I it generally cheaper

[Rodcx500z]

Try one of these it's proper beer Buy Moonraker J.W.Lees - 12 x 500ml £30.00 (bestofbritishbeer.co.uk)

 

[An Ankoù]

Buying supermarket beer in bottles in France is very expensive, unless you want the Kronebourg or other watery French or European beers. Won't drink any beer out of tins.

Having said it's expensive, the abbey type brews from Northern France and Belgium are usually cheaper here than in UK. Good, nationally available beer served in Cafes/bistros are very expensive, with very few "micropubs" around to do the rarer brews.

Hello Shunter. What part of Normandy are you from? I'm just down the road, not far from Redon.en
I agree wth you about French beer, it's generally overpriced. La Goudale amd Trois Monts are good and inexpensive beers, but they're just too strong for a session. I buy them for the bottles, though. The microbreweries are, frankly, rubbish. They don't understand beer, just marketing and image and dodgy names.
How long have you been brewing?

 

[Shunter]

Hello Shunter. What part of Normandy are you from? I'm just down the road, not far from Redon.en
I agree wth you about French beer, it's generally overpriced. La Goudale amd Trois Monts are good and inexpensive beers, but they're just too strong for a session. I buy them for the bottles, though. The microbreweries are, frankly, rubbish. They don't understand beer, just marketing and image and dodgy names.
How long have you been brewing?

Ankou
Live in 50240, St Laurent de Terregatte. The cafe in the next village along does L'Odon, 330ml bottles. They do about 9-10 different brews but two or three good ones, and they aren't cheap. The cafe in our village does Pelforth (new owners-- last several stuck with Kronenbourg) and surprisingly it sells well.

I have a motorhome and travel around a bit, trying various beers in different parts of France. I usually try a draught beer I've never heard of and am sometimes quite pleasantly surprised.

I've been doing homebrew kits since the late 70's, on and off. Sadly, until now, I've never had the room to do my own from scratch. I buy Fischer beers for the bottles, only trouble is, replacement stoppers from SuperU are for cider bottles and don't always keep the pressure in unless you crimp them. Once I can get back to UK I'm going to try and get a Grainfather through customs and brew here. I have a couple of pressure barrels but no gas holder or gas. Only trouble is, once I've made it, I have nobody close enough to drink it with me!!!

 

[Galena]

The microbreweries are, frankly, rubbish. They don't understand beer, just marketing and image and dodgy names.

I once considered setting up a Micro in France, do you think the French are ready for good beer? The other option was the Costa del ex-pat where the drinkers would be British, but perhaps that fraternity would be mainly lager drinkers?

 

[An Ankoù]

Only trouble is, once I've made it, I have nobody close enough to drink it with me!!!

Ha, that's my problem too, but I still keep on brewing. We let out a couple of rooms to holiday makers and they appreciate a free skinfull, and I'm glad to share- don't get me wrong, but this blasted plague has rather put the mockers on things. I haven't tasted L'Odon and I'll keep an eye open for it. Now I come to think of it, there's a micro in Acigné, a bit to the east of Rennes, that looked promising, they call themselves Skumenn -foam in English, I think.
I thought Fischer used swing-top bottles. I collected a few when we first came, but found the beer too sweet for my liking.
Well if you happen to find yourself in these parts in your motorhome, pop in and try a gallon or two.

 

[An Ankoù]

I once considered setting up a Micro in France, do you think the French are ready for good beer? The other option was the Costa del ex-pat where the drinkers would be British, but perhaps that fraternity would be mainly lager drinkers?

Nice plan, but I really don't know. Setting up a business in France seems to be less straightforward than it seems. Certainly the only French I've met who are proper beer drinkers were from Nord-Pas de Calais.

 

[mitch]

Political.
Its not about the cost.

 

[Shunter]

Ha, that's my problem too, but I still keep on brewing. We let out a couple of rooms to holiday makers and they appreciate a free skinfull, and I'm glad to share- don't get me wrong, but this blasted plague has rather put the mockers on things. I haven't tasted L'Odon and I'll keep an eye open for it. Now I come to think of it, there's a micro in Acigné, a bit to the east of Rennes, that looked promising, they call themselves Skumenn -foam in English, I think.
I thought Fischer used swing-top bottles. I collected a few when we first came, but found the beer too sweet for my liking.
Well if you happen to find yourself in these parts in your motorhome, pop in and try a gallon or two.

L'Odon is a brewery near Caen. Yes they are swingtops, that's why I said stoppers instead of tops, dementia overtook me at just that moment!!!
Came past yours on the way up from St Nazaire last July. Not sure if we came through the town or by-passed it. Nice bit of country though. Thanks for the invite. Who knows??

 

[Shunter]

Nice plan, but I really don't know. Setting up a business in France seems to be less straightforward than it seems. Certainly the only French I've met who are proper beer drinkers were from Nord-Pas de Calais.

There's a "pub" in Avranches that sells a very good selection of strong (and not so strong) French and Belgian brews. And at a very reasonable price (as at before lockdown of cafes, pubs, etc). Frequented by a lot of young people and one or two "beardies" ( you just know they're Brits). Looking forward to it reopening again.

 

[AlDaviz]

Hi all
I’ll say it started with cost for me as you would go out to Brewdog or Innes Gunn and it’s around £4-5 for a schooner ! Depending what you were drinking.
This started me brewing, but now it’s more about taste and being able to try different brews myself.
Plus is still works out a lot cheaper

 

[Drunkula]

I make beer that I wouldn't pay for.

Steady, nutty! What I mean is that sometimes I'll make something like Pedigree which I'd never buy in a shop because if you've got Shipyard in your hand and Pedigree and they're the same price there's no way I'm taking the Pedigree. But the Pedigree to make costs less than 16.5p a pint, including lekky and bottle cap.

Costing with the induction unit and bottle capper included it goes up to £1.02 a pint for the first 40 pint run, 59p the next run, 45p... 38p... 33p...

So that's a beer most people know and it was very cheap. I made a voss rice lager and it was £6.20 for the batch including electricity. I've never tasted anything like it and it was insane and I can't imagine even having something like that if it weren't for homebrewing. I ended up scoring it a 10/10 as a drink.... I couldn't even start where to score it as a beer because it was so far off my radar.

If you really want to get drunk for cheap then make sugar wash, use finings and then add fruit juice or something to flavour it - that's what a load of the cheaper wine kits essentially are.

 

[Jim Brewster]

I make small 4 litre batches, don't usually work out the cost, but a very basic pale ale SMaSH comes out at 88p/litre in ingredients.

850g pale malt £1.80
12g Hops 90p
Yeast 75p (I pitch half an 11g pack of dry fermentis yeast and re-use the yeast cake for the next brew so I get 4 brews from 1 pack)

That would be £3.45 in ingredients for 4L, about 7 pints, i.e. 49p a pint

Equipment cost was next to nothing..
Tesco Ashbeck 5L bottle as the FV
Small stockpot, fine mesh bag for grain, food grade silicone tube, meat thermometer.
Bottled into 2L PET bottles

Not quite enough to supply me with all my beer, but if I had the space to expand to bigger equipment and bigger batches I probably would.

 

[JohnB]

@Hazelwood Brewery I really could not agree more with you, Sir. You start out with a few plastic buckets, then add a stainless steel stock-pot and before you know it once a fortnight you lock the kitchen door and turn it into a fully fledged micro-brewery for the day. If you are (I think someone called it time rich) of a leisurely persuasion? Don't count the cost, enjoy the ride! My current fav is a 5.8%ABV milk stout at about 28p per 500ml bottle. I know I've used a price for comparison, but when I brew, cost is the furthest thing from my mind. Temperature, grain bill's, pH's, volumes, hop regime and times come first. Then if it tastes excellent I'll do it again - and again - and again. Unlike my latest forray into weissbier drain cleaner!.

 

[JT_Brews]

One of my motivations when starting was to save money and to not have to go to the shop for beer all the time. Once I started I realised that actually the biggest benefit is that I get to brew and drinks styles that I barely knew existed and certainly never could have bought anywhere, like my psuedo Saison brewed with WLP065 but hopped like an APA. And some styles that like @Drunkula I would never actually buy, like dark mild or bitter (because I find commercial examples very bland) are now some of my favourites to brew at home.

It does also save a ****-load of money. Or it will once I've offset my brewing and kegging equipment cost :)

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

@Hazelwood Brewery I really could not agree more with you, Sir. You start out with a few plastic buckets, then add a stainless steel stock-pot and before you know it once a fortnight you lock the kitchen door and turn it into a fully fledged micro-brewery for the day. If you are (I think someone called it time rich) of a leisurely persuasion? Don't count the cost, enjoy the ride! My current fav is a 5.8%ABV milk stout at about 28p per 500ml bottle. I know I've used a price for comparison, but when I brew, cost is the furthest thing from my mind. Temperature, grain bill's, pH's, volumes, hop regime and times come first. Then if it tastes excellent I'll do it again - and again - and again. Unlike my latest forray into weissbier drain cleaner!.

For a Weissbier you need another piece of expensive equipment. I’m joking but actually if it had turned out really well you might by now be thinking about another keg / few more bottles!

My latest additions are probably also my favourites at the moment, a Belgian Tripel and a couple of Pilsners. I’ve now added more kegs to my growing collection and bought three relatively expensive glasses to best enjoy these beers.

I think if you brew for the reason of saving money it will ultimately fail and you’ll miss out on the real pleasures of home brewing. Cheers!

 

[Shunter]

For a Weissbier you need another piece of expensive equipment. I’m joking but actually if it had turned out really well you might by now be thinking about another keg / few more bottles!

My latest additions are probably also my favourites at the moment, a Belgian Tripel and a couple of Pilsners. I’ve now added more kegs to my growing collection and bought three relatively expensive glasses to best enjoy these beers.

I think if you brew for the reason of saving money it will ultimately fail and you’ll miss out on the real pleasures of home brewing. Cheers!

You are very lucky living in Kent (especially if you live near Ramsgate) of having a surfeit of micropubs and small brewers. My local, when I go to Rainham, is the Prince of Ales, who generally have 4 different brews on at a time. Many a time I've tried all 4 as they are never much above 4.8 or 5%.

However, although I do like stronger beers, I never drink for the alcoholic content. If it doesn't taste good, I don't drink it.

I know I have gone a bit off topic, but trying a lot of different brews from a lot of different brewers gives you the opportunity to be able to judge a good beer from some of the big brewers popular "dishwater" offerings.

Quality and taste always have to win out. If you just want to get p****d, do a half and half with a bottle of vodka.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

You are very lucky living in Kent (especially if you live near Ramsgate) of having a surfeit of micropubs and small brewers. My local, when I go to Rainham, is the Prince of Ales, who generally have 4 different brews on at a time. Many a time I've tried all 4 as they are never much above 4.8 or 5%.

However, although I do like stronger beers, I never drink for the alcoholic content. If it doesn't taste good, I don't drink it.

I know I have gone a bit off topic, but trying a lot of different brews from a lot of different brewers gives you the opportunity to be able to judge a good beer from some of the big brewers popular "dishwater" offerings.

Quality and taste always have to win out. If you just want to get p****d, do a half and half with a bottle of vodka.

I think I’ve been there. Walked most of the strip from Rochester through the Medway town sampling the offerings in several micropubs along the way. There are a couple in Strood I have yet to get to once we are able to get around again.

 

[Shunter]

I envy you your future samplings. . The Furlong in Faversham is good, as is the Frog and Furkin in Herne Bay. Paper Mill and Donna's in Sittingbourne too, although last time I was in Donna's they were doing a far better trade in gin than ale.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I envy you your future samplings. . The Furlong in Faversham is good, as is the Frog and Furkin in Herne Bay. Paper Mill and Donna's in Sittingbourne too, although last time I was in Donna's they were doing a far better trade in gin than ale.

I know the Firkin Frog at Herne Bay on a corner, road back from the sea front, is that the one?

 

[Shunter]

I know the Firkin Frog at Herne Bay on a corner, road back from the sea front, is that the one?

Yup, once again dementia was kicking at my heels. Very pleasant landlady too.