Cost per pint

[Linalmeemow]

It works out at a case of 20 X 275ml bottles a day. Saying that. I've not had any Becks in 5 months. So not an alcoholic. I can take or leave beer.

Drinking like that, the hardest thing is going to be keeping your production up with your consumption. If you use standard kit turning out 23l or so at a time you're going to have to brew pretty much twice a week. The upside is if you're brewing you're less likely to getting through the same amount as you'll be busy, and brewing while pissed is not a great idea!

 

[MyQul]

Drinking like that, the hardest thing is going to be keeping your production up with your consumption. If you use standard kit turning out 23l or so at a time you're going to have to brew pretty much twice a week. The upside is if you're brewing you're less likely to getting through the same amount as you'll be busy, and brewing while pissed is not a great idea!

He could always brew just the once and brew a bigger brewlength/more than one kit in a larger FV. He could say, put 2 or 3 kits in one of those large plastic storage boxes (provided it food grade of course). I have one that holds 160L so could do 8 kits in one go!

 

[simon12]

You could make it even more 'extreme' by using a load of table sugar to make it even cheaper

I make it you replace 500kg of grain £300+VAT = £360 with 400Kg sugar £200 no VAT saves £160 divided by 10,000 pints saves 1.6p per pint so 7.424p a pint. Without sugar you could make a nice beer with it quality would be seriously compromised so I would pay the extra 1.6p every time.

 

[Funnyday]

As you say the production will have to be big. That's why I'm thinking of just going straight to using kegs. I don't fancy sanitising loads of bottles with each batch.

 

[MyQul]

I make it you replace 500kg of grain £300+VAT = £360 with 400Kg sugar £200 no VAT saves £160 divided by 10,000 pints saves 1.6p per pint so 7.424p a pint. Without sugar you could make a nice beer with it quality would be seriously compromised so I would pay the extra 1.6p every time.

Sorry I wasnt making myself clear. I meant you could replace some of the grain with sugar rather than all of it. Say anything from 10%-30%. I usually add 8%-10% sugar or golden syrup to my beers. So could save some money and still have a good quality beer

 

[Clint]

I would like to be the beer police.
First job...
Order Boddingtons to start making it like it was.
Another on my Sewage list is Tetley bitter...that's bad stuff!

 

[MyQul]

'ello 'ello 'ello and what are you drinking 'ere then?

 

[Leard]

I've just done an order on GetErBrew for a bunch of different recipes, all 20L.

A 7.3% hoppy IPA is about 71p a pint.
A 4.6% light blonde ale is about 24p a pint.

Mostly hops are the biggest cost. I once made a 3.5% dark mild that wasn't very hoppy. It was about 14p a pint.

But as others have said you need to account for equipment costs, and time. This isn't a hobby you do if you just want to have cheap beer to drink.

 

[Linalmeemow]

But as others have said you need to account for equipment costs, and time. This isn't a hobby you do if you just want to have cheap beer to drink.

Disagree - if you spend £500 or so on equipment (cheaper all in one system, bucket fermenter, capper, recycled bottles etc) and you do 10 brews each yielding 50-60 330ml bottles of beer that you'd ordinarily pay a minimum £1.50 for you're getting close to breaking even. I do 10 brews in 6-7 months or so, everything after that is a saving.

 

[Petrolhead]

I am interested in learning about brewing and producing a quality beer. I don’t really think about the price per pint. Having said that if I was drinking 70 pints a week I don’t think I would give flying fig about nowt!

 

[BeerCat]

20p for lager.

 

[dad_of_jon]

£1.15-£1.65 for a 500ml bottle - that includes a bottle cap no label and the the bottle is recycled. I could go cheaper if i had the time & space, but it's the quality of the beer I drink not the price that is my driving factor

Plus when I buy a commercial and dislike it i'm gutted. When my beer doesn't turn out as planned its never as big a downer. At worst it's a case of change that a bit next time.

 

[dad_of_jon]

As you say the production will have to be big. That's why I'm thinking of just going straight to using kegs. I don't fancy sanitising loads of bottles with each batch.

Agreed, but you could used 660ml bottles or 2 litre ex pop bottles - if you're drinking a lot of the same that would reduce your bottle count. you'd pour the 2 litres in one go into a big jug then refill your glass ;-)

 

[TheOsprey]

It works out at a case of 20 X 275ml bottles a day. Saying that. I've not had any Becks in 5 months. So not an alcoholic. I can take or leave beer.

This cannot be true. Beer police or not, this is 26 units and 2260 calories, not to mention 5.5 litres of liquid a day. You'd have to drink 2 bottles an hour from midday to 10pm.

Edited: time maths

 

[obscure]

My costs are slightly higher than some as I tend to brew 9L (16 pint) batches, for a basic bitter using get er brewed recipie generator, grain yeast and hops are about £5.85, I tend to buy enough for 4 batches at a time so shipping per batch is £1.49. Sundries, I.e. cleaning and sanitiser about £0.50, add in £1 for electricity, and £0.80 for the 16g CO2 cartridge for the 5L I put in mini keg and you are up to £9.64 or just over 60p a pint.

I am not bothering to include the cost of my pot for the mash and boil, or the cost of the fermentor. If I did larger batches a lot of my costs would of course fall I.e. I use an entire sachet of dried yeast and would use the same amount in a 23L batch. I also don’t factor in my own time, so if it wasn’t a hobby I enjoyed then frankly it wouldn’t be worth it.

 

[Steven]

Including the shipping cost for the cider kit I am currently brewing it's going to work out around 75p per pint.

Once I find a kit I like I can buy in bulk to save on the postage which would give me 56p per pint.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Scottish 80' - grain£4, yeast £3, hops home grown, water treatment 50p. 44 bottles at 17p per pint.

American wheat - grain £5, yeast £3, hops £5, water acid 50p. 40 bottles at 34p per pint.

NEIPA? Could easily spiral up towards 80p/pint.

The key determinants are
- whether you can buy in bulk for base malts,
- the amount of other malts
- hops. These are really expensive. But again, if you have a 'house beer' you can buy in bulk.
- yeast. CML is a good cheap goto.

Cheers

Martin

 

[Shirley Bassett]

Well if you want to make your home brew / Becks consumption seem to be an even greater saving, then move to Scotland. With minimum pricing for alcohol at £0.50 per unit, which is 10ml of alcohol, then I calculate you would be spending at the following rate per month.

5500ml of beer at 4% alcohol = 5500 x 0.04 = 220ml of alcohol.

220ml of alcohol / 10 = 22 units per case.

22 Units at £0.50 per unit = £11 per case.

£11 x 30 cases = £330 per month.

I believe it’s the same pricing structure for Wales.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

If you get into home brewing then for a simple drinkable lager type beer you could try Wilko’s Cerveza it £12 for 23,000ml, which means you would get 4 days consumption at 5500ml a day.

If you ignore set up costs and sugar additions sterilisation / cleaning solutions etc, then you would be spending around £3/day compared to your Becks daily consumption, of £10/day. I reckon at £7/day you easily recoup a basic set up costs in a week

My finders fee for this exercise is 10% of daily saving, which I calculate to be (£10 - £3)/10 = £0.70/day. This equates to £0.70 x 365 = £255.50/year. We could offer you a 25% discount if you wish to pay your annual subscription up front.

Would you like me to give you the sort code and account number to which payment could be made?

Your annual saving, excluding our fees, would be around £2555/year!

 

[Leard]

I live in Wales and I don't find that the minimum pricing has much of an impact on beer. The calculation you use to work out the minimum price is £0.50 x ABV x Vol (L).

So a 500ml bottle of 5% stout is 0.5 x 5 x 0.5 = £1.25 minimum. Most decent ones would cost that much anyway.
Or a 330ml can of 7% IPA would be 0.5 x 7 x 0.33 = £1.15. You'd be very lucky to find one priced that low.