Cost blowout!!

[mark_68]

I bought myself a 3 ring burner and regulator to be able to do a 15 litre boil for my extract recipes and was surprised at the cost,at 40 dollars it wasn't too bad,but when it came to buying the gas i nearly choked,as it cost me $30.80 just to refill a 9.5 kilo bottle.I t takes 20 minutes to reach a full boil and then an hour for the boil itself,so i would hazard a guess that i will only get about 3 bres per refill.That means i can add $10 to the cost of the brew,which is usually 40 dollars or so for an extract.$50+ for a brew is nearly a dollar a stubbie which to me is starting to get expensive.Does anyone know roughly how many boils i may get from a 9.5 kilo gas bottle?

[Aussie Claret]

I get between 2.5 -3 per bottle.

Expensive yes but you can get gas a little cheaper if you go to one of those refill places rather than a swap and go. Bunnings I believe are one of the cheapest that re-fill gas bottles.

AC

[Hashie]

To work out how much gas you will use, you need to know the Mega joule (Mj)rating of your burner.

As a general guide a 25 Mj burner on high will use 1 litre of gas per hour.
1 kg of gas is roughly equal to 2 litres. So a 25 Mj burner will run, on high, for approximately 18 hours from 1, 9 kg bottle.

[Pale_Ale]

There must be burners that you can connect to mains gas surely?

[Chris]

Bunnings are NOT cheap!

The bastards went from $24.70 to $32.10 overnight!

I price mathed them with a place in sydney, and got them back to $16.

[lethaldog]

Ive used my 9kg gas bottle with my four ring burner for 4 AG brews now ( thats boiling 32 litres) and there is still gas left in it, dont understand why you guys are using so much but maybe its because i dont use mine to heat my mash and sparge water

On the price thing, i just filled a 4kg gas bottle on the weekend and it cost me $14 which has gone up from $9 since the last time i had it filled, Highway robbery in my opinion but what do you do

[Pale_Ale]

Has the ship sailed on my mains gas question?

[OldBugman]

isnt it called a gas stove top?

[lethaldog]

Pale i think you find that it would be illegal to tap into your mains gas, in saying that a licensed plumber may be able to legally hook something up but i have never heard of it being done

[SpillsMostOfIt]

My in-laws have a tap outside for their barbecue. There is a jet size thing as LPG and natural gas molecules are different sizes, but I don't think this thing is uncommon. You need a gas plumber of course. There is a discussion somewhere on the other site (AHB). They talk about relative prices as well, which is what led me to be all-electric.

[Pale_Ale]

Yeah, my thoughts come from the mains BBQs getting round. My BBQ can be hooked up to mains (side burner and all) if done by a gasfitter, I think most are like this, certainly not uncommon these days with all these outdoor kitchens you see around...

[OldBugman]

I converted a mains gas bbq to a bottle gas, was a matter of being able to hook the bottle to the gas rail, and a changing the jet sizes.

mains gas is at a lower pressure so the jet holes were big compared to the pin prick sized LPG jets.

[Cortez The Killer]

mains gas doesn't offer you the power of bottle gas though

some thing to consider

cheers

[OldBugman]

I disagree.

I have some 2,500KW boilers at work that run off mains gas.
They'd bring a wort to the boil pretty damn quickly.

[Ed]

Ive used my 9kg gas bottle with my four ring burner for 4 AG brews now ( thats boiling 32 litres) and there is still gas left in it, dont understand why you guys are using so much but maybe its because i dont use mine to heat my mash and sparge water

On the price thing, i just filled a 4kg gas bottle on the weekend and it cost me $14 which has gone up from $9 since the last time i had it filled, Highway robbery in my opinion but what do you do

Much the same here. I get at least 6 x 32L boils out of a 4.5kg bottle (plus some bbq's) and costs $14 to fill. I use a 2 ring burner and s/s pot which takes 20 mins to bring to boil with the lid on. Once at boil, lid comes off and I operate only 1 burner on about 3/4 throttle.

Some of these guys are probably using converted kegs Leigh, which aren't as efficient as pots, and that explains why fuel consumption is high in some cases.

Cheers, Ed

[drsmurto]

Am moing to the Adelaide hills soon and theres no mains gas supply so each house has its own bottle, 5 feet tall. Most houses have a 2nd bottle so when they run out they still get hot showers. So, since its easy enough to swap bottles over yourself, i could hook that up to the bbq or a burner to brew beers........

[mark_68]

I have decided to do an extract brew every 3 to keep the costs down ,so in between times i will brew my favourite kits,as they only cost 35 to 40 dollars and don't need a 12 litre boil.I will look forward to making the extract brews though ,as you can get far more variety with this method and better tasting beer.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Please note that I carry the stupid gene and am not looking to start an argument, but I don't understand how a batch of beer costs $35-40, unless you're buying a wort kit.

My last 23litres of AG cost me:

5.5kg Grain (JWM) @ $110/50 = $12.10
90g hops (2006 Amarillo) @ $28/450 = $5.60
Yeast (US-56) @ $3.00
Nutrient (Wyeast) + Irish Moss (say) $1
Electricity (Red Energy) @ $2.00

I made all this with the same equipment I used for extract brewing plus a big bag I made for less than $10. Throw in a fiver to cover the amortised shipping cost.

I figure that gas costs about $4-5 a go. Let's assume we each have the burner/heater.

What am I missing?

[Pale_Ale]

I think Mark was referring to extract vs. k&k brewing...still I don't spend $35 for many of my brews...some of the best brews have been in the 20s

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I hear you, Pale_Ale.

But I figure that if cost is a major issue, there is no need to retreat to kit brews. I'm concerned that kits might cost that much anyhow. I know I *must* be missing something.