Cost of All Grain compared to kit brewing

[DarloDave]

On the negative side, it keeps you awake at night thinking "what would it taste like if I changed the hops?" or "I wonder if my efficiency would improve if I built a new spinny sparger...."

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Glad im not the only one!

[Subsonic]

I love spreadsheets. I use one for my beer recipes and am forever tweaking my, 'amount lost to the boil' to get within 250ml of my end volume, which in 40 litres batches isn;t bad. AND believe it or not - I do have a spreadsheet that itemises every penny I have ever spent for the last 8 years of my life!!!. I guess I am anal! NOT!!! Don;t ask me to add up the cost of everything I have spent on beer though! Also, don;t forget the saving - I reckon I am saving £5 a night since I like a couple of good beers each night and don't have to buy them now. Thats a lot of money that nobody has factored into the post. Time, mmm well with my new setup I use the hot water from the house to cut down on the heating with propane and I can do 40 litres in about 4 hours including cleanup. Thats enough for a month. 4 hours a month in the garage chilling / pottering about and 15p a pint thereafter? Its a no brainer.

[garwatts]

OK. We need a volunteer to try out this theory.

All the volunteer needs to do is say to their better half something along the lines of: "Sorry pet, you can't get your hair done this month because I need the money to improve the quality of my beer"....

What's the number for the Samaritans

[pantsmachine]

The cost can be summed up in a comparison. Try fresh cartoned orange juice, its alright isn't it. Now try freshly squeezed orange juice and that's the difference. Its quite a bit more than just alright....

Welcome to the dark side

[simple one]

The difference is:

Poor pub/off licence beer: A meal from cheap ingredients produced on a mass scale like canteen food.

A kit beer: A meal produced by a chef with crap ingedients.

Extract beer: A meal procuced by half decent ingredients produced by someone who really cares about there craft.

All Grain: A meal with the best ingriedients and by some one who really cares about what they are drinking.

Its a no brainer. I have never tasted any beer out of a tin can which is as good as mine. I very rarely taste a pub beer which is as good as mine.

Lower volume means it can be treated and adjusted with finer precision and made to taste better.
A chef always makes a better meal if its for a fewer people (especially if they asked him to cut costs as in kit beers, or big brewing firms)

Use the best indredients, use your time to make it. Even if it costs the same, it will always taste better. This is how beer is meant to be!!!!