Cheap and Cheerful

[ClownPrince]

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.

 

[Brewed_Force]

Going all-grain (especially BIAB where you just need one pot) will lower the costs.
Your finished product will also taste a lot better than a kit made with sugar.

 

[Ghillie]

@ClownPrince - the old saying "you get what you pay for" is definitely applicable to home brewing.

Whilst I'm not debating the fact that you can make great beer for minimal cost, it shouldn't be your primary goal...

Instead of getting hung up on the penny pinching wrt the cost of sugar, maybe look at what you can brew respective to what you'd pay from a shop. Not to be an arse, but if you're talking about "stumping up £1.75" then this isn't the hobby for you, really. Likewise, considering purchasing 25kg of sugar tells me that you could do with a little more reading on brewing - again, not meaning to sound like an arse.

Some recommendations from me:

-Look second hand. Facebook and Gumtree is full of brewing equipment - typically with folk who have been gifted kits and equipment from firnds/family but never bothered to use it. Good savings to be made. There's also a good classifieds section on here which has great gear regularly.

-Research what you think you need, then go bigger.

-Buy cheap, you buy twice... Look at your brewing gear as an investment, good quality products can potentially last a lifetime! So a one off payment that may seem expensive, but will save you in the long run.

-Consider why you want to brew? If it's purely to save money and get a cheap drink, then you'd probably be best buying cheap cider from the supermarket. If it's to make a nice drink, then consider your options for buying ingredients, maybe budget for a brew each month or two, etc. Keep an eye out for sales via online retailers.

Just my 2p...

 

[An Ankoù]

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.

There's no advantage in using dextrose over table sugar. The latter is sucrose which is "inverted" into fructose and glucose. Dextrose is just an optical isomer of glucose. When these single sugars are fermented, there is no difference in the alcohol produced or the carbon dioxide which bubbles away into the air.
The only worthwhile upgrade would be to use spraymalt instead of some or all of the sugar. More flavour and more body.

 

[chesters-mild]

With respect, and I can understand why you want to make your beer as cheap as possible, for an extra 5p or so per pint you could add 500gram. malt instead of all the sugar and a hop tea to add extra flavour to it. I will make a big difference. Anyhow, whatever you do - all the best for your brew, do let us know how it works out
Cheers

 

[Drunkula]

As Chester said for me the first, and biggest leap in making a kit better was to do a dry hop or hop tea. It takes things from sugar water to much more like a 'real' beer. 10g per gallon to start to get a baseline for the hops you're using.

 

[Richie_asg1]

You can also save on your yeast price if you learn how to keep it as a pet. Even free if you culture from a bottle conditioned beer.
Also save and re-use yeast from the previous batch as you go along.

 

[Clint]

Look to Cross my Loof for cheap hops and yeast.
Is it just cheap beer you want or will other booze do?
Cider can be made very easily.

 

[Pavros]

Cheap and cheerful will only keep you going for so long with the hobby before giving up as you will just buy lots of cheap supermarket offers instead. It saves time in brewing and conditioning.

However, you can make good tasting beer cheaply with some of the improvements mentioned above (brew short to 20l; substitute malt extract for sugar; dry hop). This will keep your interest up as the variations/improvements/possibilities are endless. You will also be able to brew beer to your taste cheaper or comparable pricewise with the cheap supermarket beers.

 

[Drunkula]

Yeah, if it's just getting drunk fuel then brew 23 litres of sugar water with some turbo yeast or Wilko wine yeast compound as it has nutrient in it, then mix that with pop or squash. It's almost what cheap wine kits are. Don't got for the 20% yeasts, they take ages to hit 20% and you could brew more than two 12% sugar washes in the same time.

I did a test to see how much it would cost to make a 2.7% alcohol gallon (equivalent added by sugar in a kit and a kilo) and it came out:
Sugar: 16p, 200g
Mashing pale malt: 55p, 500g (only 40p if you use Hook Head pale and get 25kg)
Spraymalt: £2.10, 350g

So mashing some pale malt is a really cost effective way to juice up a kit while also training yourself to move to the dark side. Plus the sugar is going to leave the beer a lot thinner.

 

[MyQul]

If you want cheap and cheerful, swap to AG as soon as you can as AG cost about half what kits cost. Then, forget about full 23L brewlengths, stick to 10L BIAB stove top brewing. You'll just need a 15L pot and a biab bag. The rest of the kit you'll have from kit brewing or around the kitchen. Doing this will keep you equipment costs to a minimum
Ingredient wise; buy in bulk. Buy a 25kg sack of grain. Re-use your yeast multiple times. Make reciepes that dont require huge amounts of hops (so no double IPA's) This is basically how i brew and it's pretty cheap

 

[Drunkula]

Yeah, the hops are a killer. I was looking at Punk IPA and you're over a quid a litre just for hops.

 

[MyQul]

Yeah, the hops are a killer. I was looking at Punk IPA and you're over a quid a litre just for hops.

They dont have to be if you do things 'right'. First off pick a clean, high AA% (cheap) bittering hop; imo Magnum is the perfect candidate for this. Secondly stick to styles that dont have lots of late hops. Blonde ales, Dark beers ad English styles are are all good. Suprisingly enough lagers are also a good candidate

 

[An Ankoù]

Yeah, the hops are a killer. I was looking at Punk IPA and you're over a quid a litre just for hops.

MyQul's right. Stick to Magnum for bittering. But then go for clearances of high aroma hops. 2016 Harvest can be had much more cheaply and if they're packaged well, they taste just as good.

 

[bobukbrewer]

I am drinking a 1.2% SMASH at present - so use the kit but add no sugar - or use half the malt in the kit for 5 gals............

 

[GerritT]

Sometimes kits are replaced by newer models, or approach their best before date, you can pick them up for 30% off or more.
Homebrewing will never be cheaper than commercial brews (unless they double or triple excise on alcohol). But as some have said, strong cider is easy and cheap to make.

 

[chesters-mild]

Just to add to my previous post...….
It's worthwhile looking at the all grain route, latest brew, a Saison beer, for grains hops yeast and power used, worked out at £17 for 23 lit. that's about 40p. per 500cl. bottle. at 6.5 ABV. I'm off to my home brew club tonight with some USA IPA, 5.6 ABV, that cost about 55p. per bottle - only because there were 240 grm. of expensive hops in it -but that's still very cheap for a pint.
Just a thought!

 

[kelper]

Homebrewing will never be cheaper than commercial brews

Eh? Beer is about £3 a pint in a pub. Home brew is about 50p. I have spent £150 plus on equipment but have brewed 7 kits - so at least 200 pints. This adds 75p to the cost but that will steadily drop.

 

[GerritT]

Eh? Beer is about £3 a pint in a pub. Home brew is about 50p. I have spent £150 plus on equipment but have brewed 7 kits - so at least 200 pints. This adds 75p to the cost but that will steadily drop.

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.

 

[An Ankoù]

Homebrewing will never be cheaper than commercial brews

You're dead right. We can't produce beer, pint for pint, as cheaply as big commercial brewers because we don't benefit from the economies of scale. But we don't pay duty, we don't pay VAT, we don't have to pay the wages of a pub's staff. We don't have to contribute to a dividend for our shareholders, etc, etc, etc. So although we pay horribly for our beer at 20-50p a pint instead of 2-5p a pint, we can still afford to drink as much as we want, more than we should and whenever we want for negligible outlay. And, while we're at it, we're not out womanising (or manising) gambling or giving away secrets pertaining to national security. What is there to be miserable about.
Except that my beer costs 30p to make instead of 3p. What a bitch, I can hardly bring myself to swallow it!