Cost comparison - kits and grain brewing

[RichieD]

Hi,
I'm newbie brewer using homebrew kits. Been doing it for about 8 months. I'm keeping fairly detailed MS Access database of the process, and am currently on my 6th kit, having produced around 130 pints. Including everything, ie 2 x kits which cost over £50 each to include fermenting bins, hydrometers etc, some extra bottles, bottled water, other bits and bobs etc, I am currently averaging £1.41 per pint. This will gradually come down if I keep re-using same equipment, subject to need to replace worn items.
My question is, and I realise this may be a stoopid question, for full mash grain brewers, do you know what your average pint cost is? Obviously there are many variables, but just curious if there is an average figure for the 'typical' full mash brewer?
Cheers.

[LeeH]

Including equipment? Probably around a tenner a pint....


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[Rankin_leigh]

I've always looked it that equipment is the hobby (amd justify the costs that way).
ingredients as cheap beer.
Ingredients can be a bit hard to hard to do exactly as normally you'd buy packs in standard sizes which might not be needed- ie 500g bag and only use 400g... obviously after a while you still use it all.
I'd guess an average of around 25-30p per pint.

[gobuchul]

It's also about quality.

No kit can anywhere close to all grain.

If I was you, I would buy a Grainfather or cheaper 1 pot system and start doing all grain.

To offset the cost of the equipment just brew more beer, the cost reduces with every brew.......

[Nitro Jim]

It's not just the price though. It is the space you have available and the convenience. My next brew will be my 70th kit. I am happy drinking what I produce and so are my pals (not at the moment though). I reckon I am producing drinkable beer for about 50p per pint without the faff of all grain which I did try - once... Each to his own!

[RichieD]

Thanks all for your replies. Yours, LeeH, made me hoot, and looking at cost of gobuchul's Grainfather kit, I believe it. Last time I used a kit was 1980s and quality seems to have improved massively, and isn't so far off a good pub pint, and is better than a bad pub pint. For now I'll be trying different kits as don't have funds or space for more. Thanks again.

[vacant]

I went on the same journey. I started by thinking if I diverted, say, £150 per year from buying beer, what could I get if I made it myself? I got a fermenting bin and made kits for a year. In 2008 I spent £27 on an immersion chiller, £18 on a 60 ltr plastic bin, fitted Tesco kettle elements and started AG with a net curtain - BIAB. Bottled in 2ltr PET bottles. Incredibly cheap, as low as 30p/pint for ingredients & electricity.

As I enjoyed it I then had a some years with a shiny stuff phase - kettle, mash tun, kegs, gas cylinder & reg etc etc which obviously costs BUT.... a year ago I realised I was drinking way less (more motorcycling? grandchildren? who knows?) so sold off the shiny over last winter. Guess what - got back pretty much what I'd paid.

This month I brewed once again in my cheapo plastic boiler. I go from a BIAB to no-chill, not even an immersion chiller is needed. The most expensive bit of kit I kept was a £34 RO water filter as my water is very hard. This was my 100th AG brew! I probably now have less that £100 of brewing kit at new prices in total (have to include water butt tap, hydrometer, no-chill cube, syphon, tubing, hop filter etc)

Cheapskate tip: get your yeast for free, skim some from the ferment and keep in the fridge or better, freeze some wort after a brew and step up some yeast from the dregs of Proper Job or 1845.

[gobuchul]

Yours, LeeH, made me hoot, and looking at cost of gobuchul's Grainfather kit, I believe it.

It's all about scale when it comes down to it. The more you brew, the cheaper it gets.

Since the lockdown, I have stocked up on supplies and started banging out brews.

I currently have 80 pints kegged and 320 pints brewing. I will be kegging 80 pints tomorrow and brewing another double batch. With the Grainfather I can do a double batch in about 7 hours. Can also get on with other stuff at the same time due to the partly automated system.

I'm starting with some 4 - 5% ales and will be moving onto some stronger beers and lagers that need extensive conditioning.

There is going to be quite a party once this lockdown is lifted!

You have to keep yourself busy!

[RichieD]

Gobuchul, brewing in those quantities is what I need as I find I'm raiding the conditioning cupboard way before I should, so my brews tend to get drunk too early. If I had more quantity with each batch, rather than say 12 or 20 litres with each kit, they could get backed up and have time to condition properly. I prefer 5% or stronger which require even longer to condition...
I've just bottled and kegged 20l of Bad Cat Imperial Red (IPA I believe) coming in at around 7.7%

[RichieD]

I went on the same journey. I started by thinking if I diverted, say, £150 per year from buying beer, what could I get if I made it myself? I got a fermenting bin and made kits for a year. In 2008 I spent £27 on an immersion chiller, £18 on a 60 ltr plastic bin, fitted Tesco kettle elements and started AG with a net curtain - BIAB. Bottled in 2ltr PET bottles. Incredibly cheap, as low as 30p/pint for ingredients & electricity.

This month I brewed once again in my cheapo plastic boiler. I go from a BIAB to no-chill, not even an immersion chiller is needed. The most expensive bit of kit I kept was a £34 RO water filter as my water is very hard. This was my 100th AG brew! I probably now have less that £100 of brewing kit at new prices in total (have to include water butt tap, hydrometer, no-chill cube, syphon, tubing, hop filter etc)

Cheapskate tip: get your yeast for free, skim some from the ferment and keep in the fridge or better, freeze some wort after a brew and step up some yeast from the dregs of Proper Job or 1845.
[/quote

Thanks, Vacant. I don't know anything about AG or BIAB (had to look BIAB up) but I think BIAB could well be the way forward for me as a half way house. Sorry, don't fully understand your tip but once I have learned more, sure it will make sense and come in useful
Congratulations on your 100th brew!

[mooncat]

At the heart of your question is two approaches to brewing at home. The first is pride in making good beer with minimum cost on equipment and maybe lots of creativity. Often with kits but also with all grain. The other approach is more in line with nano breweries where the end result is variety of styles and taste and to commercial standard of clarity and repeatability. Equipment costs are high initially but decrease over time. I fall into the second category and have only bought an odd branded beer in 6 years to explore the taste. So, in the early years I brewed very expensive beers. Now the equipment has paid for itself over the years and the cost comes down to the price of ingredients and electricity. I re-use yeasts and buy in bulk so an average pint costs between 55 and 65p. However my equipment setup means I have a brew day every 2weeks of 6 hours from start to finish and then no more than an hour of time to finally clearing, kegging and bottling 23 litres of perfectly clear, ready to drink ale. I also make a constant supply of Prosecco for the women in the family. Im lucky in that cost has not been the major driver. I retired early and wanted a hobby that I could share the results with family and friends with minimum effort and of very high, consistent quality. Whichever way you go I think it’s important to just enjoy what you do.

[vacant]

Sorry, don't fully understand your tip but once I have learned more, sure it will make sense and come in useful
Congratulations on your 100th brew!

You'll get there. One day you'll be looking back with pride at all the brews you've done, the shiny pots, kegs, kegorators, beer engines you've bought, the brewhouse you built in the garden ... then you'll look down at your empty wallet.

[RichieD]

Fantastic, thank you, both. I can clearly see how one is drawn into this, deeper and deeper. I am a bit of an insomniac, but since I've started brewing, I genuinely often lull myself to sleep contemplating either the fermentation process, the slow, molecular process of 'worter into beer', or the germination of priming sugar into effervescence. It's very satisfying.

[Tarmac]

And you can grow your own hops.