Cheapies Brew

Timmsy · Post by **Timmsy** » Wednesday Sep 20, 2006 8:30 am

Was at Coles last night and i got a tin of coles brand draught and 1kg of CSR brewing suger total cost of $10 hahahahaha something cheap.

I have a few Coopers left over yeasts from previous brews do you think i should chuck them in??

The idea of the cheapy is to see what it turn out like

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Wednesday Sep 20, 2006 8:58 am

Been discussed in some detail in the past.

One, Two, Three

Cheers,
Greg

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Thursday Sep 28, 2006 2:49 pm

Bland and uninteresting is my guess.

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Sep 28, 2006 5:14 pm

I havent used many cheaper brands myself but when i used to live in QLD a guy i knew used to brew homebrand beers but add quality extras like malt and hops and i gotta say they were quite good, saying that i think with beer you get what you pay for but try it out, it could be ok

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Thursday Sep 28, 2006 8:43 pm

Malt for an All Grain: $2 per kilo*. (need 3 to 5 ish..) kilos for a 23 L batch.

Cheers,
Greg

* 25Kg bag ESB Sydney

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Friday Sep 29, 2006 10:38 am

Plus hops and yeast.

Emo · Post by **Emo** » Friday Sep 29, 2006 11:04 am

he local Big W store had Breweiser brand (or something like that) on special for about $8.40. There sugar packets were about $3.50 so you could get 23 litres going for about $12. That works out to be 52cents per litre or 19.5 cents a stubby. That's less than $4.70 per slab.

Beerdrinker32 · Post by **Beerdrinker32** » Friday Sep 29, 2006 10:45 pm

$2 a kilo for grain??? my local homebrew guy told me not to bother with ag,he reckons its more expensive and takes a whole day to do

somehow i think he is full of shit. am keen on building a mash tun and getting into it!!! are ag beers tastier if done well

cheers

morgs · Post by **morgs** » Friday Sep 29, 2006 10:49 pm

You get what you pay for!

Beerdrinker32 · Post by **Beerdrinker32** » Friday Sep 29, 2006 10:59 pm

im going for quality

goon is pretty cheap

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 3:12 am

my local homebrew guy told me not to bother with ag,he reckons its more expensive and takes a whole day to do

Its cheaper and it takes 4 hours and it is a noticable improvement. What is this guy thinking?

Dogger

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 6:28 am

Just be warned, All Grain brewing can become addictive.

Cheers,
Greg

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 7:38 am

I am sorry but its statements from HBS people like that really annoy me. Likely never having done anything beyond Kit and Kilo he is passing out sagely advice like that.

Here is my cost for a kit and malt, a few specialty hops and grains

1 Coopers beer kit $16.00
1.2 kg Malt extract $8.00
28 g hops $3.50
500 g Specialty Malt $4.00
18 g good yeast $2.50

Total $34

Cost for An AG Brew

4.5 kg base malt (crushed) $4.50
1 kg Specialty Malt $8.00
56 g Hops $7.00
18 g quality yeast $2.50

Total $22

Yeh, Looks like it costs more to me too. You know what, if you are going All Grain, get your goods at "Craftbrewer.com.au"

I have and I wasn't dissappointed. This other guy sounds like a chump to me.

Dogger

blandy · Post by **blandy** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 7:39 am

Despite teh fact that you can make awesome beer with little more than a kit and kilo, all-grain has some definite advantages:

- Improved quality (not much in my experience, but definately noticable)

- greater variety: there's just some stuff you can't make with partials, take my Rauchbier for instance.

- a better understanding into how beer is made

- longer time = you get to drink more beer while you mash.

Beerdrinker32 · Post by **Beerdrinker32** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 8:39 am

thanks dogger!!!! his beer tastes like shit too

i hate these guys that only advise procedures that involve what they have in stock, also reckons liquid yeasts arnt that good? of course he doesnt stock them

blandy · Post by **blandy** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 12:06 pm

I'm guessing that AG costs more at HIS shop becauce he only stocks grain in 500g bags for use as an addition to malt extract.

For my first AG batch (Pale Ale) I had the misfortune of buying my ingredients from Brewcraft, who are great for K&K, but not much help after that. The cost was siginificantly less for AG batches #2 & #3 (Rauchbier and Stout) when I went to G&G, who specialise on AG. Not only that, but they had more variety in stock: Brewcraft don't stock smoked malt, the G&G guy didn't bat an eyelid when I asked for it.

Anyway, even if it does cost you $5 more (which I'd doubt it would if you can find a good HBS), think about all the extra entertainment you get from mashing, and the yummy beer at the end. and extra $5 is next to nothing spread over 20L.

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 12:31 pm

I just priced a 25kg bag on the Grain and Grape site and you can get 25kg of whatever you like rangeing from $35-$80 and thats pretty cheap in my book

blandy · Post by **blandy** » Saturday Sep 30, 2006 1:46 pm

lethaldog wrote:I just priced a 25kg bag on the Grain and Grape site and you can get 25kg of whatever you like rangeing from $35-$80 and thats pretty cheap in my book

Yeah, that's good. But since I prefer to make my AG batches my specialty beers, then a 25kg bag is a bit out of the question.

G&G prices are pretty good anyway without the discounts.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sunday Oct 01, 2006 1:53 pm

Beerdrinker32 wrote:$2 a kilo for grain??? my local homebrew guy told me not to bother with ag,he reckons its more expensive and takes a whole day to do somehow i think he is full of shit. am keen on building a mash tun and getting into it!!! are ag beers tastier if done well cheers

All grain brews are a huge improvement over kits or extracts plus grain, but don't expect to be saving any money in real terms. There are equipment costs. My simple system cost over $500 and I already had a mill, so add that back into it. There is also a cost of using electricity or gas for the heating/boiling of a big volume, and a fair bit of water is used for the chill. These items can run into several dollars per brew and will depend on how efficient everything is.

I spend anywhere from 5 to 9 hrs making an all grain (depending on how complex). This includes from first cracking the grain and starting to heat up the mash water, to pitching and final clean up.

But it's all worth it.

Cheers, Ed

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Sunday Oct 01, 2006 4:17 pm

Was just wondering if anyone knows if the vinyl tubing that you get from bunnings is ok to use to drain the tun and to use as a syphon, its got a fairly strong plastic odour to it which could just be because its new but thought i would ask anyway to make sure

On the cost thing i just bought these items to setup the shed for all grain:

Round 20l esky ( willow ) $60
Malt mill from the US $220 oz dollars and that included postage.
18 metre coil of 1/2 inch copper $100
Tap for the drain hose ( like a t intersection) $2
Vinyl tubing 3 metres at 10mm $4
couple of hose clamps $2
40litre ally pot $105
1 rubber bung $2
and a few hacksaw blades cos i snapped mine and the neighbours making the manifold

Total expense to setup so far $503

Add in that i may need a better burner ( not sure yet) $100
and the ingredients for the first batch were about $25 cos i brought in 1 kg lots and hops in small lots aswell

so not overly cheap so far but i think it will pay for itself fairly quickly in this house, ive seen shop bought setups that are in the thousands to so im pretty happy with the cost in that respect

Cheers
Leigh