Cost effectiveness of ingredients - Kit vs Extract vs All Grain?

[Bribie G]

I've just done a 35L partial to be bottled into 1.25L bottles and taken up to QLD over the holidays.

5 kg base malts, (barley / wheat) bought by the sack and milled at home
a tin of Coopers Canadian Blonde
1/3 pack of liquid yeast (assuming I run the yeast on to a couple more brews)
20g high alpha hops for bittering and 40g Galaxy for aroma.

One hour boil in urn.

All up around $36 or a dollar a litre for a 5.5 % ABV American wheat. So more or less as Yob reports.

 

[bjbear77]

many brewers just get to a point where making good beer is more important than making cheap beer...

+1

 

[Tahoose]

Sounds like a couple of people are spending alot of money for AG brews.

I can generally get away with somewhere in the range of $11-20 for a 23litre AG brew.

Pay roughly $1.90/kg for base malt
And $0.60/10g of hops

Maybe one pack of dry yeast will be used on 3-4 batches.

 

[panzerd18]

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

 

[Grott]

Just for interest, in the pub the other day and had a very ordinary pint of beer for $6. Went home and started on a very enjoyable kit English Bitter (Coopers) for which I can have 13 pints for my $6.

 

[Goose]

AG is cheaper than kits or DME / LME based brews. But what is the price of your time, investing 5- 6 hours of cooking versus shake and stir ? :huh:

 

[Blind Dog]

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

Do you want malted grain or malt extract? If its grain, check out the site sponsors, if extract, the answer's probably the same.

I can recommend Grain and Grape for grains in your neck of the woods, but they are the only Vic based retailer I've ordered grain from, so it is not a reflection of other suppliers near you who may well be as good or better

 

[Blind Dog]

AG is cheaper than kits or DME / LME based brews. But what is the price of your time, investing 5- 6 hours of cooking versus shake and stir ? :huh:

There is no price on my time. I brew AG because I enjoy the process and control. The system I use lets me do other things during the mash / boil, although I always manage to find something that requires fiddling with (mind out of the gutter!). If I was just wanting cheap, decent beer quickly I'd stick to the better quality kits and bits and make sure they were fresh. I just found kits boring so havent brewed one for a very long time

 

[manticle]

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

25 kg of base grain in all bulk buys I've been part of would be around half that or less. Some premium/imported/whatever brands a bit more, some local a bit less.

 

[Yob]

There is no price on my time. I brew AG because I enjoy the process and control. The system I use lets me do other things during the mash / boil, although I always manage to find something that requires fiddling with (mind out of the gutter!). If I was just wanting cheap, decent beer quickly I'd stick to the better quality kits and bits and make sure they were fresh. I just found kits boring so havent brewed one for a very long time

I usually have a keg of CPA can + bits + hops going for the missus who dosnt quite get into the big malty IPA's (says they would make 2 nice beers, why does it have to be so big?) so it's the best of both worlds for us, she has her tap, I have my taps and it's a pretty good fallback if I run out of Crafted beer B)

 

[Moad]

similar to me Yob, I do the odd kits and bits can if I can't be bothered or need to get something out quick. Also have a ginger on tap for the mrs / her friends which they like more than the AG beers (much to my dismay).

Noone has mentioned the cost of getting setup for AG though. I know you can do it cheap but I like shiny stuff!

 

[Nizmoose]

Just speaking from 1 AG batch of experience. I normally do small batches of 10L or so, an extract batch I'd be looking at roughly 15 bucks for a pale ale without yeast (I have been washing us05) and my first ag cost me about $10 without yeast. That's for about the smallest batch anyone would use and is a saving of 5 bucks so scaling up you'd save a lot and that's also buying grain milled and a kg or two at a time so I'd say my 30 percent saving is about as small as you'd expect to get and with bulk buying and milling much more could be achieved

 

[Tahoose]

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

Where are you located mate? In Melbourne you can pick up a 25kg sack of base malt from one of the cheaper brands for under $50

 

[Tahoose]

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

Where are you located mate? In Melbourne you can pick up a 25kg sack of base malt from one of the cheaper brands for under $50

 

[mofox1]

After coming home from my homebrew store and paying around $46 worth of ingredients for a Kit beer, I was wondering what the cost effectiveness would be compared to Extract and All Grain?

Excluding equipment costs, and basing the answer purely on ingredient costs per 23 litre batch, which is the cheapest to make between Kit, Extract and All Grain?

It's been answered previously, but here's my take. AG *is* cheaper. Quite a lot cheaper... but even at $65 for a Fresh Wort Kit + yeast and finishing hops it's still only around $3/L, or a dollar a stubbie. Which is still at least 4 or so times cheaper than good "craft" beer and it will be just as good. I reckon some of the best beer I've made fermented was from an Amarillo Pale FWK bought in boronia.

Going AG, and buying ingredients in bulk, will at least halve those costs. Including power, my batches are between $20 to $30... but the reason for AG is the passion of brewing.

Where does one buy good malted grain in bulk?

I've found a store on ebay that sells 20kg bags of Light and Dark Malt Extract for $132.

If you're in the eastern side of town there is *at least* Full Pint, Keg King & Core Brewing Concepts where you can get bulk grain. Apologies to any other fine retailers whom I've missed out through for no other reason than my own ignorance. As mentioned earlier, check the site sponsors for more.

I think Keg King and CBC do bulk DME bags. Never purchased that much in one go, but from memory I've seen it for ~$120 per sack (at whatever weight that was - probably 20kg).

 

[nvs-brews]

(extract) i was buying damaged tins for $10 recently.. coles had some for $8.. and sometimes out of date ones from the local HBS (not doing that again), but on average with yeast and hops was looking at about $1.50 a ltr... ive done some good recipes that i will do again but cost more like $2 a ltr

(grain) just won a free 25kg bag of pale malt, so just some hops and yeast and a bit of specialty grain... working out cheaper so far..

BUT with the extract i can knock out a beer i am happy with in about 45mins.. and that pitch ready..
my 1st grain took about 4hrs to make, and then no chill so had to wait till morning to pitch yeast... and the cleaning..

so if your time counts, grain is alot more expensive,,,
personally ive just got into AG and im doing it for the fun and the love...

 

[contrarian]

Here's my breakdown for about 40L into fermenters or 2 full cornies and a few bottles packaged. All estimates are on the conservative side.

8.5kg grain @ $2.30/kg = $19.55 (grain purchased through a local bulk buy)
~100g hops @ $30/kg = $3 (purchased through local bulk buy)
whirlfloc @ 10c (bought a 1kg container for around $40)
gas around $7 (4 brews from a 9kg bottle)
yeast $4 (I normally reuse yeast at least once, often 3-4 times for liquid yeast)
Electricity and water is difficult to estimate but probably a few dollars per brew.

Total cost: $33.65 plus electricity and water.

This is for a basic beer with an OG of around 1.045ish, obviously I have made beers that had all sorts of adjuncts that would have cost a lot more and obviously higher gravity, hoppy beers cost more, but they do at the shops too.

All grain can be pretty cheap but the ability to buy ingredients in bulk is the key. If you are buying milled grain from a LBS for $5/kg then obviously it costs a lot more!

The difference I have found since going all grain is also that my friends now look forward to drinking my homebrew

 

[Weizguy]

The average for me (AG) is less than $30 per 19L batch fully costed for ingredients, incl cleaning, sanitiser, co2 etc. and an allowance for electricity used. If I reused yeast, bought grain via bulk buys, or just more AU grain as opposed to Weyermann, TF etc that would drop to under $20.

I have downsized to a 21 litre batch now that I have a brew bucket.

Generally around/under $20 for a low-hopped ale, recycling previously acquired yeast (some from the lhbs, some from friends or case swaps). American blonde, German pils/ Helles, American wheat are cheap enough.
The cost can/will double (or more)with a huge hoppy IIPA, despite the good prices from my lhbs (they know who they are).

So, it can be done for under $1/litre.

 

[JDW81]

AG is cheaper than kits or DME / LME based brews. But what is the price of your time, investing 5- 6 hours of cooking versus shake and stir ? :huh:

True, but you also spend a lot of money on gear when you move into AG. It does pay for itself in the long run, but is still an outlay you don't necessarily have to make when extract brewing.

JD

 

[manticle]

Some do spend but you don't have to.