# Cheapest Beer You've Ever Done



## phinnsfotos (10/3/10)

I was going to post this, then I thought, nah that's a stupid topic and then I thought, well if it is stupid then no one will reply, and that's cool.

I've been umming and arring about putting down a something really cheap just to see how it turns out. Something like:

1.7Kg Coopers Real Ale (or Dark Ale)
1 Kg Sugar (white or raw)
Maybe dry hop 10gm of what ever is lying around (there's always 10gms of something that isn't going to get used)

With Coopers kits going for $9 every now and again and a buck for sugar. Even if I only bottled a dozen just to see how it went. Just for a bit of a laugh/experiment. 

Please don't bother with any of the "Life's too short for bad beer", "I'm a craft brewer", "You must be a megaswiller" comments. It's just a bit of fun and I do agree with the first comment at the very least. But I thought it would be interesting just to see, and who knows maybe even find a brainlessly simple shelf filler. 

And even if it's a complete failure, for $10 the lawn will get some nutrients and I'll get a couple hours of entertainment  Which all in all is a win.

Cheers,
Finn.


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## Swinging Beef (10/3/10)

English Mild.

2.5 kg ale malt at $1.50/kg
1kg of munic malt at $1.5/kg
3rd gen yeast from a Danstar Nottingham pack, so .. say... $1.00
40g of egk hops at around $55/kg so $2.20
$8.45
Same as yours mate!

Plus my electricity bill, but I have no idea how much that would be.


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## phinnsfotos (10/3/10)

I reckon that would be mighty tasty as well Swinging Beer


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## Cube (10/3/10)

There was a rather large thread on this not that long ago. Called "Supermarket kits" or something like that. It was all about getting the cheapest beer possible and all ingredients from a supermarket. If I find it I'll post a link.


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## bum (10/3/10)

phinnsfotos said:


> well if it is stupid then no one will reply



You've been here too long to believe this. h34r: 

My cheapest would be:
Coopers Lager tin - free
Coopers Brewing Sugar - free
some crystal left over from previous batch - effectively free but I suppose it was a couple bucks worth.

Coincedentally my worst ever brew (by a long margin) would be:
Coopers Lager tin - free
Coopers Brewing Sugar - free
some crystal left over from previous batch - effectively free but I suppose it was a couple bucks worth.

Having said that I tried it 9 months or so after bottling and it was actually drinkable. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was good but definitely drinkable.


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## Weizguy (10/3/10)

phinnsfotos said:


> <abbrev>
> I was going to post this, then I thought, nah that's a stupid topic and then I thought, well if it is stupid then no one will reply, and that's cool.
> 
> 
> ...


Even if it's stupid, pointless, inane, trite or even trivial...

Chappo WILL reply or post.

sponsored by the Chappo-baiting association (of AHB).


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## phinnsfotos (10/3/10)

I guess I should actually put my cheapest:

Coopers English Bitter
500gm Light Dry Malt
Kit yeast

Hardly original, and not as cheap as it could be, but I really enjoyed it.


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## petesbrew (10/3/10)

Did a toucan of Farmland Draught once I got on special for $1.50 a can.
Honestly it was more of a waste of $3. :lol:


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## Nick JD (10/3/10)

I occasionally make a brew with $2.20kg ale malt and hops that have been previously used for dry hopping (still gots their bittering acids!) with reused yeast. 

...about 40c a liter. Tastes just like Megaswill, mainly because it pretty much is. Nothing like drinking a cold schooner that cost you 18c and tastes better than VB.


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## phinnsfotos (10/3/10)

Never thought about reusing hops that way. How do you handle them after dry hoping? Obviously the get boiled so you don't need to be surgical, but still I thought they would mould up pretty quickly.


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## Nick JD (10/3/10)

phinnsfotos said:


> Never thought about reusing hops that way. How do you handle them after dry hoping? Obviously the get boiled so you don't need to be surgical, but still I thought they would mould up pretty quickly.



Laziness alert!  

I dry hop in swiss voile "swags" tied with string. After bottling, I whip out the swag, rinse off all the trub and give it a few squeezes to flush out the beer in it ... and then chuck it in the freezer. 

Then when your next wort is boiling, you open the freezer and there's 20g of hops pre-bagged. Chuck it in the boil as the 60 minute addition. 

BTW - I use 40cm squares of voile so the hops are not restricted.


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## Hatchy (10/3/10)

Coopers ginger beer kit with a kilo of raw sugar. At under $11 for the batch or around 37c per longneck it's actually not too bad


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## Fourstar (10/3/10)

Cheapest but best beer would probably be the Saaz Ale for my mates 21st @ around $12-15 bucks in raw ingredients. (i didnt end up using the crystal there.)

Cieran 21st Saaz 
Cream Ale 

Type: All Grain
Date: 20/12/2009 
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Brewer: Braden 
Boil Size: 30.90 L 
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Brew Pot (40L) and Frosty Cooler (38L) 
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 

Ingredients 
4.50 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) (1.7 SRM) Grain 90.0 % 
0.30 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.0 % 
0.20 kg Crystal (Joe White) (34.2 SRM) Grain 4.0 % 
20.00 gm Magnum [12.10%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 30.4 IBU 
20.00 gm Saaz [4.30%] (20 min) Hops 6.0 IBU 
30.00 gm Saaz [4.30%] (0 min) Hops - 
3.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 
5.00 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.5 % 
Bitterness: 36.4 IBU
Est Color: 4.8 SRM 

Mash Profile
Mash In Add 14.00 L of water at 70.8 C 65.0 C 75 min 
Mash Out Add 10.00 L of water at 78.0 C 70.0 C 10 min 

Notes
2g cacl in mash
3g CaCl 3g CaSO4 in Boil


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## MarkBastard (10/3/10)

I've only done one 'cheap beer' that I've actually finished the whole keg of.

It was a Coopers Canadian Blonde kit, some sort of Brigalow Brew Enhancer, and 20g of Willamette dry hopped in the keg.

Nothing special, but drinkable, it came out clean without much kit twang and the dry hopping was resiny and nice.


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## Pollux (10/3/10)

I've done quite a few simple ales for around the $13 mark....

Normally 5.5kg of whatever base malt I happen to feel like using, 20-30grams of hops, and a sachet from a bulk pack of US05 I bought ages ago.


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## Bribie G (10/3/10)

What got me back into home brewing was the Rudd alcopop tax - I thought "now I bet anyone with a bit of nous could make a perfectly good alcopop at home for next to nothing" so I bought a fermenter set, a pack of champagne yeast, 4kg of white sugar, some yeast nutrients and a pack of ground ginger from the Indian Supermarket in the valley and made a couple of 7% ginger beer brews that I reckon set me back 30c a litre, drunk for less than a dollar. I dressed it up with crushed ice, mint leaves, Buderim ginger cordial and a cocktail umbrella and it was bloody nice and refreshing. 

Then I thought "now I've got the fermenter I might do a Coopers Stout". Thank you Kevin, you'll never know how you changed my life :lol:


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## kuzzy (10/3/10)

Many years ago I grabed a bavarian larger kit and a Kg of sugar as the shop had no dex, but in my haste I grabed a 1kg kit that had 25% extra = 1.25kg. I did not notice the extra sugar until the yeast was in. Long story short it was a geat tasting beer and a few tallies would knock me on my bum!


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## praxis178 (10/3/10)

kuzzy said:


> Many years ago I grabed a bavarian larger kit and a Kg of sugar as the shop had no dex, but in my haste I grabed a 1kg kit that had 25% extra = 1.25kg. I did not notice the extra sugar until the yeast was in. Long story short it was a geat tasting beer and a few tallies would knock me on my bum!



Made many of those, started out that way many years ago, only recently have a started to stray from the kit and sugar path. Must admit that I really do like the "new" scenery much better than the old, and it still puts me on me bum after a couple of tallies (well 3-4 grolschies anyway)! :lol:


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## phinnsfotos (11/3/10)

I'm always surprised by just adding a little more sugar and upping the ABV by only .5% or so can have such an effect on the drinker. I added 500gm of Rasberry Jam to a wheat beer I did and it's got noticeably more effect as you drink. I guess I should get around to making a Mild one day to see if it has the opposite affect.


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## stuart13 (11/3/10)

Nick JD said:


> I occasionally make a brew with ... hops that have been previously used for dry hopping (still gots their bittering acids!) ....



And I thought I was a tight arse - I salute you!


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## Bribie G (11/3/10)

Nick JD said:


> Laziness alert!
> 
> I dry hop in swiss voile "swags" tied with string. After bottling, I whip out the swag, rinse off all the trub and give it a few squeezes to flush out the beer in it ... and then chuck it in the freezer.
> 
> ...


Nick.. to what extent did that work? I mean did you get serious bittering? RdeVuyn and I are thinking of experimenting along those lines to see if we can by-pass the 'hot period' in the no chill cube and end up with a more aromatic beer:


Prepare about 45g of a dual purpose hop, make it into a hop tea in a french press coffee plunger and then fridge the 'runnings'
Use the hops as bittering in the boil
No chill in cube as usual 
Add the 'runnings' to the fermenter at the same time as pitching the yeast

I got a comment from one experienced member who said that it likely wouldn't work as the alpha acids would still get extracted with the hop tea, but just not get isomerised. However you had good results yourself?


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## Swinging Beef (11/3/10)

BribieG said:


> I dressed it up with crushed ice, mint leaves, Buderim ginger cordial and a cocktail umbrella and it was bloody nice and refreshing.


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## bum (11/3/10)

Holy Crap, Beef. I am literally downloading FF7 right now. Weird.


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## Bribie G (11/3/10)

It's even better served out of a hollowed out pineapple with pink frosty sugar round the rim


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## Nick JD (11/3/10)

BribieG said:


> Nick.. to what extent did that work? I mean did you get serious bittering? RdeVuyn and I are thinking of experimenting along those lines to see if we can by-pass the 'hot period' in the no chill cube and end up with a more aromatic beer:
> 
> 
> Prepare about 45g of a dual purpose hop, make it into a hop tea in a french press coffee plunger and then fridge the 'runnings'
> ...



Nicely bittered. I'll try and find the chemistry, but I'm pretty sure that even boiling the crap out of hops leaves a lot of the acids behind. The reason lots of breweries use extraction techniques so they're not chucking any goodness. These dry hop swags are in pretty cold wort ... not a boiling tea, that might be the difference, but it's a guess.


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## Bribie G (11/3/10)

Thanks Nick, I'm hoping that the relatively brief exposure to near-boiling water will still leave most of the AA intact. I'll try it today with a SMASH using NZ Hallertau Flowers - fairly reasonable AA of 6.5% so they may work well.


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## Thirsty Boy (11/3/10)

Bribie - dry hopping and steeping in boiling liquid = different. Alpha acids are soluble at high temperatures, not so at low temps. Give it a go though, I'll be interested to see if and to what extent it works.

My cheapest brew... cost me the electricity needed to boil the wort and run my fermentation fridge

Water is free
Malt is free
Hops are free
and in this instance someone gave me the yeast

So maybe a dollar then??


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## Bribie G (11/3/10)

Prepping the urn shortly, I'll report on the taste test this evening


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## Nick JD (11/3/10)

There's actually an advantage to using hops that were previously used for dry hopping - they have much of their flavour oils removed, even those pesky ones that seem to make is past 60 minutes of boiling (you listening Nelson Sauvin!).


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## rendo (11/3/10)

Hey Pete!!

I did a toucan of farmland draught, $1 each....plus 1 kg of dex and 30g cluster hops boiled for 30mins

F#$k me it was bitter.

After 1 year the bitterness has mellowed and the malt is coming thru. I have enjoyed it immensely over the year monitoring its taste and seeing how it changes. (not your every night beer, but its great with a stew in winter...wait a min...it is a stew in itself! Anyway...best $2 I ever spent)

EDIT: and its about 6.5% alc from memory!! i could check, but I am being lazy




petesbrew said:


> Did a toucan of Farmland Draught once I got on special for $1.50 a can.
> Honestly it was more of a waste of $3. :lol:


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## rendo (11/3/10)

HAHAHAHA

not often I crack up laughing, but this had me in stitches.

I too salute you....

And I know that I will be doing the exact same thing, when I eventually do my first dry hop. 

As I have said before, I love this site!



stuart13 said:


> And I thought I was a tight arse - I salute you!


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## rendo (11/3/10)

Holy crap, now I am in tears...

is that you SB?



Swinging Beef said:


>


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## kelbygreen (11/3/10)

mine was tonight  

coopers european lager (xmas present) 
400g LDME (left over from a brew, was crystallising so needed to be used so i say free)
300g dextrose (left overs say $1 worth)
300g sugar (about $1) 
400g yellow box honey (was in cupboard for 2 years so I say free, was a good find )
2g amarillo @ 10 mins
4g centennial @ 10 mins (left overs not even worth counting)
and most costly was the yeast S-23 yeast but had for almost 3 months so needed to be used


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## rendo (11/3/10)

BribieG,

Can you let us know how your experiment goes today?? I reckon it sounds like you are on a winner with your plunger etc.






BribieG said:


> Thanks Nick, I'm hoping that the relatively brief exposure to near-boiling water will still leave most of the AA intact. I'll try it today with a SMASH using NZ Hallertau Flowers - fairly reasonable AA of 6.5% so they may work well.


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## Bribie G (11/3/10)

rendo said:


> BribieG,
> 
> Can you let us know how your experiment goes today?? I reckon it sounds like you are on a winner with your plunger etc.



 linky


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## boingk (3/4/10)

Looking back through my brewing book I see that the cheapest brew was "25c/stubbie beer," with all that that entailed 

It was a toucan of Homebrand Lager made to 23L and dryhopped with 15g of Hallertau. Came out alright, nice and creamy after a few months with fair bitterness and roughly 6.5%. Fermented like nothing else haha.

On the other end, the most expensive was probably by foray into Chilli Beer - $46 for 22L; primarily because of the jalapenos and chipotles, plus some real vanilla beans.

Cheers - boingk


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## Kevlar84 (23/7/13)

[SIZE=10.5pt]My dad gave me a ND Aussie Pale Ale Brewers Selection Wort Kit (FREE). It was 4 years old and well past its expiry date. I chucked it in the fermenter anyway (what could possiby go wrong right?).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Spent $6 on Yeast, couple of bucks on Dextrose.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]After 2 weeks in the bottle I tried 1 and it tasted exactly how you would expect 4 year old wort to taste. I was going to chuck it out then and there but decided to give it a little more time. I cracked another after a month and although it’s not quite pleasant, it had come a long way, almost drinkable.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I’m going to leave it for a few months before cracking the next one but I have my fingers crossed for this tight-ass brew.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Furthermore, I picked up a 2nd hand fermenter on ebay and rather than replacing the old worn out o-ring, I just put a layer of honey around the lid and the seal holds tight. Honey is cheaper than food grade lube [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]J[/SIZE]


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## bum (23/7/13)

Also has antibacterial properties so is probably better than sanitising, amirite?

That was a joke. Don't go smearing fermentables around the top of your fermenters, guys.


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## Florian (23/7/13)

Kevlar84 said:


> I picked up a 2nd hand fermenter on ebay and rather than replacing the old worn out o-ring, I just put a layer of honey around the lid and the seal holds tight. Honey is cheaper than food grade lube [/font][/color][/size][size=NaN]J[/size]


Wow, great idea!

What sort of honey was it? Do you reckon it matters, I mean, should I invest in some good quality honey or can I just get the cheapest one from Aldi?

Oh, and welcome to the forum, first post I see.

EDIT: oohhh, beaten by bum by miles, must have fallen asleep in me chair. Time for bed...


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## Kevlar84 (24/7/13)

bum said:


> Also has antibacterial properties so is probably better than sanitising, amirite?
> 
> That was a joke. Don't go smearing fermentables around the top of your fermenters, guys.


Haha, makes sense, thanks for the tip Bum. I've just upgraded to a glass demijohn fermenter and I'm keen to put down my next brew.

Thanks for the welcome Florian.


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## stakka82 (24/7/13)

I would be surprised if you could beat this one:

Back when I started doing kits 4 or 5 years ago it was all about saving a dollar. Brewed using second hand gear my housemate and I had scored free. We were frequent users of Homebrand lager tins.

At one stage our woolworth's were clearing out all their kits. They had homebrand on special for $3 so we took everything they had. Cooper's kilo of dex was another $3 or so. Kit yeast.

$6 for 23 litres. That's 20 cents a longneck, or 10 cents a stubbie.

Surprisingly, brewed in spring/autumn (no temp control back then) it was drinkable (by my standards at the time anyway).


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## earle (24/7/13)

Reckon I can beat it.

When I first started brewing my fermenter was one I had inherited in a share house.

My girlfriend worked for the Queensland distributors of coopers and brought home tins that had been 'accidentally' dented in the warehouse. Brewer with white sugar and kit yeast. 23l of beer for the price of a bag of home brand sugar. Cheap but i shudder to think how bad it must have been


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## Rocker1986 (25/7/13)

I can't beat any of those.. the cheapest brews I've done have been all grain recipes, which all come in around the $20-$25 mark per batch as opposed to kits/extracts which were upwards of $30 a batch for all the ingredients. I only made one brew with just the kit and kilo of sugar (which was probably about $20 all up too) and decided it was terrible so immediately started looking for ways to improve the quality, which in turn pushed the costs up.


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## James85 (25/7/13)

My cheapest brew was when I was a first year apprentice. I tin Brigalow Munich Lager and Brigalow brewing sugar + kit yeast and primed each long neck with white sugar. Made 23 liters for $15 so that's 50 cents a long neck tasted ok after the 5th or 6th long neck.


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## Midnight Brew (25/7/13)

Rocker1986 said:


> I can't beat any of those.. the cheapest brews I've done have been all grain recipes, which all come in around the $20-$25 mark per batch as opposed to kits/extracts which were upwards of $30 a batch for all the ingredients. I only made one brew with just the kit and kilo of sugar (which was probably about $20 all up too) and decided it was terrible so immediately started looking for ways to improve the quality, which in turn pushed the costs up.


Still thats a saving of $30+ if you were to buy craft beer. Wish I only brewed one kit and moved on. I have an AG double batch that came in at $26 so just over $5 a slab with 5 slabs. Under the grain price the next biggest thing is the gas price. Still bugger all to make a decent beer. Throwing it on tap tomorrow night for the footy, will report back how it goes.


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## nu_brew (25/7/13)

Years back my house mate and I were broke and we made a beer called "6 Buck City" cost us $6 a slab. So that's a 50c longy. 

I remember we uped the sugar to get us drunker. It tasted like shit beer with some cheap vodka in it.


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## Rocker1986 (26/7/13)

Midnight Brew said:


> Still thats a saving of $30+ if you were to buy craft beer. Wish I only brewed one kit and moved on. I have an AG double batch that came in at $26 so just over $5 a slab with 5 slabs. Under the grain price the next biggest thing is the gas price. Still bugger all to make a decent beer. Throwing it on tap tomorrow night for the footy, will report back how it goes.


Yeah that's right. I usually find it costs around $10 per 'carton', and given most craft beers seem to be upwards of $50 a carton well, it's certainly cheaper. My kit beers were more because I was always buying malt and extra hops and shit.. I find the cost of all the grain for a batch to be about the price of a cheap kit so that's where my savings are coming from, plus cheaper hops online, reusing yeast etc etc.

My latest AG batch I brewed comes in at $19, not factoring in yeast because I'm reusing it from the one that's currently in the FV when that gets bottled.


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