Home brewing... rather than purchasing craft beer. For the past two months I averaged a case of Dale's, a half case of DFH 60, a case of SNPA, and 3-4 bombers of DIPA's and RIS's each month This consumption is split between 5 people who appreciate these styles. I often read BA members suggesting home brewing as a more economical alternative. But is it??
If you go into homebrewing for the simple reason of minimizing beer consumption costs I dont see it being a successful effort.
I have to say that if your only motivation is saving a few bucks, then keep on buying. BUT If you have an interest or desire to brew, then yeah I believe it's worth it. It gives me something to do, I geek out on it, there's a ton of learning to be done, and really just a ton of things you can do with it. All in all, at some point when you're brewing all grain, you'll definitely be able to brew a clone of one of those for cheaper than to buy it, but only buying pounds of hops and bags of grain at a time. All in all, I'd rather brew it than buy it, but that's not for everyone. Cheers!
Any Brew-on-Premises near you? That's usually a fool-proof way to brew your own beer. Most places will let you re-brew if your batch comes out bad. Prices are less expensive than buying beer. Downside is you are stuck with six-cases of one style of beer. But I usually split a batch between friends.
It can be cheaper, after you make back your equipment investment and any bad batches. Now that I've gotten everything going it's way cheaper for me to makes a super heavy beer myself than to buy it. But...I'm probably in the hole overall based on prior costs. Do it for the love of making your own brew!
You can get to a point where you save money, but it's no fun to operate with that mindset. Once you've established a cheap all-grain and kegging setup, buying all your ingredients in bulk and reusing yeast, you could easily brew 200 gallons of beer per year for about $400.00. So you'd have 4-5 glasses of beer daily at a cost of about $1.10. If you and your drinking partner(s) drank the equivalent in a reasonably priced craft (Torpedo, New Belgium stuff etc.), you would spend about $2500 - $3000. So even a pretty fancy all-grain setup would pay for itself in no time. Edit: Keep in mind, this would assume you are brewing relatively similar styles over and over, using one or two yeasts only, and basically brewing for an alcohol-delivery system. Like I said - no fun.
It might never be cheaper as you need to buy equipment plus it will take up your time and storage space. When it comes to the pure expense of ingredients for 2 cases of all-grain homebrew vs 2 cases bought it can be cheaper. But like buying any beer you can spend $30 on a case or $60 worth of 4 bombers. The choice is yours in regards to how you feel your dollar should be spent.
No, it's not. You need to assume that you will never buy craft again....and that isn't going to happen. You'll still want those one off $15-$20 bottles, the RIS that you can only get seasonally, etc. Plus I brew a lot for parties, friends, and buddies who enjoy my beers. I don't ask for any money b/c I love to brew. It doesn't come close to how much most people spend on craft, until I add in my craft purchases! Overall I brew at least half my beers for others consumption so that money doesn't count I guess.
The only type of beer I feel is a cost saving for me are sours. It takes a long time for the beer to sit, but that is no big deal for me. So if I want a great sour, it might cost me $1 per bottle if it has fruit, that is way less than cracking open a $12 RR sour. With that said, I don't brew sours as a cost savings method, I brew them because I love brewing and I love sours
As mentioned above, after the equipment is paid for...then yeah it is cheaper. I have $1000 worth of equipment and about 100 batches (5 gallon for argument sake) under my belt. Plus a 5 gallon batch IPA (50 bottles) costs me about $25 for ingredients and propane. So I am at about $35 for 2 cases worth of homebrewed IPA. Took me a while to get there though.
If it keeps you out of the bars, it can be A LOT cheaper... even considering the up-front equipment costs...not so much compared to craft purchases imbibed at home.
It may be cheaper but it can be hard on your ego. I was such a failure that after the second bad batch, out of two, I quit!
You can definately get to a point where it is cheaper. There is the initial equipment costs, but if you keep your eye out for deals on burners, pots and such even that can be minimal. Buying in bulk is key. I just calculated what my last brew cost. 10 gallons of IPA for around 21 dollars. That is including grain, hops, yeast and propane. Edit: oops, add $2.40 for dry hops.
If your motivation is to save money, it will get boring very, very quickly. It's a hobby - some would say a lifestyle. We brew because we enjoy brewing, not because we enjoy drinking (we enjoy drinking - that's just not why we brew). Brewing to avoid buying beer is kind of like learning to play the guitar because it's cheaper than buying CDs.
Yeah.. I thought that for a while.. Hey, I'll save! But you don't really. Over time, I think you could. If you get by with cheap in mind, and you can enjoy larger beers for less money, but in reality.. I give away beer, brew for weddings, and never ask for money for it. I enjoy spreading my brews around, get excited when I have something new to share. I probably spend MORE on "Beer" as a whole, but feel like I swipe the card and pull out the cash less in the stores. I've bought slightly less craft, but I still have plenty around. I now hold back so I can buy more grain and hops. I don't re use my yeast, and I get by with my system now, but I'd love to infuse a bunch more cool stuff into my brewery.
When friends ask me if they can save money by homebrewing I usually respond with it depends upon the beer styles you brew. For example I really like Trappist Ales. I homebrew a Trappist style Dubbel. If I were to purchase a case of Chimy Red it would cost me over $100.00 (two cases over $200.00).Just considering ingredient costs, I can homebrew 2 cases (5 gallon batch) for less than 20% of the cost to purchase that style of beer. I also homebrew beer styles that are not available (or difficult to purchase fresh): Classic American Pilsner, Dusseldorf style Alt, English Bitter Ale, IPAs with unique hop combinations, etc. The other benefit of homebrewing is that you are guaranteed to have fresh beers. A number of beer styles really are better when fresh (e.g., American style IPAs). By homebrewing you take away the guess work of “I wonder if this commercial beer is fresh and in good shape (not abused in transport)”. I frequently tell friends: if you want to homebrew a beer like Yuengling Lager (or other economical beer) then don’t homebrew for cost considerations. Cheers!
