Ag Seems Expensive,am I Missing Something

[warra48]

My AG brews costs me nothing. I've set all my prices in BeerSmith to $0.00.

If you are concerned about the cost, you are in it for the wrong reasons.

I brew AG because I treat it as a hobby, and it's something I hugely enjoy doing. I love the process, and I love the beers I produce. To my mind they are as good as most things I could buy commercially. For example, I enjoyed an Erdinger Dunkelweizen from an imported keg yesterday as I had lunch with mrs warra. As I drank it, I couldn't help thinking that my brews were just as good.

I have a real budget set-up, but I'm constantly amazed that I can actually produce beer with a similar system to what the commercial boys and girls do. It's fun, and it's fun to contemplate each day which craft brewed beer I will choose as my daily tipple.

As a hobby, it's actually quite an economical one compared to a lot of other more exotic ones.

 

[beerbog]

I did a costing a couple of months ago. I use BIAB with gas and the figures came out at $30 for 2 cartons of top shelf craft brewed quality beer.

As all the others have said, buy in bulk and that saves a truck load. As with everything, initial setups can be a little costly but it sure does pay itself off very quickly.

:beerbang:

P.S - Only my grain is bought in bulk, hops by the 100g lot and yeast is single use only, mainly dry, have used liquid once. :beerbang:

 

[DKS]

As a hobby, it's actually quite an economical one compared to a lot of other more exotic ones.
[/quote]

Good point. Not even the exotic ones.Spend a day doing average day out things say for 1/2 a day.
Go to the footy $100.00
Game of golf $100.00
Fishing $100.00 etc etc
Scary init!
Daz

 

[humulus]

getting ready to try my first AG, but my calculations shows i need about 5kg of grain, approx , plus the hops, this seems to be around the 30 dollar mark for a 23 litre batch , plus the cost of gas and time involved, although i am anxious to try AG i thought it was supposed to work out cheaper than buying kits and bits. maybe i missing something here.

fergi

As they all say the satisfaction is in enjoying what you make!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kelbygreen]

People say extract is expensive? again buy in bulk you will be surprised here is what my brew today cost

42lts

4.6kg LDME $25.30
Dex 400g 80c
600g caramunich 2 $2.40
60g choc 30c
willamette hops say $10
yeast $8.50
=$47.30

so say $1.13 per liter but the malt and dex is bulk I have bulk hops here but willamette was not one of them so that can get cheaper also you could reuse the yeast but I havnt yet

 

[Cocko]

As a hobby, it's actually quite an economical one compared to a lot of other more exotic ones.

Yep, as a hobby point of view, I guess you could be watching a tiny little train travel around a track OR DRINKING AWESOME BEER!!


A passion is great to have about your hobby, so OP, take it as far as you can afford and more so enjoy!... but if you choose AG brewing you end up with beautiful beer!

BEER!

Its a win win.

 

[fergi]

whoooa guys, read the posts properly, i "SAID i thought ag would work out cheaper than my K&K, NOT COMMERCIAL BOUGHT BEER, HOW THE HELL DID YOU READ THAT IN MY POST,if we are throwing prices around then it costs me about 80 cents a litre not $5 a glass, but i get what you are all saying and i agree its cheaper than buying commercial but thats not what i was comparing it too. if it costs me more thats fine as well because from what you AG guys are saying is its like chalk and cheese between K&K AND AG,i hope its going to be worth the effort, as i said my kits and bits that i make turn out very drinkable and i am looking forward to the next step.
cheers

fergi

 

[kelbygreen]

Yeah I agree fergi. Only thing stopping me from going AG is I have about 4 hours free a week and thats sunday arvo so with the lawn and other work to do its a bit hard to spend 4 hours brewing when I dont have the time to do it unless I get setup to do about 90lts a time then it might be worth it lol

 

[beerbog]

its like chalk and cheese between K&K AND AG,i hope its going to be worth the effort
cheers

fergi

It is and you will love it. :beerbang:

 

[DUANNE]

i found in my search for better beer ive lost count of the costs.i buy grain and hops in bulk but find that yeast is my biggest cost now. yes i have bank of sorts in the fridge but always seem to be buying another new strain for each brew just because i can.i also found that extract is more expensive than k+k but ag is cheaper than extract.but if i try to acount for the 2 fridges and freezer and equipment costs as i get more involved buying beer probably aint that bad a choice financially. but what price do you put on a beer youve cloned and do side by side taste tests with friends and they prefer youre beer? the satisfaction that you made it yourself? to me, to quote an ad, PRICELESS!

 

[Crusty]

fergi,
moving on from your K&K to AG will be one of the best decisions you will make my friend, guaranteed.
The choice of AG recipes is almost endless & the profile of the beer can be adjusted to suit yourself. You may brew your first Ale & realise it's the best beer you've ever had & next time round you may like to make it not so bitter, a bit more bitter, slightly maltier & so on. The recipe can be custom made to suit yourself. AG is definately more expensive than K&K but you will soon discover the awesome taste an AG has over a well made K&K, they are not in the same league. My last APA cost me around $40.00 delivered for all the ingredients, 1.048, 5.1kg grain, liquid yeast for my starter, 23 drinkable litres @4.8%. I too would be still making it if the price was double.

 

[bignath]

whoooa guys, read the posts properly, i "SAID i thought ag would work out cheaper than my K&K, NOT COMMERCIAL BOUGHT BEER, HOW THE HELL DID YOU READ THAT IN MY POST,if we are throwing prices around then it costs me about 80 cents a litre not $5 a glass, but i get what you are all saying and i agree its cheaper than buying commercial but thats not what i was comparing it too. if it costs me more thats fine as well because from what you AG guys are saying is its like chalk and cheese between K&K AND AG,i hope its going to be worth the effort, as i said my kits and bits that i make turn out very drinkable and i am looking forward to the next step.
cheers

fergi

Hi Fergi,

my previous post is post #16. i agree that other's have been comparing to commercial beer, but at it's most basic level, (but still awesome beer) unless you are paying less than say $14 for a K&B recipe list, it is cheaper to go AG once you have a mill and can take advantage of bulk buy prices.

I know it may take a little bit of expense to "set up for AG" but once you do, you will pay it back in no time at all. It's awesome looking at a collection of 6 dry yeasts, a 25kg sack of grain, and a freezer full of hops and think:

"this cost me $80 and i can get six batches (12 boxes of beer) out of this".

Cheers,
Nath

ps: i was in the supermarket the other day, and they were clearing out the coopers tins (international series which retail at around $13) for $6.50 a tin. I KEPT WALKING. My rationale was, why bother with it, when i'm only going to want to drink my AG beers instead. And let's face it, prices like that on the "better" tins don't come around unless they are trying to dump them from their inventory. And at $13 for the better tin of goo, by the time you add a better yeast, and some hops, youve spent $20 bucks anyway.

 

[Hatchy]

I found kits pretty expensive due to buying hops & yeast to go with them. I reckon I get change from $30 for a 35L batch buying grain at bulk prices & hops from the states where possible. My kegs have been my main brewing expense so far but that was definately money well spent.

 

[kenlock]

Yeah I agree fergi. Only thing stopping me from going AG is I have about 4 hours free a week and thats sunday arvo so with the lawn and other work to do its a bit hard to spend 4 hours brewing when I dont have the time to do it unless I get setup to do about 90lts a time then it might be worth it lol

*Set timer to pre-heat HLT ready to mash-in upon waking.
*Mash grain for min 60 minutes, mow lawn as it sits at mash temp.
*Mash Out and sparge.
*Begin boil - 60 - 90 minutes. Simpliest - all hops at 10 minutes (but pre-measured hops with a stop watch/iphone alarm won't be much time).
*Flame out, no chill. Clean.
*Should allow sufficient time to other things and brew.
*If you do double batches you get twice as much beer for pretty much the same time (larger the liquid, the larger the time to get to boil. 5 - 10 minutes more). Or 90lt batches should keep you going for a while.

Note: Look into Partigyle brewing or similar, this could also prove time efficient.

Cheers Ken

 

[barls]

depending on the batch my ag costs me between 20 and 80 bucks. the 80 buck one is my braggot which has almost 5kg of blood wood honey in it.

 

[BobtheBrewer]

I once came across a lady (who spent half of each year on a boat) who said that she could get two brews out of each home brand tin of gunk. She thought she made a great drop, I don't think I can tell you what I thought of the 2ml I tried. Back to the original thread, K&K can get a bit expensive if you use malt and hops, and perhaps a bit of grain, but you are limited, to a great extent, to the basic kit you are using. There is no limit to what you can brew AG. I've only done 9 BIABs but I'm ready to lash out and try something radical, like using Perle. As others have said, cost is only relative to what you think your product is worth.

 

[Bribie G]

It also depends on what style you prefer. Nick JD for example turns out a mean Aussie style lager with balls that sets him back less than $15 a brew. I can do my Yorkshire Gold - a strong golden summer ale for a tad less than $20, with a few dollars more for a similar strength Red or APA

5 kg pale malt $9.50
500 polenta $2.
300 sugar .30

50g Challenger $ 3
50g Styrians $ 3

Yeast n bits n electricity $2

But again as mentioned in many of the posts above that depends on bulk buys and yeast farming. In my kits days I could easily spend $14 on a can of Morgans, $5 on spec grains buying them a kilo at a time and $5 on a sachet of dried yeast so would often end up spending more like $25 to $30 on a kits n bits.

 

[DU99]

the initial cost of equipment will make it seem expensive,but in the long run you will see the cost saving.i am playing with stepping kits,can of goo $15,stepping kit $5,two 5g packets S33 yeast $2.20.about $1 a litre.

 

[argon]

All this has inspired me to get a mill from the states and bulk buy everything... Sick of buying each recipe as I go. Even at $1/L it's still not bad. But money's money. If I can bet the same results for less then why not?

 

[DU99]

Even at $1/L it's still not bad

VB 750ml single bottle approx $4.50 -$5.00..and thats on special...