So how much is an AG brew costing?

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Ken L

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Been brewing kit beers, turbo ciders and kit/country wines for decades but have never had a go at all grain beer brewing.
I know there is an initial outlay in terms of equipment but I keep on reading about how much cheaper AG brewing is than kits or extract brewing.
A quick look around the interweb (likely a slippery slope) 100g of hops is anything from £4 to £8 and while malted grains are quite reasonable, you do seem to get through quite a lot.
So, is the price difference a myth and how much would a typical brew of say 25 litres cost in terms of ingredients?
 
I've been brewing AG for about 7 months now and I've spent between £10 for a sessionable pale ale and £23 for an Albino Squid Assassin clone (big, very heavily hopped rye IPA). These prices don't include yeast - if you go with dry yeast add £2-3 per brew, around £7 if you go with liquid.

It CAN be a lot cheaper if you go for less hoppy ales that favour dry yeast (simple pale ales & stouts have been cheapest in my experience), but the quality of your end product is almost incomparable in terms of quality. I was quite happy with kits until I tried extract brewing and realised the difference in quality. Then I was happy with extract until I tried AG brewing and now I couldn't go back...
 
Same here price wise.

£9 to £18 per brew without Yeast.

Would never go back to kits again.
 
As others have said it varies depending on how much, and what hop varietes you use but AG costs roughly half what kit/extract brewing does.

If cost is a big driving factor you can get the costs down quite low by doing things like buying grains in bulk (25kg sacks), reusing yeast and sticking to styles that dont use a lot of hops, things like Engish styles such as Brown Ales and Bitters rather thank making every brew from the Brew Dog reciepe book
 
My cheapest brew was 12p a pint (about £5 for a full batch), and my most expensive is my next brew at 42p a pint (about £17 for a full batch).

I generally use the Geterbrewed custom AG kits so these prices don't account for savings if buying in bulk.
 
Hops, unless you buy a specific weight like on Geterbrewed, you will use several times. Yeast can be washed and reused. I reckon you could just about make a pint for 10p with a high alpha hop and cheap grains.

Where AG shines is versatility. I've also never had that homebrew twang I associate with kits.
 
just done a few calculations and using Styrian Dana (a highish alpha hop) and the Irish Malt (provided you bought a 25kg bag) both from geterbrewed plus some crossmyloof yeast you can do a Dana SMaSH for £6.28 for 40 pints
 
Less than 6 quid for most of mine - 3.5Kg malt, less than 100g plain jane hops (I'm no hophead) , Crossmyloof yeast and minimal sundry usage. Even the crappiest kit must cost double that, plus the usual 1Kg sugar.
 
See if you can find a nice friendly microbrewery, not so much for hops but grain can be very cheap. I get a full sack of Marris otter for about £14, Golden promise about £16, this is probably enough for 5- 6 brews. You can order small quantities of the other grains or share with others!

Scavenging yeast from a bottle or reusing batch to batch is not only cheaper but gives a better understanding of yeast management and types. I used to make beer for about 30p a pint but now due to increased hop usage more like 60p+.
 
Interesting stuff. I don't think I'm going to go for it until I move house (unless some silly price kegs or other kit comes up) but I may very well head in this direction over time. Better quality and lower prices...What's not to love?
 
I tend to order from geterbrewed so take the £7 delivery charge on the chin. Malt tends to cost about £6-8, hops maybe 2 x £3 and then £7 yeast so you're looking at around £27 quid for 40pts which is still pretty good at 68p a pint. Obvs there's other things like fuel to consider but all told ita prob less than a quid a pint
 
Postage is a big price factor with all-grain, I don't have transport or a very local homebrew shop. But if you can plan your next 5-6 brews in advance, and you have somewhere to store the grains (and freezer space for the hops), bulk ordering ususally gets you free or reasonable delivery.
 
chuffer said:
I tend to order from geterbrewed so take the £7 delivery charge on the chin. Malt tends to cost about £6-8, hops maybe 2 x £3 and then £7 yeast so you're looking at around £27 quid for 40pts which is still pretty good at 68p a pint. Obvs there's other things like fuel to consider but all told ita prob less than a quid a pint
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27 quid???? Your beer must be very different to mine, but each to their own. But I wouldn't bother making it at half that!
 
I pay £18.95 for a 25kg sack of grain from THBC, my simple go to brew using 4.5kg plus hops comes in at around £5.00 for a 20L batch.
Its not award winning beer but its refreshing, doesnt have any off flavors and does the job, if I have friends round then the keg gets its **** handed to it for sure.
 
Gunge said:
27 quid???? Your beer must be very different to mine, but each to their own. But I wouldn't bother making it at half that!
Click to expand...

That's the thing with homebrew, if I wanted to make a session bitter or lager that pleased the crowd then 10-12 quid would do a great brew no problem. On the other hand if I wanted to buy something commercial of the quality that cost me 25-30 quid to brew, then I'd be in three figures for the same quantity no doubt about it.
 
Gunge said:
27 quid???? Your beer must be very different to mine, but each to their own. But I wouldn't bother making it at half that!
Click to expand...

Ive broke it down as much as I can foe you...obvs a big chunk of that is delivery, once I start harvesting yeast that will save £7 quid, maybe I could get cheaper grain at £5 for 5ks
 
When i do an order i tend to get it within the free delivery range, bulk buy and save money. i'm on my last £5.00 a brew beer for tonight and its bed time.....such good beer and so cheep
 
If you go with a 25kg bag of base malt grain at roughly £17 (GEB) with no delivery costs, you will get 5 budget (40pt brews) brews of approx 5% or 6 at 4% abv at a cost of either £3.40 or £2.80 respectively, add in 100g of a single cheap hop like northern brewer for another £2.50 per brew and a sachet of dried yeast at circa £2.50, the cost of your basic ingredients is coming in at around £7.80-£8.40 bringing the cost per pint (assuming 40 pint brews) at 19.5p or 21p. If you need to factor in delivery costs then buy in bulk wherever possible as it helps to mitigate courier charges.

A typical 23l brew will use around 3 hours of electric so times your heating element size X3 and then X electric cost per kw, if you are on mains gas i guess you could take a meter reading before and after to see how much you consume during a brew, you will also have costs associated with cleaning and sanitising.
 
On average a custom recipe kit from the malt miller costs me £20 delivered. Plus a dried yeast at £3.00ish, then 84p for boiling on brewday. Plus any other consumables used.

£25 a batch or there abouts, 63p or so per pint. If you include dead space losses maybe 65p a pint.

Undoubtedly cheaper to buy in bulk, but I don't drink the quantities to justify brewing that often.
 

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