How much a pint?

[Beer O'Clock]

Let me see
£3 Mango Chutney Jar
£10 Plumbing bits
£3 Voile
£6 Kettle element
£25 Barrel
£10 Injector
£9 Fermentor

Total cost £56

I've brewed around 240 pints on this kit now so Capex works out at 23p per pint and reducing
Ingredients around 25p per pint
Add sundries and it comes to around 55p per pint.

However, instead of drinking 50% of a bottle of wine I have a pint every night. So now I'm spending 55p per night instead of £2.50 so saving nearly £2 per night.
I've been doing this since November so around 100 days saving £2 per night equal £200.

I therefore believe my beer has zero cost.

He He

[JamesF]

As long as you drink no more than four pints a night you're quids in!

I tried to work out the total cost per pint a couple of years ago (excluding equipment which cost tens of pounds but has done thousands of pints by now). I even put a meter on the electricity for the boiler to see how much power was used. It came out between 40p and 50p a pint overall.

James

[boingy]

Don't forget to pay yourself minimum wage and allow for tax, employees NI and employers NI...

Where possible I mend and service our cars and pick-up truck. If I added up the amount I have spent on tools and workshop equipment over the years it would probably have been cheaper to pay a garage to do the work. But I enjoy it and I like buying tools.

And so it is with brewing.

Some brew with nothing more than reclaimed mango chutney buckets and free Magner's bottles. Others spend thousands on shiny stuff. It's pointless to compare those costs so the only way that makes sense is ingredients only. The beer I am brewing tomorrow (snow permitting) shapes up something like this:

7 kg MO. A bit less than £6
500g crystal. About a quid.
150g EKG. £3
Yeast: Free from local micro (Hook Norton strain - a beast of a yeast!)
Leccy for HLT: about a quid
Gas for boiler: no idea. Guess £2.
Sundries. CRS, salts, protofloc etc. 50p

Brew length 40 litres / 70 pints.
I make that about 19p per pint, but we can call it 20p if you like.

If you wanna brew cheaply, find a friendly local micro. Some don't want to know. Others remember what it was like to be a homebrewer. And good karma to them, I say...

[noble ox]

Hi
Some interesting responses.................I calculate that If my raw materials work out at say 50p a pint then that pint costing £2.50 in a pub then there must be £2 per pint to be deducted from any hardware costs £80 per brew 3 brews then I am running in the black
Have I missed something out ?

[Beer O'Clock]

Hi
Some interesting responses.................I calculate that If my raw materials work out at say 50p a pint then that pint costing £2.50 in a pub then there must be £2 per pint to be deducted from any hardware costs £80 per brew 3 brews then I am running in the black
Have I missed something out ?

Nah, I was just being a C*ck ! In typical t'internet (mixed with alcohol) stylee, what started as a bit "tongue in cheek", developed a life of it's own.

As Boingy says, it's pointless comparing start up costs when comparing pint pricing for home brewers.

And for the record, without all my other costings, my last batch cost approximately 27p per pint

[danbrew]

Nah, I was just being a C*ck ! In typical t'internet (mixed with alcohol) stylee, what started as a bit "tongue in cheek", developed a life of it's own.

And here's me thinking you must be from another planet (full of accountants)... Well done for confessing your sins...

When I've had a few I offend people a lot more than insulting their costings so I don't think you've got much to worry about...

Keep on brewing (cheaply)

[noble ox]

Hi
Some interesting responses.................I calculate that If my raw materials work out at say 50p a pint then that pint costing £2.50 in a pub then there must be £2 per pint to be deducted from any hardware costs £80 per brew 3 brews then I am running in the black
Have I missed something out ?

Nah, I was just being a C*ck ! In typical t'internet (mixed with alcohol) stylee, what started as a bit "tongue in cheek", developed a life of it's own.

As Boingy says, it's pointless comparing start up costs when comparing pint pricing for home brewers.

And for the record, without all my other costings, my last batch cost approximately 27p per pint

Hi
I should have spotted "the wind up" I must drink more beer "hoppy daze"

[orlando]

Hi
Some interesting responses.................I calculate that If my raw materials work out at say 50p a pint then that pint costing £2.50 in a pub then there must be £2 per pint to be deducted from any hardware costs £80 per brew 3 brews then I am running in the black
Have I missed something out ?

Nah, I was just being a C*ck ! In typical t'internet (mixed with alcohol) stylee, what started as a bit "tongue in cheek", developed a life of it's own.

As Boingy says, it's pointless comparing start up costs when comparing pint pricing for home brewers.

And for the record, without all my other costings, my last batch cost approximately 27p per pint

True Confessions. Give that man a pint

[jimp2003]

Personally, I did not take up homebrewing to save myself money but I appreciate that there are many that do and for them the analysis of all relevant costs is not a bad exercise to go through.

[potatoes]

Personally, I did not take up homebrewing to save myself money but I appreciate that there are many that do and for them the analysis of all relevant costs is not a bad exercise to go through.

+1. I took up homebrew to escape from my other life!

[polymoog]

how can you put a cost on a hobby that we are all passionate about.
i for one started to brew my own beer to save money originally but the hobby element kicks in and you start to lust after shiney and pumps and conicals etc.
we all cut our cloth accordingly depending on the depth of our pocket, some have cheap chutney boilers others have stainless from ebay france and so on.
i drive a 10 year old polo others have a brand new mercedes, but the cost of petrol is the same and both will get you to where you want to go.
the cost of brewing is about the ingredients all the rest is personal about how "Posh" you want your brewery!

[Spud395]

Well said Polymoog

[Kev888]

For years I brewed cheaply, using the same small plastic setup, but I've spent quite a lot on my brewing setup in the last couple of years: cornies, FVs, tanks etc. Each batch of beer costs about the same to make but the up-front costs are massively higher.

There was no need to spend it to continue making the beer; the only real difference, in my case, is that it has become a hobby instead of a routine process. So philosophically, I consider the extra money is being spent on my enjoyment, not on just generating the beer. Its not the true financial picture of course, but its the reality.

My per-brew costs vary from about 35pence to 50 pence per pint (for 'normal' brews).

For example, 80L/140pts of stout would be (roughly) £50:
13kg MO - £15.60
2kg roast Barley - £3.00
3.75kg flaked barley - £5.60
160g Target - £4.80
4packs dried yeast (if I didn't re-harvest) - £8.40
25ml CRS - £0.18
Gypsum - £0.10
Campden - £0.11
1.25kg PBW-alike £2.50
Perecetic acid, Starsan and RO water £2.00
PH papers - £0.09
CO2 - £1.50
Electricity - £1.10
Water - £2.25

Whereas 80L/140pts of a stronger, hoppier APA using liquid yeast may be about £70:
19kg MO - £22.80
1.7kg caramalt - £2.55
1kg Munich malt - £1.50
1kg Wheat malt - £1.50
0.5kg Crystal malt - £0.75
600g various hops - £18.40
Vial of wlp yeast - £6.50
750g spraymalt for stepping up - £7.00
Yeast nutrient for starter - £0.10
85ml CRS - £0.62
Gypsum - £0.10
Campden - £0.11
1.25kg PBW-alike £2.50
Perecetic acid, Starsan and RO water £2.00
PH papers - £0.09
CO2 - £1.50
Electricity - £1.10
Water - £2.35


Cheers
kev

[orlando]

I noticed your water went up 10p from writing the recipe and costs for the first 80l brew to the second 80l brew Your water suppliers are quick off the mark in putting prices up to maintain boardroom pay

On another note that does seem expensive for water, maybe it's not from your kitchen tap?

[Kev888]

Heh heh, well I didn't bother calculating that, but as you noticed it then just for you I've looked back through the records and it sould be more like 6p rather than 10p (as the bigger grain bill takes/retains more water).

I could be a lot more water-efficient, to be honest - its fairly cheap though, even though I'm on a meter, so I tend to go for convenience and lots of hose-pipe blasting of stuff; not very green, probably. My water is about 1/4 pence per litre - if you remember to include the charges for both supply and drainage of that litre - and the water meter said I'd used (roughly) about 950L between before and after the brew I checked it on, after compensating for other stuff like toilet flushing, anyway.

I don't know exactly how it breaks down as I don't measure most of it but I just did a 'very' rough guestimate and got 985L, so it seems reasonable to imagine that the meter is correct:
Cleaning the (verdigris off the copper) HLT before use: 30L
Rinsing the HLT, Boiler and MT before use: 70L
Brewing liquor - 125L
IC cooling water - 300L
Hosing/washing out the MT & Boiler - 90L
Cleaning sundries (IC, False bottom, jugs etc) - 50L
Flushing through the pipes and hoses - 30L
Soaking the FV - 150L
Rinsing the FV - 20L
Soaking 4x cornies - 80L
Rinsing 4x cornies - 40L.

Cheers
Kev