run $30/case. Figure $60 per equivalent batch. I in total for my first three batches spent About $270 including all of my equipment. So after just three batches I'm setting at $90 per batch. Three more $35 extract kits later and I'm at $62 per batch. Three more and $53 per batch. Of course you can spend more or less on kits, $35 seems fairly average compared to the fairly average $30/case figure I used above. I think within just 10 brews you can easily start saving some money.. over similar commercial beers. Maybe not much savings over bud light, but you're brewing better beer with more alcohol in it.
 
There's no way you can say that making your own beer doesn't save money because working at a fast food joint would earn you more for the same amount of time spent. In essence it's true, but most people interested in brewing beer have a job (else how could we afford to buy beer).

You need to look at the cost differential versus sitting on my ass doing nothing. Right now I'm probably at about $80 for 5 gallons (a total guess... I had some of the equipment already AND bought more...) and my wife isn't entirely pleased, but it's more about how quickly I waste the money. The goal is for my brewing to not cost more than buying... or better, to cost significantly less.

That doesn't mean I'm in the game to save money. I just want to do something I enjoy, drink more and better beer, and have all the costs justifiable.

(My next batch of wine will be dirt cheap... with equipment I calculated it to be $9/bottle... without, $2).
 
on an ingredients basis alone I probably save a few bucks since when it comes to store bought beer I have expensive taste but realistically, I cant stop spending money on equipment so I have no delusions that I am saving money with this hobby. I've boiled away lots of stress with it though. :D
 
Thanks for all the information everyone, didn't expect to get this much help! I already love this forum haha

I know most of you do this for the hobby and not to save money. But I'm wanting to do it first to save money and second for the hobby. I first have to pay off some priorities (a new car) but after that I'm going to start trying to brew beer to save money.

I'm thinking of making a new thread when I do and lay out my plans and costs to see how much money I actually save (if any). I'm thinking of washing yeast and possibly growing my own hops or buying them in bulk, haven't decided yet. I think this could be a cool little experiment to show if you can actually save money or not. What do you guys think?
 

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