How much!!!

[gibb58]

Was looking at doing my first extract brew and priced it up. Either I'm going seriously wrong but I worked out that it will cost me about 35 quid to brew 23 litres. Obviously il have left over hops and some steeping grains but all in all there won't be much left over. I thought extract was meant to be cheaper than kits.

 

[ChrisRedWills]

welcome to the real world mr gibb

 

[PD]

can you itemise your costs ?

 

[pittsy]

extract is the most expensive but i think you've over priced , 3 kg dme £15 the home brew company , 500g crystal grains or something £2 , hops £3.50 , yeast £3 dried = 23.50 plus postage

 

[gibb58]

3kg coopers malt extract £20 black malt £1.73 I need two different types of hops and they are about £3 for 100g of each so £6 but will have a lot left over Irish moss £1 or so, yeast £2. So that's about £30. When I priced it properly on the website it came to just short of £35. Don't get me wrong that still works out really cheap for what you get but was just a bit shocked when it came to that much. What extract would you recommend because I wasn't to sure on using coopers in the first place

 

[PD]

The Homebrew company ( above ) do 3kg of malt extract for about £18 then theres these extras for each beer ( around £5 )

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ext ... c-164.html

 

[Inneed]

What extract would you recommend

I started brewing this year and with exception of one Wherry, done as a reference, I have back to back brewed extracts. I use Brewferm light liquid extract - 3Kg and throw in aKg of amber DME (dry and also Brewferm). So far worked a treat and a good base to experiment with different hops. I'm out in France and the LME costs me €23.50. The dry spreymalt is €9.50 for a kilo, so your talking €33 (or £28) for your 23L before hops and yeast and yes it's more expensive than kits out here too..

 

[wilsoa1111]

tins of LME are a bit dear, im having a wee play with the bog standard cooking LME, got off amazon when it was silly cheap for 6x jars of stuff, not got the beer primed yet but stuff out the bucket was pretty darn good, even managed to get it pretty pale by using alot of honey (goldensyrup would work aswell) not al malt as it can be a PITA to ferment aswell appently

as for hops on ebay last time i looked u can get a kilo of fuggles for £20 delivered, so basic hops are cheap (the maltmiller tends to have some cheaper aswell)

also the cheaper kits are half extract half sugar, this can work aswell esp if ur using plenty of spec malts (a mini mash is ideal)

overall i reckon i can make a basic light engish bitter ale from extract for £12 for 20l- £2 sugar, £4 cheap LME, £2 hops, £2 yeast (if im not recycling), £2 spec and basic malts, so cheap as a kit- yeast recyling helps alot so can spend on the malt- delivery wise i spend enough for free or have factored it in... so as cheap as kits if plan accordingly- cheaper malt can be done by buying in 25kg jerry cans etc

 

[rpt]

I did a BrewUK extract kit that is £23 for 21L so comparable to a premium kit but the quality is miles better. It has the advantage that you are only paying for the hops you actually need though if you are going to do regular brews it is probably cheaper to buy 100g of hops at a time. It uses spraymalt so I don't know if that helps make it cheaper.

 

[Inneed]

Out of interest, what does the ingredient cost work out for a 23L batch of AG origin?

 

[PD]

all depends on how you buy your ingredients
In bulk 25 kg of Pale Malt will cost you £25
hops are around £3 per 100gms
typical single malt and single hop brew 23 liters would cost you around £4 50p not including any postage on your ingredients.
So round it up to £5 per brew or 12.5pence per liter bottle of beer......

Then theres cost of fuel, equipment depreciation, my time...etc etc.....

still all in all..... :party: :party: :party:

 

[rpt]

all depends on how you buy your ingredients
In bulk 25 kg of Pale Malt will cost you £25
hops are around £3 per 100gms
typical single malt and single hop brew 23 liters would cost you around £4 50p not including any postage on your ingredients.
So round it up to £5 per brew or 12.5pence per liter bottle of beer......

That seems a bit optimistic to me. I suppose it depends on how efficient your process is, but the malt alone will cost £5, £2.50 for hops and another £2.50 for yeast. So that's more like a tenner, plus electricy or gas, steriliser, water etc.

 

[pittsy]

On average i would say £15 for my AG , grain , hops, yeast , dme for yeast starters , gas for brewing and elec for conditioning and prob some other **** i've forgotten about but 10s of pounds on equipment here and there even after main pots are paid for but still when a batch goes right i still get some 42/44 bottles of beer which would cost on average £2 a bottle from the shops so cheap as chips really

 

[PD]

a very simple SMaSH 4 kg of Malt and say 60/70 gms of hops. My yeast is one that I split into 6 so 50p a shot

Yes its simplistic and probably the extreme but it not impossible.

My last dark Island brew had 5 malts and 3 hops in the brew so it gets a bit complicated to work out the actual costs....Suffice to say its one of the cheapest methods of brewing beer.

( after set up costs, equipment etc, which can be very variable )

 

[winelight]

This has convinced me it's not only easier but cheaper to stay with kits, especially with the silly offers you get from time to time.

 

[pittsy]

This has convinced me it's not only easier but cheaper to stay with kits, especially with the silly offers you get from time to time.

Yes but going extract and maybe even AG is worth it in the results , you don't really here of folk going back to kits once they have gone forward .

 

[rpt]

This has convinced me it's not only easier but cheaper to stay with kits, especially with the silly offers you get from time to time.

Kits are easier but definitely not cheaper. You may be able to get a cheap kit+sugar for not much more than AG but the quality will be very different.

 

[scott-ayling]

I've recently moved from kits to AG not to try save money but for the hobby , actually feels rewarding making your own beer from scratch rather than mixing a tin with water , sugar and yeast

 

[scott-ayling]

But obviously told SWMBO that its cheaper and we will be saving a load of cash

 

[bunkerbrewer]

But obviously told SWMBO that its cheaper and we will be saving a load of cash

It was nice of her to pretend she believes you :)