Hi All Could someone work out the costs of doing a grain brew versus a kit brew ..might be an interesting forum topic for the likes of me a kit brewer thinking of turning to the dark side..
cheers
e-brewer
fife
Costs ..Kit V Grain
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bitter_dave
- Even further under the Table
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- Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:00 pm
- Location: Whitley Bay
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David Edge
Full mash is generally cheaper, but once you find out how good the beer is you'll then spend more on equipment and fancy malts, hops and yeasts so I suspect you'll get more satisfaction but save little money.
Have you made contact with the Scottish Craft Brewers yet? Some of their top brewers - and helpful fellows too - are in Fife. Meetings tend to be Embra although I think there's one coming up in Dundee.
Have you made contact with the Scottish Craft Brewers yet? Some of their top brewers - and helpful fellows too - are in Fife. Meetings tend to be Embra although I think there's one coming up in Dundee.
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e-brewer
ag
Yes i have kinda made contact ..they have an all grain training session planned for jan 08 hope they might let me on that..whilst i am happy with the results of my kit brewing this excellent forum has me thinking about going all grain..i can see most of the kit i have for kit brewing is re-useable in the grain proccess..guess i need a boiler ,cool box,false bucket and the spray thingy..hoping the wife might buy this for me xmas..
One thing i often do two kits at a time is it possible to do enough output to give 2 *25 l to ferment what kit do you need for that...that herms thing looks good or is that getting to complicated..
e-brewer
fife
One thing i often do two kits at a time is it possible to do enough output to give 2 *25 l to ferment what kit do you need for that...that herms thing looks good or is that getting to complicated..
e-brewer
fife
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steve_flack
No need for HERMS at this stage. It's nice but only helps with consistency - you can make perfectly good beer without it. The Hop and Grape sell a 10 gallon brewery for about £150
...although you could probably build something similar yourself for less if you have time. I'd recommend also getting some sort of wort chiller. Immersion chillers are cheaper and less hassle to sterilise but aren't as efficient with water.
...although you could probably build something similar yourself for less if you have time. I'd recommend also getting some sort of wort chiller. Immersion chillers are cheaper and less hassle to sterilise but aren't as efficient with water.
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David Edge
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Seveneer
I agree completely with Steve here. HERMS is a great tool if you like gadgets but don't think for a moment that you need one to make good beer.steve_flack wrote:No need for HERMS at this stage. It's nice but only helps with consistency - you can make perfectly good beer without it.
It's much more important to understand the process and I'd advise anyone to brew with coolers and buckets before building a HERMS.
If you exclude the equipment costs and just go on ingredients, I reckon on about a quid a gallon. But that's buying in bulk (25 kg sacks of malt). What does kit brewing cost? Two pounds or more a gallon? So it doesn't take long to justify that stainless brewery to SWMBO, but you do have to drink a lot of beer for the sums to work out
I justified my expenditure against the equivalent volume of commercial beer so my brewery paid for itself in about 9 batches
/Phil.