Kit v All Grain Costs

[Geoffinthewilds]

Most of my beers are about 7 quid, so 18p a pint. I'm using yeast from overbuilt starters so my cost there is low. Loads of the beers are experimental so I'm not going crazy on the hops.

When the sun is out the solar panels generate enough electricity to cover the boil. I take readings and in the dark the usage is about £1.50, on a sunny day less than 60p as I'll have the induction way above the wattage for the boil.

Even so, British styles come in around those prices.

Its being able to experiment that appeals and great cost you have got it down to
Cheers
Geoff

 

[Alside101]

Could be cheaper if you buy grain and hops in bulk

 

[Geoffinthewilds]

I brew 9.5L batches and tend to just buy what I need which is not a cost effective way of doing things. Including shipping my most recent batch works out at £10.15 electricity usage is about £1 going by the smart metre, and adding in another £1 for assorted sundries putting a conservative total of £12.15 for 18 pints or £0.675 a pint. This is at the upper end of things though, and produces a decent beer, on the stovetop. This was purchased as a recipe kit from Worcester Hop Shop scaled down at my request shipping was with three other kits.

As a full 23L kit including shipping it would come in at £15 including shipping, add a couple of pounds for electricity and sundries and you are looking at £17 for 40 pints or 42.5p a pint. You can bring down the cost significantly of course if you buy grain and hops in bulk with yeast reuse sub 20p should certainly be possible for a basic bitter or mild.

But and this is the important thing brewing from grain is at least for me fun, it’s a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning and while my stovetop brewing is not the most cost effective it’s still coming in at less than £1 a pint, and I would say easily competes with the session bitters or milds I would otherwise be buying at £1.25 a bottle in Aldi. Given the time needed I would strongly argue that if you don’t enjoy it and brewing is a chore rather than a pleasure then the savings are not worth it but personally I would still be brewing if beer was retailing at 50-60p a pint rather than the £1 and up that it actually goes for.

I think I would enjoy it, after running out of my brew I was on the Brasserie lager from Aldi, used to go down a treat but tasted bad after me getting used to my own stuff so with more experience should improve even more, its not going to help my corny keg buyinh habit

 

[Geoffinthewilds]

Could be cheaper if you buy grain and hops in bulk

Any good online places?, I bet there is some places local to me as all the Farmers seem to grow cerial crops

 

[Slid]

Great cost breakdown Slid, thanks for that, to harvest yeast would I need a conical FV?, I'm amazed at the yeast price expected cheaper but think I have been thinking of bread yeast prices lol. I nearly pulled the trigger on the Fermzilla, but heard of horror stories of the PET container cracking, I know this would need changing eventually, but fancy similar if one is made in Stainless Steel that I can try pressure fermentation but not found anything suitable, plus would have to build a fermenting chamber so more cost but the builders rubble bucket and aquarium heater is working amazing on my cheapo Wilkos FV

Do you need a conical to re-use yeast - No, Sir!
I always rack to secondary after 2 weeks in primary and at this stage, if you have a yeast you want to re-use, leave a bit of the beer in the primary, swill it around a bit, pour the dregs into a 2L jug and thence via a funnel into up to 6 small 250ml PET bottles that once had lemonade in them. Stored in the fridge they are good to go for several months.
As you say, this reduces the cost right down for dry yeast.

If you use liquid yeasts, you will need to do starters etc and because you are a liquid yeast user, you want something highly specific to the beer you are making. As the stuff can't last forever re-used, hence a sort middle-of-the-road number for yeast. Could be less for the tight-wad Slid, or more for a perfectionist who tries new styles every month and needs new yeast strains to achieve this.

No easy answers, mate

 

[Geoffinthewilds]

Do you need a conical to re-use yeast - No, Sir!
I always rack to secondary after 2 weeks in primary and at this stage, if you have a yeast you want to re-use, leave a bit of the beer in the primary, swill it around a bit, pour the dregs into a 2L jug and thence via a funnel into up to 6 small 250ml PET bottles that once had lemonade in them. Stored in the fridge they are good to go for several months.
As you say, this reduces the cost right down for dry yeast.

If you use liquid yeasts, you will need to do starters etc and because you are a liquid yeast user, you want something highly specific to the beer you are making. As the stuff can't last forever re-used, hence a sort middle-of-the-road number for yeast. Could be less for the tight-wad Slid, or more for a perfectionist who tries new styles every month and needs new yeast strains to achieve this.

No easy answers, mate

Ah never thought of that,great idea, I always hated poring that trub away, will look into this in more detail along with water quality, as will need to learn what I need to measure ph etc and how to treat etc

 

[JT_Brews]

I'd also add that from my (not hugely extensive) experience doing kits i never got 40 pints, partly due to wastage and because they come out better at slightly lower dilution so they aren't quite as cheap as they appear anyway. And as noted the beer won't be as good, particularly hoppy styles without addng additional dry hops.

 

[Alside101]

Any good online places?, I bet there is some places local to me as all the Farmers seem to grow cerial crops

Brookhouse hops for hops by the kg or 5kg
Not sure about malt

 

[GerritT]

Todays Scottish ale, 30 pints: £8 for the extract, £2 for the yeast, handful of corn and some oatmeal, £2 for the hops, makes about 45 pence a pint.

 

[MyQul]

Any good online places?, I bet there is some places local to me as all the Farmers seem to grow cerial crops

I advise buying malt in bulk. Buy a 25kg sack - I usually get mine from the home brew company. Their irish malt is the cheapest per sack I can find online. The dont seem to be trading much at the moment though when I checked their site earlier today

For hops, unless you really like a particular hop or are a massive hop head throwing 100's of grams into each brew I'd advice against buying hops by the kg. This is because there are so many hop varieties now you'll want to be trying out a few if not loads of varieties. So you'll just end up with a big load of one type of hop in your freezer. Even someone like me who is the opposite of a hop head and only uses modest amounts of hops in each brew. I still have a number of different opened packs of hops in my freezer.

 

[cushyno]

Cheapest way to do AG would be:

• Low hop styles that use a little for bittering and low aroma, such as Scottish, Weizen, etc
• Repitch yeast or overbuild starter and reuse many times
• No boil
• No chill
• No kegs needing co2
• Buy grain and hops in bulk
• Cheap BIAB kit like an old FV with Tesco kettle element

Electricity costs me about £1.40 during boil, so reducing that will save some cash, hence no boil.

I wouldn't scrimp on fermentation temperature control, but you'd need this regardless of AG or kits.

 

[MyQul]

I wouldn't scrimp on fermentation temperature control, but you'd need this regardless of AG or kits.

Aha! No you dont. If you ferment using a yeast that's appropriate to the ambient temp you dont need temp control. This is how I brew

 

[Gerryjo]

I have been calculating as I go. At the moment I'm down to £2.80 per pint. Sounds dear but this includes all equipment that I have bought as well ingredients approx £3k. However from now on this price should only down (as long as nothing expensive breaks) as I have all the equipment I need for the moment, or until I see something shiny I can't resist.

Hi Lawrence, if you're looking at it as a business venture then all costs are considered but as it's a hobby equipment costs are negligible and ond only ingredients come to play....
£3k is quite a bit but I'm sure if we all accounted for every hose, clip, fermenter and the rest it would soon spiral but the other half don't need to know

 

[cushyno]

@MyQul True, but personally I wouldn't do without it

 

[MyQul]

@MyQul True, but personally I wouldn't do without it

Yes, I agree. Having good temp control is one of the best things you can do for a fermentation. Unfortunately I don't have room for a fermentation fridge

 

[Gerryjo]

I advise buying malt in bulk. Buy a 25kg sack - I usually get mine from the home brew company. Their irish malt is the cheapest per sack I can find online. The dont seem to be trading much at the moment though when I checked their site earlier today

For hops, unless you really like a particular hop or are a massive hop head throwing 100's of grams into each brew I'd advice against buying hops by the kg. This is because there are so many hop varieties now you'll want to be trying out a few if not loads of varieties. So you'll just end up with a big load of one type of hop in your freezer. Even someone like me who is the opposite of a hop head and only uses modest amounts of hops in each brew. I still have a number of different opened packs of hops in my freezer.

I was on their site Sunday past and put a 25kg uncrushed bag of MO in my basket to check if it would still be there today as you can still log into your account but to my dismay my cart was empty.

BTW does anyone add delivery costs when breaking down there brews???

 

[MyQul]

I was on their site Sunday past and put a 25kg uncrushed bag of MO in my basket to check if it would still be there today as you can still log into your account but to my dismay my cart was empty.

BTW does anyone add delivery costs when breaking down there brews???

They only seem to have yeast on their site for purchase at the moment. No hops or grain

 

[Rodcx500z]

For me brewing is a hobby having fun and making drinkable ale, the only costs i have in my mind is kit i look at kit as a one off cost so i never include it in my brewing, come to think of it i dont include anything as its far cheaper than the pub so that is my incentive to brew i still go to the pub now and then but even that has changed now for the forseable future, looking into the crystal ball i can see a day when tax will be added on the amount of grain you buy as in alcohol tax which will be a set amount on how many pints it will make and collected by supplier like vat is , people who run this country are not stupid what lose in revenue will be recouped elswere, now thats a scary thought

 

[MyQul]

but even that has changed now for the forseable future, looking into the crystal ball i can see a day when tax will be added on the amount of grain you buy as in alcohol tax which will be a set amount on how many pints it will make and collected by supplier like vat is , people who run this country are not stupid what lose in revenue will be recouped elswere, now thats a scary thought

I have noticed an increase in, 'my airlock isnt bubbling' threads/posts from the influx of new members since the lockdown

 

[Lawrence22]

Hi Lawrence, if you're looking at it as a business venture then all costs are considered but as it's a hobby equipment costs are negligible and ond only ingredients come to play....
£3k is quite a bit but I'm sure if we all accounted for every hose, clip, fermenter and the rest it would soon spiral but the other half don't need to know

Well I don't spend a lot on other stuff. Only other hobby is golf and I haven't bought any new clubs in 10 years. I'm not panicking about the cost at all. The reason I started calculating the cost of a pint over time was in response to a friend who was convinced I was throwing money down the drain and would maybe do 5 brews before I couldn't be bothered any more. I'm already under the price of a pint of everyday average beer from any pub.