How Much Does Your Home Brewed Beer Cost A Litre To Make ?

[Pumpy]

Do you really know how much it costs for your homebrew a litre.

I think it costs me about 90cents -$1 per litre

what does it cost you ?

Pumpy :unsure:

 

[Fents]

how do u put a price on a labour of love?

 

[bconnery]

Fermenter x dollars

hops X dollars

yeast x dollars

Taking that first sip of a newly crafted homebrew?

Priceless!

Quick edit: In the interests of being on relatively on topic. I did do a price comparison when looking at the move to AG to get a rough estimate of how long it would take to make back the set-up money in savings per brew. I worked out it was something in the region of $8-10 cheaper per batch.
Mostly I try to just stick to the "much cheaper than buying" line rather than hard numbers so as to justify ever increasing purchases of equipment and ingredients...

 

[bugwan]

This thread could get messy - do we factor in efficiency, hop utilisation??

I spent $100 at G&G last weekend and made two brews totalling ~46 litres. I guess that's $2.17 per litre One of them was a 9% Ruination APA clone though, so I guess it's usually better than that...

Of course, that figure doesn't factor in what I've spent on the brewery and ongoing consumables (gas, cleaning products). Hmmmm, obviously I won't be telling SWMBO this, although I am still making beer for much less than I would be paying for it.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Including cleaners, electricity, bottle caps (no bottles) and all ingredients (except for water) but excluding any allocation for equipment or time, 23 litres (bottled) of my Latest Creation costs $24.03, when bottled in stubbies.

I estimate that if I were selling it, $31.33 would be payable in excise!

 

[brettprevans]

90cents per litre mine costs me a good $2 - $2.50. really got to get my setup up to scrath and move onto AG and yeast culturing. Yeast costs me a fortune

still I guess its a hell of a lot cheaper than buying commercial beer!

 

[Wardhog]

One thing I also consider when working out how much I'm saving is what it is replacing.
No longer happy with the CUB offerings, I'd be spending whatever the price of a slab of LCPA/LCBA is, then hold it up against the ~90c/Litre.

Just wait til I start brewing Belgians.

 

[winkle]

Me to SWMBO "It's only around $1 per litre - think of how much we save!"
Factoring in all costs it'd have to something like $2/$3 in a medium time frame if you include electricity/sanitizer/equipment/gas - possibly even more. (excluding man-hours of course since I'm cheap)

 

[tangent]

With bulk buys and cultured yeast, i reckon i can make it for about 35-40c a litre. That's ingredients only, maybe a little more to factor in the gas.

 

[devo]

I roughly worked out that after buying all my grain, hops and yeast in bulk quantities it was costing me about $7 a slab.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Factoring in equipment, grain, hops, yeast, gas, cleaning equipment... I haven't worked it out, but it's roughly between $2-$3 (goes up if it involves fruit, or uses a lot of grain; down if it's my honey beer, because I don't need much)

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've just performed the same calculation as I did on my Latest Creation on my Latest Belgian - $50.89 for 23 litres. I guess that is still a bit better than the price of similar quantities of Chimay/Duvel/Westmalle...

 

[johnno]

The only thing I am paying for at the moment is gas and time.

I have enough supplies to last me at least a year. I try to bulk up the ingredients so I am not constantly going to the LHBS.

cheers
johnno

 

[user 1153]

It all adds up pretty quickly.

Pure ingredients wise and no other costs factored in I'm spending about $25 - $30 for partials and for my first All Grain (just completed) I spent about $22. (I need to buy bulk grains)

The BIG cost is the equipment. I've just put together the worlds most tight arse All Grain setup and I've still spent over a hundred dollars on the equipment so far.

Having to buy friggin' tools to cut, drill or assemble stuff is another wallet whacker.

One day I'll work it all out, but I still keep convincing myself (and the missus) that in the long run I am saving money (??)

 

[ham2k]

Surely the main reason we are spending our time on this forum in the middle of a weekday is not because we are trying to save money!

I too started because of the money saving angle but I am going to have to jettison that notion as it is becoming obvious to both my wife and I that I never used to spend this much money on beer related activities.

I am really happy with this new hobby of mine. It is engaging and evolving and I get to drink the result. I can't think of a more rewarding pastime.

In fact, i feel homebrew gets a bad rap (undeservedly) because it is predominantly thought of as a money saving exercise, "cheapskates making their own substandard product".

If it could be shown that many homebrewers are in fact pedantic perfectionists striving for that perfect brew for the benefit of themselves, their friends and family I feel homebrew would be embraced more enthusiastically. Rather than as the first suspect in a food poisioning case as was mentioned a month ago.

Rant over.

Probably around $2 litre at present, but I am still finding my feet before bulk buying extract ingredients.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I reckon about $1-$1.20 / litre

Depends on how fancy I am

Say for a 27 litre batch

4 kilos base malt @ $10
1 kilo speciality @ $5
90g hops @ $5
Yeast @ $4 (or less if used more than once)
Gas @ $5 (assuming 4 batches per bottle)
Other additions $1 (Whirlfloc, Salts etc)

That's $26-30 per batch or about $9-10 per case

Not too bad I suppose

I did a rough calc on all the gear I've purchased and came back with about $850 in brewing paraphernalia and $1100 for my keg setup

Not too expensive - there are more expense hobbies out there - but few as tasty!

Cheers

 

[andrewg]

Surely the main reason we are spending our time on this forum in the middle of a weekday is not because we are trying to save money!

I too started because of the money saving angle but I am going to have to jettison that notion as it is becoming obvious to both my wife and I that I never used to spend this much money on beer related activities.

I am really happy with this new hobby of mine. It is engaging and evolving and I get to drink the result. I can't think of a more rewarding pastime.

In fact, i feel homebrew gets a bad rap (undeservedly) because it is predominantly thought of as a money saving exercise, "cheapskates making their own substandard product".

I sort of agree with ham2k's rant - I don't know or really care that much about what it costs me to brew since I brew for the enjoyment of the process and the end results :beer:
cheers & good brewin'
HStB

 

[SJW]

As I have been getting my malt in bulk its hard to say. But at LHBS malt rates:
- 6 kgs grain = $20
- 100g hops = $10
- Wyeast = $15
then I have caps, iodophor, pink stain, water.
But after buying grain in bulk and re-using yeast and not counting equipment setup costs I would turn out 25 litres of beer for around $25.
But who's counting.

Now you have me thinking...................................

Brew table $300
burner + H.P. Reg $100
March pump $230
Glue and rubber to cover brew table $50
hose, valves + fittings $200
False bottom + fittings $100
50 Litre Keg HLT with element & sight guage $200
Fridgemate and brew fridge $120
New power point for fermentation fridge $50
New beer fridge to store bulk beer supplies $300
set of scales $50
Bench capper $50
Grain mill $50
Plastic buckets to store grain $50
Beersmith program $30
Mash paddle, industrial paint stirer, drill to run mill, hydrometers, spoons, thermometers, imersion heater, ....... I think I will stop there before SWMBO see's the post.
But the way I see it I am still way out in front.
Steve

 

[tangent]

6kgs of grain $20 :blink:
I get 25kgs for $40!

 

[DarkFaerytale]

6kgs of grain $20 :blink:
I get 25kgs for $40!

*whistles*

i better get me a mill, it would pay it self off fairly quickly i would think

-Phill