How much are you willing to spend per longneck?

[SimonH]

My second brew was a Deliverance ale partial extract (abt $32) and with filtered water ( abt $20) it cost about $52 (not exact). So at 28 bottles it cost me about a $1.80 per bottle. The result was great and above my expectations. I have started looking at brewing lager since summer is coming up and aswell as researching and considreing all grain brewing to step up the quality i have also started thinking about getting a fridge to control the low lager fermenting temp and then to cold condition it. I am making potentially a bad guess by saying a cheap old beer fridge would be $100 a year to run. If i give 3 months to 28 bottles, that works out at $25 for the 28 bottles, or about 90 c per bottle. So unless i can get the price down further through using all grain a longneck is costing about $2.70. If i got a carton on special i don't think i'd be too far away from that price. Yeah it's a hobby and i enjoy it but am sure we'll all here for savings too. Not sure if to just brew ales like others here or get a second fridge and go lagers too. I enjoy both equally, though probably and not unoriginally ales in colder weather and lager in hotter. Any views??

[Kevnlis]

I have spent more than twice that per stubby for the best beer I ever made. Would do it again in a heartbeat!

The best improvement I ever made to my ales and lagers was temp control. Well worth every penny IMHO!

[BierMeister]

My views are that you should get more bottles. The extra cost can be zero and more bottles means you can stock up and keep the rotation going as you drink the more mature beers. Make lagers in winter for the lower temps and keep for the summer, wheat beers and ales in spring, ready for the summer and Stouts, porters and ales in autumn ready for winter. No need for a fridge that way as the temps are ideal at those times of year. (to bad if you live in the tropic north ) HB can cost as much as you want it too or as little as some sanitizer and a kit and kilo mix. I have recently made three lagers(AG), brewed outside at between 12-14C (in Adelaides suburbs) for about $30-$35 each for ingredients. Even if you add $5 for gas and other incidentals thats $40 for over two and a half cartons of quality european style lager. Definately can't buy it for that in the stores

[Chris]

Cost is the last thing I consider. I'd rather good beer. Cheap beer is not a goal for me.

[Kevnlis]

Cost is the last thing I consider. I'd rather good beer. Cheap beer is not a goal for me.

But was this your intent in the begining? I agree 100% but when I first started it was all about making it for less!

[Chris]

No, that was a bit of a bonus really. I wanted to brew because I liked beer, and because my grandfather brewed his own for years. Too bad he died before I was old enough to (a) get any tips etc off him, and (b) get his brewing gear- my mother gave it all away!

[Longwood-65]

As little as possible,
The missus and I drink beer (about 2 cartons a week) and we bought our first house about 18months ago, I couldn't afford to drink beer at the rate the missus and I did and pay the morgage, fuel, car loan etc.
So I took up brewing and smoking rollies. I only do K&K's, this costs me about $25 a week instead of about $80 for packaged beer. The money I have saved over the past 10 mths has allowed me to buy a kegging system Got a bargin with 4 corny's, ( I already had spare fridge) which I finished assembling and filled my first keg yesterday. I have gone the Force carb on this keg because i want to try it out, I will for future kegs do Natural priming as I still want the beer to age as it appears to tastes better, and only use the Co2 gas to dispence the beer so this should make the 22kilo bottle last quite some time between refills.
I went for the kegging system because I was really sick and tired of washing bottles and probably would have gave up if I continued this way.
I do K&K's because from mix to fermenter and clean up only takes 1/2 hr, Washing and priming bottles and filling took more than an 1hr.
From Fermenter to keg and 6 litre PET bottle, Fermenter clean and refill with water to chill was about 1/2 hr. Cleaning a stainless steal keg should only take a few minutes.

I chill my water in the fermenter overnight to about 4c and make another K&K the following morning by the time I put the hot wort in the temp is between 14-18c perfect for picthing the yeast.
Coopers Kit $11
Brew Sugar $5
250 Grams Dry MAlt $1.50
8 grams hops $2 ( the next few batches will be northern brewer I'm still experimenting with Hops flavours and aroma's)
electricity sanitizer cleaner etc make up the rest. I'm hoping that the reduced sanitizer and cleaner for the keg will cover the cost of the co2.
Cheers
Ron

[drtom]

Cost is the last thing I consider. I'd rather good beer. Cheap beer is not a goal for me.

But was this your intent in the begining? I agree 100% but when I first started it was all about making it for less!

For me it was from the start. I don't actually drink enough for the cost to be significant, though probably HB costs more because we have lots of people round, and they tend not to BYO when they know there's good HB on offer.

T.

[warra48]

Whatever it costs is not a great concern, as I consume only an average of 3 stubbies a day.
Anyway, a brew costs me, roughly:

$ 18 for 5 kg grains
$ 8 for 80 - 90 grams hops
$ 4 Yeast
$ 0.05 Water additions
$ 3 Gas for burner
$ 0.30 Irish Moss
$ 0.01 Gladwrap on fermenter
$ 0.80 Bottle tops
$ 34 for 23 litres of quality tasty enjoyable beer.

Average cost per longneck say $1.25 tops, allowing for odds and end such as sanitiser, batteries for thermometers, electricity to run BeerSmith and beer fridge. Some costs might go down a bit if I harvest yeast or dump a brew on a yeast cake.
Now, I haven't factored in amortisation of the capital costs of setting up an AG brewery, but I am willing to write that off as an investment in a great hobby.

Compared to, say, a Coopers longneck single bottle price of about $5.00, I'm drinking beer at 25% of retail price.

[drsmurto]

If cost is an issue then dont bother trying to move to AG, it costs me a lot more than kit brewing ever did when you take into account all the extra bits of equipment i have bought (unnecessarily mind you) since i started and will continue to buy.

AG brewing is a hobby/obsession so $$$ become immaterial. I enjoy brewing as much, if not more so, than drinking the results.

My commercial beer of choice is Timothy Taylor Landlord (yes, i know you are all probably sick of me harping on about this beer).

Cost me $20 for 3 pint bottles.

Enuff said.

[warra48]

My commercial beer of choice is Timothy Taylor Landlord (yes, i know you are all probably sick of me harping on about this beer).

Cost me $20 for 3 pint bottles.

Enuff said.

Doesn't bore me at all, doc. I love those English Ales.

I agree with your other comments. AG is probably more expensive than simple K&K, but it's definitely worth it so you can really brew the beers you love.

[Bizier]

A breakup got me started. Had been squirreling coopers bottles away for years, but had never brewed, just decided to do it one night to occupy me... i will testify that HB is no substitute for a GF.

I try to get things like malt in bulk where I can and I am yet to go AG. I am scared of my obsessive tendencies regarding hobbies, so I am trying to buy the least equipment I can get away with (BIAB is appealing).

average cost

$7-15 malt
$5-9 Hops
$5 Grain
$10-?? Kit
$10 Misc
$500 Time spent on frivolous hobby

top up to 23L

I am in a similar situation to others here, it is not about saving money. I have never spent so much money on beer! Now I brew beer that I prefer to most standard fare, regular drinking is cheap. But i am buying low quantities of expensive commercials very regularly... easy to spend the same money as a standard case on a couple of top shelf bottles.

[Tipsy]

If cost is an issue then dont bother trying to move to AG, it costs me a lot more than kit brewing ever did when you take into account all the extra bits of equipment i have bought (unnecessarily mind you) since i started and will continue to buy.

Too true, and if you live in the sticks like I do, you have to pay to freight all that grain around the country.

I don't brew to save money

[James L]

I brew not to save money... even though i do, but becuase you can make exactly what you want... if you want a lager with perle and saaz hops.. you can have a lager with perle and saaz hops.. if you want to make an IPA thats 7.5% and has 150g of galaxy in it... you can... the choices are endless... and at the end of the day... the beer is going to be less than what it would cost to buy...

I think the least i have spent on a batch was about 25 bucks for 25L... and that was as simple low alc (4.5%) pilsner made with pilsner malt, perle and hallertau and a pilsner yeast i had growing from a slant..

the most i have ever spent would be this IPA that i is fermenting at the moment: which took 6.5kg of pale malt, 650g of munich, 350g of crystal 60g of cascade, and 150g of galaxy... that would be about 40 bucks... for 25L... but all things considered.. thats still cheaper than a carton of decent commercial beer and you have 3 times as much...

I think the only thing that makes me question whether it is worth it is when something stuffs up, and all you have is an average beer that cost you 30 bucks to make, or you get an infection and you have to chuck it out... because you know that when you buy beer from the shops, you always get something to show when you hand over your money...

With the money i save brewing, i can afford to buy the beer i know that i'll never be able to equal (weihenstephan hefe/kristall)...

[homebrewer79]

I only started brewing because it was cheap, I thought wow, 2 slabs for $20, I'll have piece of that. Then got into it more and more and wanted to always improve on my brews. Now I brew because I love it, and I want to drink decent beer, also as James L said the limits are endless. Cost does come into it still but not because I want it to, I just can't afford to make very expensive brews all the time. I'd say the average cost per brew for me would be about $25 for kit brews (which are getting rarer as time goes on) and $35 - $40 for extract brews.

[James L]

Buying in bulk helps a heap too...

Eg. 25kg sack of pilsner malt = $55 bucks... 5 brews for 55 bucks = 11 bucks a brew..
5kg of pilsner malt not bulk is 22 bucks...

Even dry malt you can buy bulk
20kg = 110 bucks = about 18 bucks a brew (3kg batch).
1kg = 10 bucks (average) = 30 bucks a brew...

1kg of perle hops = 30 bucks (ebay)... enough for about 20 brews = $1.50 a brew (average).
100g of perle hops from HBS = 9 bucks = enough for 2 brews... = 4.50 a brew

Yeast culturing is very beneficial money wise too, but you need to be confident with your sterile techniques...

I have so far managed to get about 6 brews out of a 15 dollar packet of liquid yeast and have many more cultures in the fridge to grow up... = 2.50 a brew instead of 4-5 bucks...

[James L]

I totally overlooked what you were trying to say about running a fridge to brew and cold condition...

I have a fridge for both... both 300L..

The fridge you use to ferment your lager will not use a hell of alot of power to run because unlike conventional fridges, you only want it to stay at 10C, so it will no need to run contiunally to stay at 4C. Also, once the fermenter is at 10C, you effectively have 25L of liquid in your fridge keeping it cold, so it will need even less power.

As for the lagering fridge... i just took a couple of shelves out my beer fridge, and my cubes of beer sit in that at 4 until it is time to bottle.. that works the same as the fermenting fridge... once the 25L of beer is at 4C, the fridge will no need to run as much as what you would expect.

I have had both fridges for about a year now, and i havent really noticed a huge difference in my electicity bill...

If you are really worried in running costs, you could always look at alternatives (such as burying your fermenter to keep it cold, or buying a cave...

[drsmurto]

<snip>

With the money i save brewing, i can afford to buy the beer i know that i'll never be able to equal (weihenstephan hefe/kristall)...

thats a defeatist attitude! I will make a Landlord that is at the very least as good as the original but i am aiming for better!

[Kevnlis]

James, have you tried Franziskaner (sp)? IMHO it is a much better example of a hefe (as far as the major labels are concerned anyway).

[James L]

I'll have to look into that... its one of the few available in Australia that i havent tried...

I havent even made an AG wheat beer yet... maybe i should've waited till i made one before saying that, because who knows, the one i make maybe the one i prefer

I'm just waiting till my next grain delivery, i ran out of wheat malt after i made the bright ale clone...