Where the hell do you guys shop?

[gl0ckage]

Just been on all our sponsors + other homebrew websites to try the extract stout in the How to's section and to just make that said brew it would cost me £30 inc delivery to make 5gal.

Now why the hell would anyone make a brew for that price? When you could just buy kits obviously they dont taste as nice or let you have as much control but £20 more for you to have slightly more control? madness!

I obviously want to work my way upto AG but at these prices + the gear? :S

 

[abeyptfc]

yeah extract brewing is quite dear, the homebrew company above do the cheapest spraymalt at £14 for 3 kilos as far as im aware but i think the website also does they're own kits , dunno if thats just all grain though.

 

[alawlor66430]

Partial extract is dear and pretty hard to justify really, I've done a couple and now I'm just using up my stock of kits but hopefully by the time they're gone I will have built up all that I need for ag, cos that's the way to go for quality and value but if your not ready for ag, just get yourself some hops and the odd wee bag of specialty grains and some dme and mess about with cheap kits till you feel ready for ag, unless you like doing the partials cos I'm sure there's allot of guys who have it down to a tee and really enjoy it, just not for me really, but I suppose tinkering with a kit with hops and specialty grains is kinda partial brewing.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Only ever did 1 extract-then straight to AG. Cost was main reason

 

[gl0ckage]

Might save up for making a mash tun and just go the full mile then, can't justify 30 squids on 1 brew, I'll save that money for the tun.

Thanks.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Go all the way. There may be some outlay for equipment granted,but extract costs more than kits,kits cost more than AG to make beer. A 25kg sack of Marris Otter malt will set you back between £25-£30.You will need other base malts & hops & yeast but even so its worth it.

 

[Awolphotography]

Look at biab, minimal equipment in addition to extract, but AG quality beer is great value and quality!

 

[StrangeBrew]

Look at biab, minimal equipment in addition to extract, but AG quality beer is great value and quality!

+1 for BIAB

All you need aside of the usual fermenter etc is a nylon bag and a large cooking pot !

 

[Pearlfisher]

There's this for £18 - http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/hbc ... -1686.html

Don't know where else you could get a Stout tucan kit for that price. I haven't done this one but I've done 3 different ones of their pale ale kits and they've all turned out excellent.
I've just ordered a Porter and a Weissbier kit from them.

 

[alawlor66430]

There's this for £18 - http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/hbc ... -1686.html

Don't know where else you could get a Stout tucan kit for that price. I haven't done this one but I've done 3 different ones of their pale ale kits and they've all turned out excellent.
I've just ordered a Porter and a Weissbier kit from them.

thats is a good deal actually !!

 

[clibit]

Go BIAB. I'm getting grain and hops for 20 litres for about £7, and recycling yeast. And its a doddle, and makes better beer than kits or extract.

 

[MPLMPL]

it would cost me £30 inc delivery to make 5gal.
Now why the hell would anyone make a brew for that price? When you could just buy kits obviously they dont taste as nice or let you have as much control but £20 more for you to have slightly more control?

I think you just answered your own question. "obviously they don't taste as nice or let you have as much control". I suspect that for many of us, cost isn't the be-all and end-all, it's about being able to create something that tastes as good as or better than anything you can buy, particularly in the supermarket aisles.
I think the delivery is a bit of a red herring, £7-8 on to the price is a lot, but not if you order in bulk for the next 5 or 6 brews (and is free if your order is over ? £70 from one of the sponsors). Even so, £30 for 23L is 65p per 500mL bottle. A huge saving on the £1.50 a bottle you would pay in the supermarket multi-buy deals and an even bigger saving on the £2.50-£4 that you would pay from a specialist off license for e.g. Kernel, Art Brew, Blue Monkey, Thornbridge etc. beers.
Personally, it's about the satisfaction of making a beer from scratch, controlling the ABV and hopping etc. to suit my own tastes and making it taste better than the majority of bottled beers in the shops. Even at £30 for 5 gallon, it's a huge cost saving and for me this is a bonus, but not the reason I brew my own.
Having just got back into extract and steeping grains after a 13 year absence, I'm now looking to go AG with BIAB. I had no interest in going AG (the extra time, equipment and faffing) until I read on here about BIAB. Now once my stockpile of DME is diminished I will be going BIAB; it will be significantly cheaper, but this isn't the driver, it's about another step-up in quality, more control and more satisfaction from the feeling of really brewing from scratch. It's a bit like why I enjoy cooking: I can buy a cheap ready meal and stick it in the microwave, but I get far more enjoyment from buying better quality ingredients and cooking them from scratch, to produce something nominally the same in name, but infinitely better in taste.

 

[fbsf]

Extract is an odd one - it's inbetween kits and AG taste wise and effort wise, but is way more expensive than either.

I did a 2 gallon extract brew as a test, but very quickly moved to BIAB - all you need in addition to the extract kit is a big net curtain. I use an FV to mash and sparge in, and a converted FV to boil.

I think most people in the UK tend to do either kits and put up with the taste, or do AG. Extract is normally only a gateway to AG for most.

 

[boozy_shoes]

I never did any extract brews, mainly because of the cost. AG / BIAB is actually quite a simple process once you've read up on the processes and got the kit. It may seem complicated reading through at first when it all comes at you at once but if you take your time on the first brew day and relax you'll get something beer shaped at the end. I have been back and done a kit since and found it no way near as satisfying in terms of taste or the satisfaction of making it.

 

[clibit]

BIAB requires a pan and a bag. You get AG quality beer, much cheaper than kits.

It's a no brainer....

 

[gl0ckage]

Ok, ive got a plastic fermenter with 2 boiling elements in.

Can i do anything with that?

If not who was the person selling 50L stainless steel pots on here for roughly £50?

Or is there a way to convert my keg i have? I got it from a local brewery as it wasn't holding pressure. Angle grind the top of the keg and use that? It's just holding my motorbike project up at the moment.

Is a hop strainer just a tube with a sealed end and little notches in?

Just need to get my seamstress to make me a grain bag.

 

[PD]

a 50 litre stainless pot with tap and hop strainer fitted. £80

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=389

 

[Sandimas]

Now why the hell would anyone make a brew for that price? When you could just buy kits obviously they dont taste as nice or let you have as much control but £20 more for you to have slightly more control? madness!

Hmmm, where can I get a decent kit for a tenner? By time you've added brew enhancer to a 1-can kit and maybe some hops to beef it up, you're getting to around £19 or more anyway.
- 1-can kit plus bits £19 = 40 pints = 47p/pint - reasonable quality
- Extract recipe pack £30 = 40 pints = 75p/pint - superb
- My local £3.40/pint - can be variable :shock:

£30 has been the most expensive Extract recipe I've made, most have been around £25 so 62p/pint. If you order a few packs you get free postage.

I'm more interested in saving the vast amount of money I'd be spending in my local than a few pence skimping on the quality of my homebrew. To me, homebrewing is not about making the cheapest beer I can make; rather, the cheapest decent quality beer I can make :

 

[fbsf]

Go AG - then it's both

 

[TRXnMe]

That £30 for the extract kit will buy you a plastic cool box, get you a cheap tap and some stainless woven tubing to use a as a filter.

For not much more you can buy a made one out of the sale and want forum.

AG, 25 kilos of marris otter pale malt is around £30, base malts succh as crystal come in around a pound or so a kilo from the foum sponsors, £2 a kilo at worst and you don't need a lot of them. Gops are a few quid per 100 grammes and you only usually need 100 grammes for good ale, although buying multiple types and mixing them is more usual.

Yeast is a couple of quid a pack and you can harvest it and reuse several times if you're careful with storage.

I love brewing from grain, it is amazingly satisfying, and when shared with friends who have brewed from kits tends to really cause some consternation, AG is not home brew, it is "real beer brewed in a kitchen"