MartinOC
Insert something suitably witty here
Here's one for the hard-core (& tight-arsed 
) gas-fired brewers in Melbourne!
I've been looking at LPG prices to cover my new brewery/shed in Kinglake & came to the conclusion that owning your own 45Kg LPG bottle is definitely the way to go. I've been in correspondence with the Sales Manager of a Victoria-based manufacturer, who is prepared to sell us own-your-own bottles by the pallet (9/pallet), so I'm looking for like-minded brew-nuts in Melb. to share the love.
Each bottle is brand-new from the manufacturer & stamped "CUSTOMER-OWNED".
Here's the numbers:
1 x 45Kg gas bottle + 1/9th of the freight charges works-out @ $205/bottle. If you wanted to buy a single bottle off Evilbay, it would be about $350 delivered.
They're good for 10 years & will then need to be re-tested & stamped. I've priced the cost for this at $44 (YMMV).
Elgas tells me they'll do an on-site refill @ 86.9c/litre. Since bottles will hold 88 Litres, that's $76.47/fill. Since you own the bottle, they'll require you to enter into a 3-year contract to refill, but they only charge for what they actually supply if you just want a top-up. They only require that the bottle be visible to the truck driver during refill, so you may need to move it from your brewery to where they can get at it/see it.
Over 10 years, the "ownership-cost" is $20.50/year. Amortised (Lord Raja Goombah would be proud of me!) over 20 years, it's $12.45/year, including the retest/stamp cost. As long as you don't abuse the bottle, there's no reason it can't last at least that long. Compare that to $55/yr hire of a bottle (at current prices) & you're already ahead.
As a cost/L comparison (using Elgas as the supplier):
1 x 45Kg bottle annual hire - $55.
Swap-over bottle cost - $138 ($1.56/L)
If you "only" use 2 bottles in the 1st year (what seriously hard-core brewer will do that??), that's a saving of $157.56 & it just gets better the longer you own the bottle (which can be on-sold if you no longer require it).
If you compare the cost of using 9Kg bottles, it pales into insignificance. You're getting 5x the gas for less than 3x the cost.
At this stage, I'm only looking for 7 other participants on ONE pallet (since I'll take 2 myself). If there's more interest, it would have to be in multiples of 9 (ie. one pallet-load).
As per usual BB protocols, if you're interested, just cut/paste the list below & add yourself:
1. MartinOC - 2
) gas-fired brewers in Melbourne!I've been looking at LPG prices to cover my new brewery/shed in Kinglake & came to the conclusion that owning your own 45Kg LPG bottle is definitely the way to go. I've been in correspondence with the Sales Manager of a Victoria-based manufacturer, who is prepared to sell us own-your-own bottles by the pallet (9/pallet), so I'm looking for like-minded brew-nuts in Melb. to share the love.
Each bottle is brand-new from the manufacturer & stamped "CUSTOMER-OWNED".
Here's the numbers:
1 x 45Kg gas bottle + 1/9th of the freight charges works-out @ $205/bottle. If you wanted to buy a single bottle off Evilbay, it would be about $350 delivered.
They're good for 10 years & will then need to be re-tested & stamped. I've priced the cost for this at $44 (YMMV).
Elgas tells me they'll do an on-site refill @ 86.9c/litre. Since bottles will hold 88 Litres, that's $76.47/fill. Since you own the bottle, they'll require you to enter into a 3-year contract to refill, but they only charge for what they actually supply if you just want a top-up. They only require that the bottle be visible to the truck driver during refill, so you may need to move it from your brewery to where they can get at it/see it.
Over 10 years, the "ownership-cost" is $20.50/year. Amortised (Lord Raja Goombah would be proud of me!) over 20 years, it's $12.45/year, including the retest/stamp cost. As long as you don't abuse the bottle, there's no reason it can't last at least that long. Compare that to $55/yr hire of a bottle (at current prices) & you're already ahead.
As a cost/L comparison (using Elgas as the supplier):
1 x 45Kg bottle annual hire - $55.
Swap-over bottle cost - $138 ($1.56/L)
If you "only" use 2 bottles in the 1st year (what seriously hard-core brewer will do that??), that's a saving of $157.56 & it just gets better the longer you own the bottle (which can be on-sold if you no longer require it).
If you compare the cost of using 9Kg bottles, it pales into insignificance. You're getting 5x the gas for less than 3x the cost.
At this stage, I'm only looking for 7 other participants on ONE pallet (since I'll take 2 myself). If there's more interest, it would have to be in multiples of 9 (ie. one pallet-load).
As per usual BB protocols, if you're interested, just cut/paste the list below & add yourself:
1. MartinOC - 2
