Is Electricity Cost An Issue Per Batch?

[LeeH]

Anybody pausing brewing to the cost per unit? 43p/kWh for a 12 month fixed term from my supplier. That’s a significant cost to a brew.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Sounds like a pricey tariff. That said, what do you spend on ingredients per brew?
Back of the envelope calculation your electric cost comes out at £1.60 per brew. I spend between £18 and £25 on ingredients.
That's a 4% increase per brew in total if, for example, your electricity cost have doubled. Doesn't sound too bad to me. I imagine ingredients cost will increase by more than that, if they haven't already. I appreciate my analysis is crude, but worth thinking of total cost per brew, if it is an issue.

 

[MrRook]

How long do you boil? You can get good results with shorter boils on many styles.

 

[samale]

Sounds like a pricey tariff. That said, what do you spend on ingredients per brew?
Back of the envelope calculation your electric cost comes out at £1.60 per brew. I spend between £18 and £25 on ingredients.
That's a 4% increase per brew in total if, for example, your electricity cost have doubled. Doesn't sound too bad to me. I imagine ingredients cost will increase by more than that, if they haven't already. I appreciate my analysis is crude, but worth thinking of total cost per brew, if it is an issue.

Grain has already increased substantially. Crisp German pilsner has went up from £1.03 per kg to £1.83. That's over a two year period

 

[Buffers brewery]

your electric cost comes out at £1.60 per brew

I use propane and a 5 gallon batch costs me around five quid a go!

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Grain has already increased substantially. Crisp German pilsner has went up from £1.03 per kg to £1.83. That's over a two year period

Good to know. I wonder if that put the OP off too since that would be a bigger increase in price per brew than the electricity, assuming a 23L batch.

 

[Rodcx500z]

We are still on a fixed tariff runs out in May, so a 21L brew costs around a £1-10 which is not bad, as Sam says the cost of grain is going through the roof and don't forget a lot of wheat for flour comes from the Ukraine it was the bread basket of Russia before the break up

 

[starseeker]

Anybody pausing brewing to the cost per unit? 43p/kWh for a 12 month fixed term from my supplier. That’s a significant cost to a brew.

Everything taking into consideration ,it is still far, far cheaper to brew your own ,easily less than £0.50 a pint ,if of course you are watching the cost .

 

[Thatscold]

Just for some balance…Last night I paid £8 for a pint, Champale Supernova by Brew York.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Just for some balance…Last night I paid £8 for a pint, Champale Supernova by Brew York.

Whilst that is pricy, I use a pint of beer as a metric for what I consider expensive. For example, Netflix costs me 2 pints a month. I would not think twice of going and buying 2 pints in a pub, thus Netflix is, to me, good value for money. A 23L batch costs 5 pints. Again, I'd not hesitate in buying 5 pints at a pub if I am out with a friend for the afternoon.
I agree with @starseeker that it is still substantially cheaper than buying beer. Also, if my brewday cost an extra 80p in electricity, I'd find another way to recover that if I needed to, for example by giving away 2 bottles fewer of that batch.

 

[sifty]

Wow that's nearly 3x what I'm paying for power. Still negligible compared to other costs though, and far less than gas would cost.
Did a spreadsheet a while ago taking all costs into account, incl bottle cleaning, sanitation etc, and cost per pint varied from ~ NZ$1.75 - $2.60 depending on the brew (hops are the biggest variable).
When you pay $11 a pint down the pub it puts it in perspective...

 

[Leon103]

Anybody pausing brewing to the cost per unit? 43p/kWh for a 12 month fixed term from my supplier. That’s a significant cost to a brew.

That's very expensive, all the fixed deals are.

 

[DCBC]

Worth bearing in mind, and it's been touched on by other replies, that it's not as if commercial breweries are immune to price rises etc. They benefit from economies of scale and have to be competitive, so can't necessarily pass on too much of the extra cost to the customer, but as it get more expensive to brew beer, it also gets more expensive to buy beer.

 

[LeeH]

It won’t stop me, the cost savings are still clear. I just thought it was an interesting topic given the rises on energy and ingredients.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I am brewing until the day i am pushing daisy's, the gap between homebrew and pub will always be the same money wise

 

[DCBC]

It won’t stop me, the cost savings are still clear. I just thought it was an interesting topic given the rises on energy and ingredients.

Agreed, I have only recently started thinking about the cost of electricity and water in my brewing. Nothing to be concerned about at the moment but it makes sense to keep tabs on these things.

 

[gavp1979]

I just hide the smart meter when I am brewing so that the wife doesn't see how much it is costing

 

[obscure]

I brew because I enjoy it, and frankly the savings compared to commercial beer is no where near enough that I would be willing to spend four hours or so every few weeks brewing if I didn’t actually enjoy doing so.

 

[foxy]

Barley is sure to rise dramatically, even though here in Australia we grow our own barley we won't be immune the grain price rise the markets determine that. As for electricity I pay in GBP 12 d per kWh peak and 8.5 d off peak but get back 33 d feed in tariff. At the end of the day it isn't relevant when in pursuit of better beer, as for the grain price maybe group purchases is the way to go.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Foxy we ditched D in Febuary 1973 it's now P