Cheap and Cheerful

[GerritT]

What is there to be miserable about.

As long as one can enjoy ones own beer, there is absolutely nothing to be miserable about!

 

[kelper]

Supermarket beer is less than £1 a pint, the same beer that is served in most pubs. A Braumeister costs over £1400, that's £7 a pint for 7 kits brewed.

With respect, I don't think any supermarket beer compares with a good pint of cask ale in a pub, or a good home brew. Which supermarket beers are you thinking of?

 

[bobukbrewer]

beer is about £3 a pint in a pub - what planet are you on ?

 

[kelper]

beer is about £3 a pint in a pub - what planet are you on ?

http://www.pintprice.com/region.php?/United Kingdom/

and

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-where-does-your-area-fit-in-the-great-divide

What do you pay?

Beer Prices May 2019

• kelper
• May 8, 2019

 

[the_quick]

Most of the pubs here would charge £3.70 - £3.80, some even go to £4. Only in wetherspoons you can get a pint for £3.

I think it can be done on the cheap but not dead cheap. I did it with 2 brewing buckets, one as mush tan and other as a kettle - fitted 2 old kettle elements I had at work. Bought some false bottom, a bag for grain, some spoons, and hydrometer and cheap thermometer. I would say I spent maybe £50 on equipment.

But now I slowly improve components, splashed out on decent thermometer (Thermapen) and use coolbox for mashing.

 

[chesters-mild]

I was in Bury yesterday, the beer in 'Spoons was £2.15 to £2.25 a pint.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I'm currently trying to work out the cheapest way to make a simple home brew kit. My current thinking a Wilko own brand kit (the Golden Ale has caught my eye) (£12.00) and a kilo of Granulated Sugar (£0.69 at Tesco). I'm probably going to stump up for a sachet of Garvin Yeast (£1.75) too. This works out to around £0.36 per 500ml bottle (Estimating I'll get around 20l of usable beer out of this).

Does anyone have any cheap and cheerful brewing tips and recommendations?
I know the obvious one is to upgrade my sugar to dextrose, but the cheapest I can find it is £1.68 a kilo on amazon (based on buying in bulk at £41.99 for 25kg) which will bring it's own problems in storage and wastage as well as being over twice the price of the table sugar.

brew short - buy a bag of spray malt 500g and chuck in a can of 454g can of golden syrup around £1-1.15 for the syrup - better results for not much extra.

 

[bobukbrewer]

make it 0.5% - 1 lb pale malt, 15 gm total of hops, under £1 for 40 pints - somebody on here will "beat" me I have no doubt.....

 

[ClownPrince]

brew short - buy a bag of spray malt 500g and chuck in a can of 454g can of golden syrup around £1-1.15 for the syrup - better results for not much extra.

I quite like this suggestion of adding Golden Syrup (£1.15 at Tesco) adds about 3p in cost per 500ml, but it will add character to the beer and hopefully some body.

I think some people have misunderstood the point of this post.
It's not that I don't want to brew high quality beer (I like to think I do and I have), nor do I want to make get-drunk juice.
I just think there is equal merit in making OK beer very very cheaply, very very easily. it's a different but equally worthwhile challenge.

I also appreciate that going all grain is probably going to work out cheaper in the long run; but I don't feel confident enough in my brewing ability to change it up at this stage.

I suppose part of this is to look at beers that would suit being brewed cheaply; and maybe Golden Ale doesn't suit that. I should maybe go more for something that has little body when produced commercially like a Cervesa Lager or the like.

 

[Drunkula]

I quite like this suggestion of adding Golden Syrup (£1.15 at Tesco) adds about 3p in cost per 500ml, but it will add character to the beer and hopefully some body.

Hmmm. Now in Beersmith it has it down as an extract with a 78% (1.036) yield suggesting it'll leave some body. I thought it was just partially inverted sugar, and would brew out dry and the 78% yield due to the water content. I'm dubious about that entry.

EDIT: BYO says it's 100% fermentable with 18% water so 82% (1.038) so people might want to adjust it to a sugar and change the percentage in BeerSmith.

 

[MyQul]

Hmmm. Now in Beersmith it has it down as an extract with a 78% (1.036) yield suggesting it'll leave some body. I thought it was just partially inverted sugar, and would brew out dry and the 78% yield due to the water content. I'm dubious about that entry.

EDIT: BYO says it's 100% fermentable with 18% water so 82% (1.038) so people might want to adjust it to a sugar and change the percentage in BeerSmith.

I have it as 1.038 when I manually inputted it to brewmate

 

[Mavroz]

Weatherspoons around Hull, all casks are £2.15 a pint usually. Some are very very good for this price.

If it cost me £1.50/£2 per bottle / pint for my "homebrew", i wouldn't be overly bothered as i enjoy making it, experimenting, achieving the overall end result and more importantly drinking it because it does taste very good.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Weatherspoons around Hull, all casks are £2.15 a pint usually. Some are very very good for this price.

If it cost me £1.50/£2 per bottle / pint for my "homebrew", i wouldn't be overly bothered as i enjoy making it, experimenting, achieving the overall end result and more importantly drinking it because it does taste very good.

And you don’t have to be sitting in the Weatherspoons :)

 

[Clint]

I like the wetherspoons... especially the crowd who have been in there all day with their bags of defrosted shopping from Iceland...

 

[phildo79]

Christ on a bike! Are you a student or living in a squat? As previously mentioned, if 36p per pint is too rich for your blood, then this really isn't the hobby for you. Your best bet is going to the supermarket and following the bloke with the reducing sticker gun. Maybe he'll walk down the booze isle.

 

[Richie_asg1]

You don't need very expensive kit for AG brewing. A plastic bucket with a £2 kettle element in it and some rather faded net curtains will do........but we likes the shiny.....

I think the biggest hurdle is just getting your head around doing it - as I am trying to at the moment. It just seems like you need so much stuff, so you think of buying it and that works out very expensive for what you dream of - so you run away and hide for a bit. Then you get creative and cheap - but I'm finding that takes a long time instead.

Just bought a stainless false bottom for my tea urn - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainles...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

£3.60

 

[Mavroz]

I have a set of weighing scales, a 17 litre stainless pot, a gas stove, stainless spoon, grain bags, 4 or 5 plastic buckets, a couple of taps, hydrometer, thermometers, siphon, bottling stick, capper, some cleaning chemicals, bottle washer, bottle drainer (both home made), many bottles,crates and finally beer making ingredients for various recipes.

With the basics above, I think the beer I am making now is as good, if not better than anything I would buy regularly from a supermarket or brew with expensive kit and purposely made equipment.

Seems like a lot of bits but isn't and totalled up, wasn't very expensive.

Tempted at the back end of the year to get a couple of cornie kegs and a decent co2 cylinder and try kegging.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I look at it like this, I just started brewing again after 30 years, I got a kit off amazon for 60 odd quidish fv, pb, a test tube thingy, a plastic tube, and an amber ale ( which was very drinkable ) did I follow the instructions did I feck , I followed that with an ipa from wilkos very nice it was to and still is, got a wilkos cervesa in the fv at mo just hopped it with 25grams of exquinox amonst other stuff what aren't in the instructions lol, my point is its a hobby in my retirement if I feck up so be it just enjoy it, o and I got wilkos Yorkshire bitter for my next brew I may get a bit experimental with this, and I saving up for one of them fancy all in one thingy me bobs that do all grain, happy brewing and enjoy your ale

 

[An Ankoù]

and I saving up for one of them fancy all in one thingy me bobs that do all grain,

What? A bread machine?

 

[Rodcx500z]

What? A bread machine?

No one of them Grandfather thingys or similar