Cost of brewing

[dennisking]

My money saving tip is to use the hot water from an immersion chiller to do the washing-up at the end of brew-day.

I also use it to rinse the FV after sterilizing

 

[ano]

Brew bigger batches, they're more efficient.

 

[rabbie]

Right, feel free to rip this to pieces:
Ingredients for 20 litres
Malt say 6kg @ £2/kg = £12
Hops say 100g = £5
Yeast say 1 pack dry = £3
Water say 1p/10 litres – 40 litres for brewing, 20 for washing = 6p
Irish moss say 5p
Sanitiser say 5p
Caps – 40 @ 2p = 80p

Leccy - I'll assume 11 p/kWh

Boiler – electric 2.4 kW
40 litres/40 kg, heated from 10C to 100C, 90% efficiency
40 x 4.2 x (100-10) / 0.9= 16.8 MJ = 4.7 kWh or 52p

Heating - Aquarium heater - 50W
1 week on for 50% of time
50 x 24 x 7 / 2 = 4200 Wh or 4.2 kWh or 47p

Or cooling - Fridge – 200W with compressor on, 5 W on idle
1 week, compressor running for 10% of time
(0.1 x 200 + 0.9 x 5) x 24 x 7 = 3360 + 756 = 4116 kWh or 47p

That gives about £22 or £1.10/litre.

A fair price for a good quality beer in the supermarket is probably £1.50 a bottle or £3/litre.

I've probably spent £200 on equipment, so the break even point is:
3 - 1.1 = 1.9 £/litre saved by home brewing
200 (£spent) / 1.9 (£saved/litre) = 105 litres

Obviously it works out cheaper buying a big bag of malt/hops, re-using yeast for multiple batches, re-using sanitiser, brewing a low OG, DIY equipment building etc.

If I was to use the actual price per litre of good beer over here (£10/litre) I would have no problems justifying a proper shiny set-up...
:twisted:

 

[robsan77]

For me malt would be about 60p / kg
hops £3/ 100g
yeast £1

 

[robsan77]

My money saving tip is to use the hot water from an immersion chiller to do the washing-up at the end of brew-day.

I also use it to rinse the FV after sterilizing

I dont rinse the fv with the hot water from the immersion. The cold goes in via a hose pipe which could have nasties in and I dont believe the temp to be sufficient to kill them. Maybe at the start of chilling but still not convinced

 

[snail59]

Right, feel free to rip this to pieces:
Ingredients for 20 litres
Malt say 6kg @ £2/kg = £12
Hops say 100g = £5
Yeast say 1 pack dry = £3
Water say 1p/10 litres – 40 litres for brewing, 20 for washing = 6p
Irish moss say 5p
Sanitiser say 5p
Caps – 40 @ 2p = 80p

Leccy - I'll assume 11 p/kWh

Boiler – electric 2.4 kW
40 litres/40 kg, heated from 10C to 100C, 90% efficiency
40 x 4.2 x (100-10) / 0.9= 16.8 MJ = 4.7 kWh or 52p

Heating - Aquarium heater - 50W
1 week on for 50% of time
50 x 24 x 7 / 2 = 4200 Wh or 4.2 kWh or 47p

Or cooling - Fridge – 200W with compressor on, 5 W on idle
1 week, compressor running for 10% of time
(0.1 x 200 + 0.9 x 5) x 24 x 7 = 3360 + 756 = 4116 kWh or 47p

That gives about £22 or £1.10/litre.

A fair price for a good quality beer in the supermarket is probably £1.50 a bottle or £3/litre.

I've probably spent £200 on equipment, so the break even point is:
3 - 1.1 = 1.9 £/litre saved by home brewing
200 (£spent) / 1.9 (£saved/litre) = 105 litres

Obviously it works out cheaper buying a big bag of malt/hops, re-using yeast for multiple batches, re-using sanitiser, brewing a low OG, DIY equipment building etc.

If I was to use the actual price per litre of good beer over here (£10/litre) I would have no problems justifying a proper shiny set-up...
:twisted:

My money saving tip would be change ingredient supplier they seem expensive :rofl:

 

[dennisking]

Don`t forget folk`s VAT is going up in January, thats going to push up gas, electicity and water.

 

[evanvine]

Don`t forget folk`s VAT is going up in January, thats going to push up gas, electicity and water.

It will no doubt also push up commercial beer prices, HB savings % should remain the same.
I think :wha:

 

[bigdave]

Don`t forget folk`s VAT is going up in January, thats going to push up gas, electicity and water.

People keep going on about this like its the end of the world or something. I estimate my total monthly utility cost (that's gas, electric, water, phone, mobiles & broadband) to be in the region of £250 so overall my costs will only go up by just over £6 a month. That's only £1 for each utility so its not exactly bank breaking stuff is it!

 

[broadfordbrewer]

I think what we'll see is more and more people turning to homebrewing rather than people seeing it as too costly. Just my thoughts...

 

[graysalchemy]

I brew at work and my electric varies from £70- £100 a month depending on what figure the landlord decides to charge. A farce really considering I had a bill for £100 in summer when I had no heating on, I was quiet and had little machinery running and last january when we had 8" of snow my bill was £80 :wha: :wha:

AG

 

[bigdave]

I brew at work and my electric varies from £70- £100 a month depending on what figure the landlord decides to charge. A farce really considering I had a bill for £100 in summer when I had no heating on, I was quiet and had little machinery running and last january when we had 8" of snow my bill was £80 :wha: :wha:

AG

Id be tempted to ask to see the landlords bills or suggest to him that you arrange your own gas and elecy supply?