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

[Tahoose]

Let forget time, and money spent on equipment as it's a hobby.

Purely on ingredients is the key factor here.

 

[mje1980]

I've got no idea how much a batch of my beer costs.

 

[Blind Dog]

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.

Agreed it can be done for <$1 a litre



I could brew 19L (kegged) plus 4L (bottled) of a standard English bitter for about $16 for the main ingredients ($9 for 3.8kg bulk grain, $3 for 50g of bulk hops and $4 for dry yeast) plus $2 for cleaner and sanitiser and about $4 for power (brew and for fermenting fridge). It could be cheaper yet if I used local grains (which can sometimes be had for about $1.50 kg in 20kg+ quantities).



But I only buy base malt (MO, pils and Munich) in bulk and spec malts in 1 to 5kg bags, I tend to use liquid yeast (and don’t reuse – yet) and a lot of my recent beers have been heavily late hopped apas. That all pushes the price of ingredients up.



But it’s still very cheap



Even if I factor in a depreciation cost for my equipment, it still cheap. A slab of decent craft beer (8L to 8.4L usually) is $70 and up, so at $50 a batch to allow for hefty depreciation on equipment, I’m ahead $150 a batch.



Given the amount I drink, I’ll soon be a very rich man