Homebrew Beer Myths

[Drunkula]

But I'm more interested in those who do 'cost' their beer!

I do it. I love it. I've been putting in the electricity cost n stuff. Yesterday doing 23 litres cost under 35p because the solar panels were raging. The cost of the batch including that was £6.06. When I buy a batch of stuff I average the delivery cost across the ingredients when I add them to Beersmith so it's fair.

I haven't put the cost of the induction hob on yet - just worked it out and I've done about 120 litre with it, something like that, so that's 26p on top of each pint so far. Ingredients wise most of my beers come in under 15p a pint but that's because i'm brewing with mad **** like gravel, birds' nests and infusing the beers with the bitterness I generate on this forum.

 

[kelper]

I have probably spent £250 on equipment; three PBs, four FVs and siphons, yeast etc. I have brewed twenty batches in the last fourteen months, mostly 23 litres but some eighteen, so I'll say 20L average. If I brew at this rate for five years it would total 5 x 20 x 20 x (12/14) = 1,714 litres, or 3,622 pints. So the equipment only adds 7p to the cost of a pint. St Peter's IPA in kit is only £22 including postage - 32pints - so about 69p plus 7p for the equipment. If I can make beer for under a pound a pint I'm very happy.

 

[proost]

I'd be very tempted to put some homebrew in a used bottle of commercial beer and recap it.

I once removed the label from a bottle of Heinekien, glued one of my own labels on it and gave it to my mate who would only drink lager. He was very impressed and said that it tasted just like a commercial lager. He told everyone what a fantastic home brewer I was!
I never told him

 

[kelper]

I once removed the label from a bottle of Heinekien, glued one of my own labels on it and gave it to my mate who would only drink lager. He was very impressed and said that it tasted just like a commercial lager. He told everyone what a fantastic home brewer I was!
I never told him

Why did you not refill a Heineken bottle with your brew and recap it?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I have probably spent £250 on equipment; three PBs, four FVs and siphons, yeast etc. I have brewed twenty batches in the last fourteen months, mostly 23 litres but some eighteen, so I'll say 20L average. If I brew at this rate for five years it would total 5 x 20 x 20 x (12/14) = 1,714 litres, or 3,622 pints. So the equipment only adds 7p to the cost of a pint. St Peter's IPA in kit is only £22 including postage - 32pints - so about 69p plus 7p for the equipment. If I can make beer for under a pound a pint I'm vert happy.

The real trick is to look at the payback on your equipment investment i.e. How much have I saved brewing my own compared with buying beer in a pub or supermarket assuming the same consumption lol. You'll find the payback is less than one year.

 

[proost]

Why did you not refill a Heineken bottle with your brew and recap it?

When I first had a go at home brewing back in 1972 (!) Most of it tasted liked s***e. No heat control, etc.

 

[fury_tea]

assuming the same consumption lol.

This is the salient piece of info. I drink in the pub (when they're open) and still buy from the shop ("research"). Probably not buying as much as a couple of years back but definitely still do buy some and usually the most expensive ones.

I might try a month of not buying beer and only drinking what I have in the house.

 

[James]

The real trick is to look at the payback on your equipment investment i.e. How much have I saved brewing my own compared with buying beer in a pub or supermarket assuming the same consumption lol. You'll find the payback is less than one year.

I have probably spent £250 on equipment; three PBs, four FVs and siphons, yeast etc. I have brewed twenty batches in the last fourteen months, mostly 23 litres but some eighteen, so I'll say 20L average. If I brew at this rate for five years it would total 5 x 20 x 20 x (12/14) = 1,714 litres, or 3,622 pints. So the equipment only adds 7p to the cost of a pint. St Peter's IPA in kit is only £22 including postage - 32pints - so about 69p plus 7p for the equipment. If I can make beer for under a pound a pint I'm very happy.

A while ago I realised I was spending too much money on shiny kit and had to rein it in so I set myself a limit on (cumulative) kit cost per (cumulative) brewed pint to stop me running off and buying yet another bit of "needed" kit (like the hopback I've used once).
The downside was - I brewed like fury to get the pint count up so I could allow myself another purchase

 

[PhilBrew]

But I'm more interested in those who do 'cost' their beer!

... OK then, at the risk of looking like a completely anally retentive to$$er ...

My "Brewing Log" is a spreadsheet, and ever since I first started in this hobby I've been tracking my spend and how much beer I've got out in a separate worksheet of it ... every purchase made specifically for brewing has gone down in the log and every batch has had the yield (volume into packaging) recorded, the purchases include things like spoons, sieves bags of bottle caps literally anything and everything (though I haven't necessarily recorded the odd spoonful of soda crystals filched from the cupboard with the laundry cleaners in ... and electricity and water usages are not included) ... but, since 2012 when I ordered my first Homebrew Beginners Starter Kit (with a Wherry kit included) I've spent £2,435.08 and made 3,048 pints of beer ... so an average of 80p a pint.

There's no adjustments for depreciation or amortisation of equipment purchases in that worksheet, so the average tends to go up for a year or two after I've made equipment purchases ... and I bought myself a BrewDevil and my first Cornies/Taps/CO2 kit last year ... but for years now that average has been in the 60-85p range

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Cheshire Cat]

A while ago I realised I was spending too much money on shiny kit and had to rein it in so I set myself a limit on (cumulative) kit cost per (cumulative) brewed pint to stop me running off and buying yet another bit of "needed" kit (like the hopback I've used once).
The downside was - I brewed like fury to get the pint count up so I could allow myself another purchase

If consumption is less than production then waste. If consumption is greater than production then misery

 

[Linalmeemow]

I've never worked it out in detail, but I reckon it averages out at about 40-50p per bottle (sometimes big bottles, sometimes small) so I reckon I'm saving 80p-£1 per bottle I brew over what I'd pay for a commercial bottle I've probably spent around £600 on equipment since I started brewing a bit over 5 years ago, and I've brewed at least a couple of thousands of bottles, maybe more a fair few more than that so I'd say I've definitely saved money. If my all-in-one system dies and I have to spend another £300 or so it'll only cost me 6 brewdays or so before it pays for itself and I'm back to saving.

 

[Clint]

Due to people's general perception of homebrew when they ask what it costs,even though I've got a rough idea but not arsed about that side of the hobby...I always says it's dead cheap..no more than 40p a pint...just to see the mixed look of awe,admiration and envy on their faces and the "ability to get ***** faced for a fiver". They then give you that "knowing" look and nodding of the head when you say you will be brewing up on the days off....

 

[Cheshire Cat]

You need no rince sanitiser as rincing tap water is infected

 

[kelper]

You need no rince sanitiser as rincing tap water is infected

no it isn't!

 

[strange-steve]

no it isn't!

Perhaps he was suggesting that as a myth?

 

[Drunkula]

Lager kits are a great starting point for home brewing!

 

[Scottyburto]

Thing is, if you brew a beer and measure it's OG and FG you can reasonably accurately measure the ABV. Though most of us probably forget about the priming sugar. Commercial beers are allowed + or - a certain amount over or under the % stated on the label to allow for variations in production. I think my locals microbrewery said it was 3%. So in fact your pub 4% beer could in fact be 3.7%. Something to bear in mind if driving is also a 4.5% beer might actually be nearer 5%. Best not to have that second one.

Oh, and that is assuming the landlord isn't watering the beer. I know one pub where if you go in and look at the guiness pump the barman, who I know, will quietly shake his head if it's been doctored.

Your local microbrewery is correct, Molson Coors successfully got away with paying tax on Carling being brewed to 3.7% despite it being advertised as 4.2% @ the time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41059610
I used to be deputy to a pub/restaurant GM who used to collect the contents of line clean (approx 4-6 pts on each line + some water) and use a tun dish to depressurize the Stella keg and top it up. I'd like to think he only did this with lager as we had 4 different lagers with about 14 working lines but I don't know he he whacked them all in there.

First I found out about it was when we had an unannounced visit from the area manager who took the tun dish when he left! I think another old school GM had been caught doing it and had turned grass and got it added to the area manager visit check list.

The most remarkable thing is we had a reputation at the time for the best Stella in town!

 

[Drunkula]

used to collect the contents of line clean (approx 4-6 pts on each line + some water) and use a tun dish to depressurize the Stella keg and top it up.

My mam used to clean the lines on a Sunday and put all the pints drawn before it got icky onto the bar for free. You'd get a crowd of old *******s who came in, drink it and then piss off. Then when they came back in the week they'd complain about the prices.

 

[Scottyburto]

My mam used to clean the lines on a Sunday and put all the pints drawn before it got icky onto the bar for free. You'd get a crowd of old *******s who came in, drink it and then piss off. Then when they came back in the week they'd complain about the prices.

Other places I worked for the same company used to use it as Sunday night staff treat.
Almost made watching parents use childrens play area as an all day creche whilst getting pissed and being shouted at all day worth it! Almost!

 

[Hanglow]

My mam used to clean the lines on a Sunday and put all the pints drawn before it got icky onto the bar for free. You'd get a crowd of old *******s who came in, drink it and then piss off. Then when they came back in the week they'd complain about the prices.

One of my earliest beer memories was of my dad taking me as a 4 year old to his squash club while he played a few games ( I was chucked in the corner and told not to move). Afterwards we went to the bar, where the barman offered the slops from the drip trays to the quickest customers. I still to this day remember a horde of cheap punters galloping to the bar to get a free pint of slops - my dad among them. Grim stuff to be honest.