Home brewing saves you money? HAHAH!

[ktblunden]

It isn't pretty! But I LOVE it. I brew inside, because there is like 2 weeks here that it's warm enough to brew outside.

It's convenient, dependable, fun, and there is very little to no lifting with the pumps and tippy dump for the mashtun. Overkill? well, probably.

Yoop, did you fab the cart together yourself or buy it? I've got an e-brew setup in my future and trying to figure out my stand options. Is the tippy dump just a hinge welded to the mashtun? And do you have any close up shots of that?

 

[TrubHead]

Is this brew equipment envy or what?

Why Yooper, next thing you know, you'll have a nice rig that that down here in TX too!

That's a nice setup. What functions are in the gray control box?

Ah, well, it's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? I have a super-simple set-up -- space is limited! -- so yours looks downright sexy to me.

Things to aspire to, though...

Yoop, did you fab the cart together yourself or buy it? I've got an e-brew setup in my future and trying to figure out my stand options. Is the tippy dump just a hinge welded to the mashtun? And do you have any close up shots of that?

 

[jbaysurfer]

Thankfully I don't chose to brew to increase economic efficiency. I brew because it's fun and awesome and tasty and other people think I'm cool.

Awesome quote. :rockin:

 

[Yooper]

That's a nice setup. What functions are in the gray control box?

I have a PID for the HLT, with a switch for the stirrer for the HLT. I have a PWM for the boil kettle, with a switch also.

I have two switches for pumps.

 

[Yooper]

Yoop, did you fab the cart together yourself or buy it? I've got an e-brew setup in my future and trying to figure out my stand options. Is the tippy dump just a hinge welded to the mashtun? And do you have any close up shots of that?

I bought it. I got it from a guy who built it from a box shelving kit. Then my friend (lschiavo on this forum) and I hacked it up, shored it up, and added lawnmower wheels to the bottom.

The HLT and MLT are bottom draining, and the HLT is a tippy dump. I don't have any other photos right now, but I'll try to take some and then start a new thread since I didn't mean to steal this one!

 

[Marc77]

Brewing is much like golfing. You don't get into either one to "save" money. I love doing both though. Now if I can just convince my wife to let me buy those 20 gal/80 qt stainless steel stock pots...oh and buy the stuff to finish my fermentation chamber.

 

[Bostonbrewin63]

i got a question for all the guys who have wives; now i see alot of people always say something along the lines of "i gotta talk to the wife an see if its ok" (to buy more equipment.. ect..) my question is.. doesn't your wife buy things too? doesn't your wife go shopping an spend money? idk maybe its just me, but my girl loves shopping and i never say anything to her so A, she leaves for the the WHOLE day B, i can brew ALONE allllll day C, SHE CANT SAY **** WHEN I BUY 200.00 bucks of bulk grain and hops!! so yea.. CHEERS! its friday!

 

[JohnSand]

True, my wife never complains about the money I spend on brewing or sailing. But she loves spending money!
Kidding aside, lots of couples make joint financial decisions. And I haven't spent more than $40 at a time on brew gear. I'm keeping it small, simple, and relatively cheap.

 

[Paps]

Saving money or not is relative to your tastes.
Where i live BMC sells for 7-8 $$ a 6 pack
Guinness sells for $9 + a 6 pack
Left hand milk stout nitro runs $ 12 + a 6 pack

I personally spend roughly $1 a beer for what i make which imho is as good as any of the above.
So yes i can say that i save money by homebrewing.
Of course if you drink natyy by the 30 pack then i guess you aren't saving money.
But you aren't drinking `good beer` either.

 

[mike_in_ak]

Yeah well anything you do your self has cost barrier to entry.

Installing my new drier. Old duct falls apart and was done wrong in first place. $300 in tools and ducting later, I'm still working on it. Bonus: Wife loves that I'm apparently cutting holes in her new house.

Made me sick to spend that money on something not beer or fun related.

 

[King_Coaster]

For me it's like this, I have been in the work force for 40 odd years and have nothing to show for it, I work hard and I am beat when I get home, the one thing I can feel good about in life is going into my man cave and pouring a pint from my kegerator. When I bought the kegerator the plan was just to buy kegged beer from the local distributor but it appears that getting 30L (1/2 keg) at a time is just as expensive as buying bottles and then they want a crazy deposit on the keg to boot... So for me a $45 box of Festa some Co2 and a few extra hours of work is a no brainer to having cold beer on tap 24/7

Cheers

 

[locolorenzo22]

make sure to pay attention to the date when replying...looks like this petered out 1.5 years ago.

 

[slym2none]

Threadsurrection!

 

[Rhumbline]

With the kinds of beer I like, there's no question that I save money. If I was ok drinking Budweiser then it would be impossible to save money brewing my own. But if you're buying Duvel, then the savings are obvious and undeniable.

Besides, I don't require my hobbies to be financially self supporting.

And for everyone who posted to say "This is an old thread" you've just added to the issue by bumping it to the top of the pile!

 

[bobeer]

old thread, new thread, this topic has been discussed a thousand times! haha. I think I just posted on one yesterday.

I will make a different point here, however. I find the savings increase when I bottle a big beer. a 750 ml beer of an abv of 8%+ can cost up to $20 a bottle and sometimes even more. I have to brew small batches of big beers due to the size of my mash tun but I still get 2.5-3 gallons worth of beer. For instance I just bottled an bourbon oak oatmeal molasses stout that's about 8%. I got 6 750's, 3 bombers and 3 12 ozer's. For what it cost me to brew it would have cost be double, or more, to buy a commercial version of the same amount of this beer.

Now with IPA's I don't think you're saving any money at all. Unless you're using home grown hops as the whirlpool and dry hops. Using washed yeast will also help.

I think the only way you'd save money is by buying bulk and brewing average gravity beers that have an average amount of hops. It's possible to save money but that's not why a lot of us brew.

 

[ArcLight]

I think the only way you'd save money is by buying bulk and brewing average gravity beers that have an average amount of hops. It's possible to save money but that's not why a lot of us brew.

I agree. Given the time it takes (I bottle), I wouldn't spend 4 hours brewing/bottling/cleaning to save $40.
It's purely for the enjoyment, and ability to experiment.

Now if you make specialty beers such as a Vanilla French Medium Toast Oak Bourbon Oatmeal Molassas Tripel Banana Stout with Cherry Puree and Brett, then yes you will save money, because that costs an arm and a leg at the store. :fro:

I'd like to make a sour beer someday, I just fear making a mediocre one, that I end up not caring for.

 

[vincentAlpha]

Maybe in the USA homebrewing may not save you money, but when a crap beer costs you $3 a bottle (welcome to Canada folks) homebrewing is a huge saver. Not to mention the selection can be pitiful depending on where you are, if you want 16 kinds of Canadian style lagers that basically are nigh identical you are in luck, want something else, good luck.

 

[Darwin18]

It's a hobby. Who really cares if you're saving money brewing versus buying in the grocery store?

 

[atom]

Now with IPA's I don't think you're saving any money at all. Unless you're using home grown hops as the whirlpool and dry hops. Using washed yeast will also help.

disagree. not counting equipment costs, i can brew 5 gallons of a hoppy, 7%ish IPA for $20-$25 ($8-$10 for grain, $8-$10 for hops, $3 for a pack of US05) add a few dollars for water/propane/o2/co2. two cases of an equivalent commercial IPA would cost me over $70.

 

[augiedoggy]

Jesus $25 bucks for co2, I pay 10 bucks for a 20# tank at the welding gas supplier.

since someone else resurrected this...

Im sure someone else mentioned it in this thread but as im not reading the whole thing....co2 from a welding supply source is not always the same gas as the stuff designated for food grade use.... welding supply gas is often full of contaminants and oils.. they are handed differently and stored in different ways. the food grade stuff usually costs a little more to reflect this.

One of my customers is a national manufacturer of co2 and gave me the rundown...

 

[j1n]

lets not forget the fact we can make beers that you cant buy.

I just made an IPA with my choice of grains and hops that i like. I also decided to experiment with TYB Funktown Pale yeast which is a saach and brett blend.

 

[PlexVector]

i got a question for all the guys who have wives; now i see alot of people always say something along the lines of "i gotta talk to the wife an see if its ok" (to buy more equipment.. ect..) my question is.. doesn't your wife buy things too? doesn't your wife go shopping an spend money? idk maybe its just me, but my girl loves shopping and i never say anything to her so A, she leaves for the the WHOLE day B, i can brew ALONE allllll day C, SHE CANT SAY **** WHEN I BUY 200.00 bucks of bulk grain and hops!! so yea.. CHEERS! its friday!

I've been told that her spending is for the family and mine is just for me, which basically means what she buys for herself is mixed in with what she buys for the family. So, the fact that I buy a string trimmer, its for me, but if she buys a chair that's for the family...like we need another chair!

So; if I save a beer from each batch for when the kids are old enough to drink, then I think that qualifies as buying for the family...right?

(full disclosure: I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's how it comes off some time.)

 

[bbohanon]

lets not forget the fact we can make beers that you cant buy.

I just made an IPA with my choice of grains and hops that i like. I also decided to experiment with TYB Funktown Pale yeast which is a saach and brett blend.

This +100. I dont homebrew to save any money at all. I do it to make the beer I want to drink. I have yet to find a Choc Milk Stout I enjoy more than the one I make...I still buy new beers if I see them in the store, but its usually a 6-er to try them out and usually they sit in the fridge after I drink 1 or 2 as I usually go back to drinking my own.
I probably have more invested in this hobby than I will ever recoup making beer. Its the hobby I enjoy and the product of it.

 

[bobeer]

disagree. not counting equipment costs, i can brew 5 gallons of a hoppy, 7%ish IPA for $20-$25 ($8-$10 for grain, $8-$10 for hops, $3 for a pack of US05) add a few dollars for water/propane/o2/co2. two cases of an equivalent commercial IPA would cost me over $70.

That's awesome. Maybe I'm wrong then. I do know it really depends where you shop when it comes down to buying stuff for individual beers and also commercial beer. At least here it does. In my same town I have a guy who sells grain, and all types of grain, for almost $3 a lb, and another that sells base malts for about $1.20 or so a lb. If I buy in bulk then obviously it's cheaper all around. As for commercial beer costco is usually the best bet since they usually have Stone IPA for about $32 a 24 pack which is something like 6.9%

 

[augiedoggy]

That's awesome. Maybe I'm wrong then. I do know it really depends where you shop when it comes down to buying stuff for individual beers and also commercial beer. At least here it does. In my same town I have a guy who sells grain, and all types of grain, for almost $3 a lb, and another that sells base malts for about $1.20 or so a lb. If I buy in bulk then obviously it's cheaper all around. As for commercial beer costco is usually the best bet since they usually have Stone IPA for about $32 a 24 pack which is something like 6.9%

I dont remember there being much of anything in Leesburg that wasnt expensive when I was there.... xerox used to have the "document university" there were I went for training a handful of times over the years....
I remember there being a lot of private communities that seem to almost sprout up overnight in a farmers field....

 

[atom]

That's awesome. Maybe I'm wrong then. I do know it really depends where you shop when it comes down to buying stuff for individual beers and also commercial beer. At least here it does. In my same town I have a guy who sells grain, and all types of grain, for almost $3 a lb, and another that sells base malts for about $1.20 or so a lb. If I buy in bulk then obviously it's cheaper all around. As for commercial beer costco is usually the best bet since they usually have Stone IPA for about $32 a 24 pack which is something like 6.9%

$3 a lb is ridiculous. my cost is .70-$1 a lb for base...specialty is a bit more.

 

[aprichman]

It isn't pretty! But I LOVE it. I brew inside, because there is like 2 weeks here that it's warm enough to brew outside.

It's convenient, dependable, fun, and there is very little to no lifting with the pumps and tippy dump for the mashtun. Overkill? well, probably.

Old thread but had to chime in how nice your brew setup is - gives me something to dream about

 

[bobeer]

$3 a lb is ridiculous. my cost is .70-$1 a lb for base...specialty is a bit more.

It is ridiculous which is why I don't buy grains from there. I live in one of the most wealthiest and expensive counties in the country so it's sort of par for the course here... which sucks.

 

[bobeer]

I dont remember there being much of anything in Leesburg that wasnt expensive when I was there.... xerox used to have the "document university" there were I went for training a handful of times over the years....
I remember there being a lot of private communities that seem to almost sprout up overnight in a farmers field....

You got it man. Everything is expensive here. I'm from the NoVa area and we're being pushed out because we don't work for the govt which means we can't afford to live around here much longer.

 

[BobBailey]

I have been brewing for about 8 years now and figure I'm at about the break even point. If I buy beer, I spend about 1.25/12 oz. bottle. Similar homebrews cost me about .75/ 12 oz. including incidentals.

I only drink on days that end with a Y, and average 3 beers per day. That's about $4380 in savings on cost of beer. Just about what I have invested, including equipment I no longer use.

Even if you never break even, what other hobby gives you any return you can drink and enjoy?

 

[Bosh]

You can save a good bit of money when good imported American craft beer costs $5-9 a bottle.

 

[Hanglow]

I've saved a load of money, obviously we don't count the time it takes to make it as its a hobby and enjoyable, but take something like SNPA here costs £1.80 a bottle would cost me about 30p max to make. Even the most hopped up IPA would be about 70p max and the cheapest DIPA I can get here is a shade over £2 . Bitters and milds can be knocked out at 15p a bottle. That's all grain and buying about £80 of ingredients for five brews or so at a time

I know in the US the tax is tiny, so its probably much less of a saving for you guys

 

[Eucrid]

I'm the same as the last 2 posters. Here in Ireland it costs €18 - €20 for a 6 pack of most good craft beer whether its US/UK imports or the Irish made stuff. I can make 5 gallons of beer for less than that.

I used to regularly drop €100 buying beer. Nowadays I get the occasional new beer in bottle shop and the odd growler fill when theres something I want to taste.

I'm still in my first year of brewing though so I'm always buying new gear. Even with that expense I'm probably still only matching what I used to spend on beer before and now I have a load of gear and my own home draught beer to show for it.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I dont remember there being much of anything in Leesburg that wasnt expensive when I was there.... xerox used to have the "document university" there were I went for training a handful of times over the years....
I remember there being a lot of private communities that seem to almost sprout up overnight in a farmers field....

Leesburg is getting more homebrew friendly. Commercial hop farms (and processing facilities) being put in, breweries sprouting like weeds.

You can save money by brewing. But face it, most hobbies have such cool equipment that is available for it. True you can make an equally good beer with simple equipment, but the shiny new toys are so cool. It all boils down to do you care more about saving money or enjoying your hobby.

If you can afford the expensive gadgets (and I finally sprung for some unnecessary, but cool, equipment) and really want them and find that they make brewing more fun for you then you probably dont care about saving money. If your goal is to save money you can devote more time and effort into designing budget friendly equipment and recipies.

It has been mentioned many times before. Big beers, Sour Beers, Aged Beers all can save you money as although they do cost more to make than a blonde ale, the equivalent cost per bottle is so much higher for commercial offerings. If you are going for cost per fluid oz, you may be better off sticking with your standard macrobrew.

 

[madscientist451]

Never heard of anyone talk about fishing, hunting, skiing, bicycling, guitar playing, womanizing or many other hobbies to save money. I suppose the availability of mass produced beer makes some do a cost/benefit analysis of brewing as a hobby. I brew because I want to, not to save money.

 

[laramie99]

It is ridiculous which is why I don't buy grains from there. I live in one of the most wealthiest and expensive counties in the country so it's sort of par for the course here... which sucks.

K&G is a great shop (I'm biased, because I'm a fairly regular customer there) but you're right - buying your base malt by the pound there is ineffective. However, their bulk prices are very reasonable. The only place I've seen cheaper on sack purchases is the DC Group Buy, which is kind of a pain in the ass if you live out this far. I buy 50lb sacks of 2-row and Pilsner from K&G, and grab the specialty grains I need as-needed from their per-pound bins. Keeps my price/batch fairly low.

The per-ounce hop bins can also save you some money over the packaged hops as long as you're buying them the day you're going to use them. I'm not sure what the prices are on the pound bags of hops there.

They also usually have a pretty good selection of commercial craft beers there.

BrewLoco (also a great shop) has better prices on the per-pound grains, but not as much of a selection on grains/hops/yeast/equipment (and a comparable selection of commercial craft beers)

Loudoun County is surprisingly a great place to be a homebrewer now that all these shops are popping up, with some unique experiences for brewing. For example, both shops mentioned above sell JasperYeast, which is a yeast company started by one of the brewers from Lost Rhino, with some of the strains actually harvested in the wild by him from around the area. That's pretty cool in my mind.

 

[bobeer]

K&G is a great shop (I'm biased, because I'm a fairly regular customer there) but you're right - buying your base malt by the pound there is ineffective. However, their bulk prices are very reasonable. The only place I've seen cheaper on sack purchases is the DC Group Buy, which is kind of a pain in the ass if you live out this far. I buy 50lb sacks of 2-row and Pilsner from K&G, and grab the specialty grains I need as-needed from their per-pound bins. Keeps my price/batch fairly low.

The per-ounce hop bins can also save you some money over the packaged hops as long as you're buying them the day you're going to use them. I'm not sure what the prices are on the pound bags of hops there.

They also usually have a pretty good selection of commercial craft beers there.

BrewLoco (also a great shop) has better prices on the per-pound grains, but not as much of a selection on grains/hops/yeast/equipment (and a comparable selection of commercial craft beers)

Loudoun County is surprisingly a great place to be a homebrewer now that all these shops are popping up, with some unique experiences for brewing. For example, both shops mentioned above sell JasperYeast, which is a yeast company started by one of the brewers from Lost Rhino, with some of the strains actually harvested in the wild by him from around the area. That's pretty cool in my mind.

K&G is a great shop, you're right. They do have pretty much any grain you'd need too. I've never not been able to find what I was looking for; but you def pay for that selection. He always gets very fresh commercial beer even though it's also pricey. I like being able to just buy 1 bottle of something to try.
Brew Loco is an awesome shop too. The ladies that own the place are very nice. I'm actually part of their homebrew club (so I'm biased there) and it's pretty awesome. They give a discount to members or AHA members too which is a big bonus for me since I'm a member of both.
Either way you slice it Loudoun is a very expensive, compared to what I"m see everyone else pays for their grains/hops/yeast, but it's still a great place to be a beer lover/homebrewer.

 

[Rhumbline]

Initial investment is a bit but all hobbies cost to get into.

Yeah, if you think this is expensive, buy a sailboat or a BMW motorcycle!

ETA ...or a Land Rover, how could I have forgotten about that one?

 

[ccoelnslash]

Now that I started all grain brewing.. I can do a nice IPA or another ale like a Weiss or pale for about 50-60 cents a bottle. Most craft brew sixers are roughly 7-8 a pack for local ones like 10 barrel.. Another local like widmer is maybe 30 cent cheaper..

Kirkland light beer at 48 cans for like 23 is the closest in cost that's same but isn't as good as homebrew. Plus with a hb it's your own beer with your love and sweat and I'm some cases burns from grabbing the hot lid on the boil pot lol.

 

[Tegra]

Ha ha....

I remember doing up a spreadsheet when I started this and figuring I only only drink a little less than one beer a day and my wife would drink about half that.

Little did I know that both of us would double or triple our consumption when it became a commodity.

Taking it that way, and the fact that a typical Canadian beer is about as cheap as an American gallon of gas, I should be able to retire on the amount I am saving!

Tom
(Can't seem to make enough for the expanding group of friends)