Beer cost

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
User avatar
IPA
Under the Table
Posts: 1731
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 am
Location: France Gascony

Re: Beer cost

Post by IPA » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:34 pm

Moley wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:14 pm
Just dropped in for the first time in a year, having just brewed a Centennial smash last Monday.

5kg Maris Otter £5.60
100g Centennial £5.65
West Coast yeast £2.75
Approx. £2 for gas and leccy

Sixteen quid all in, 40p a pint.
If that was a brewlength of 23 litres it works out at 34.7 pence for 500 ml
25 litres works out at 32 pence ????
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

escapizm
Sober
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:58 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by escapizm » Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:18 pm

LazyBrewer wrote:I'd agree about 60p per pint for ingredients. If you add in the cost of equipment though - Grainfather, corny kegs, fermentation vessels, CO2 regulators, CO2 cylinders, soda stream cylinders, pipework, shed etc etc, I reckon I'm currently looking at about £30 a pint. I might get it down below £1 if I live to be 95 and sup 8 pints a day.
Image don’t say that I’ve not bought my equipment yet, returning after a decade away from 3 pot system to G30 hopefully


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

User avatar
SMASH3R
Piss Artist
Posts: 140
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Beer cost

Post by SMASH3R » Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:22 pm

If I'm trying to stretch the ingredients to super value beer, my favorite is simply:

4kg Pale Malt - £4
40g (half near flame out) of some bargain stinky hop, cascade, styrian, whatever is cheap - £1.50
Reuse some Nottingham (Wilkos yeast) harvested from the bottom of the previous brew - 20p
Approx £2 for leccy

Just under 20p a pint and goes down a treat with almost anyone who tries it. Great for hot day long bbq :beer:
I regularly go back to this one. It was the first beer I ever brewed (cascade hops) when I got into all grain brewing, and it's probably my most brewed beer.

User avatar
MashBag
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2140
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:13 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by MashBag » Fri Aug 06, 2021 6:24 am

Same 'ere.

Cascade is my most brewed beer, where are you getting it at £3.75 / 100g 😱

User avatar
SMASH3R
Piss Artist
Posts: 140
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Beer cost

Post by SMASH3R » Fri Aug 06, 2021 12:14 pm

Well, it's £4 for 100g pellets of cascade at the moment, but Bobek (Styrian) and First Gold leaf are also around the £3.50 to £4 mark for 100g.
If you have a local micro brewer, they might also sell you a few hundred grams from their bale of cascade for this sort of money/cash/a three or 4 bottles of your homebrew.

In actual fact, I've been lucky enough to be able to grow cascade and first gold really well in various positions, pots and in the ground around my house, so I don't even have to pay for cascade or first gold these days, which means it works out closer to 15p a pint, but I didn't want to assume in my original reply that everyone has access to free hops around September (gratuitous spring growth and late summer harvest shot incoming).
20180910_234747.jpg
20180910_234747.jpg (1.22 MiB) Viewed 1690 times
20180709_201444.jpg
20180709_201444.jpg (1.45 MiB) Viewed 1690 times

User avatar
MashBag
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2140
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:13 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by MashBag » Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:44 pm

I planted some hops along a fence, then swmbo mowed the labels...
Aaarg. No ideas now what they are 😱😱

Rookie
Falling off the Barstool
Posts: 3552
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Re: Beer cost

Post by Rookie » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:02 pm

How many different ones? Which ones?
I'm just here for the beer.

User avatar
MashBag
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2140
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:13 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by MashBag » Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:56 am

The only thing I know is there is now 5 or 6 wild plants.

Rookie
Falling off the Barstool
Posts: 3552
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Re: Beer cost

Post by Rookie » Mon Aug 09, 2021 2:38 pm

MashBag wrote:
Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:56 am
The only thing I know is there is now 5 or 6 wild plants.
That could make for an interesting beer.
I'm just here for the beer.

User avatar
MashBag
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2140
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:13 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by MashBag » Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:25 pm

Oh yes

User avatar
Eric
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2873
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:18 am
Location: Sunderland.

Re: Beer cost

Post by Eric » Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:29 pm

Does it seem strange that I haven't a clue how much I've spent in the last ten years, yet my records clearly record every pint brewed? In that period, well over a thousand pounds has to have been expended on equipment alone when accounting for all the incidentals, like bits and pieces for projects, running repairs, test equipment and their consumables and a host of bits and bobs, never mind the main pieces.

It's a hobby, but I think my beer is cheap. Well, best efforts minimise what I pay for ingredients by buying in bulk and incorporating low cost adjuncts like barley, wheat, maize, oats and sugars. My yeasts are repitched time and time again and I try getting the last drop out of tun and kettle by sparging both.

It's likely a true price can't be put against my beers, but my last brew was of 50 litre at 1042 from 5.9 kg malt and 100g of Goldings supplemented by home produced adjuncts from cereals and invert from refined cane sugar plus home grown hops for bittering. Who cares what it cost, it drinks well and fun making it.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

User avatar
MashBag
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2140
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:13 am

Re: Beer cost

Post by MashBag » Tue Aug 10, 2021 7:42 am

If you value your beer at £2 per bottle, you have to spend a stunning amount of money kit not to be in profit. That or you brew once and then sell up.

I am not saying you can't enjoy the hobby, but I think you have to work hard to spend more than you save. Trust me I have tried 😂😂😂

This borders on the "why do you brew" question..

See new thread.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83433

Rookie
Falling off the Barstool
Posts: 3552
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Re: Beer cost

Post by Rookie » Tue Aug 10, 2021 3:42 pm

My cost has been technically zero directly out of pocket. Ever since early 2014 I've gotten articles published frequently enough to keep me in ingredients and equipment.
I'm just here for the beer.

Moley
Sober
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 4:10 pm

Re: Beer cost

Post by Moley » Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:06 pm

IPA wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:34 pm
Moley wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:14 pm
Sixteen quid all in, 40p a pint.
If that was a brewlength of 23 litres it works out at 34.7 pence for 500 ml
25 litres works out at 32 pence ????
British pint, 568ml, not bloody Euro short measures!

User avatar
IPA
Under the Table
Posts: 1731
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 am
Location: France Gascony

Re: Beer cost

Post by IPA » Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:27 am

Moley wrote:
Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:06 pm
IPA wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:34 pm
Moley wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:14 pm
Sixteen quid all in, 40p a pint.
If that was a brewlength of 23 litres it works out at 34.7 pence for 500 ml
25 litres works out at 32 pence ????
British pint, 568ml, not bloody Euro short measures!
I think that you might have a problem finding a pint of beer in a bottle :lol:
Unless you go to East Africa where the white mans legacy includes pint bottles of beer

Orwell wrote in "1984" about the old man in the pub complaining that half a litre of beer was not enough and that a litre was too much.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

Post Reply