Cost of brewing

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battwave said:
My money saving tip is to use the hot water from an immersion chiller to do the washing-up at the end of brew-day.
I also use it to rinse the FV after sterilizing
 
Right, feel free to rip this to pieces:
Ingredients for 20 litres
Malt say 6kg @ £2/kg = £12
Hops say 100g = £5
Yeast say 1 pack dry = £3
Water say 1p/10 litres – 40 litres for brewing, 20 for washing = 6p
Irish moss say 5p
Sanitiser say 5p
Caps – 40 @ 2p = 80p

Leccy - I'll assume 11 p/kWh

Boiler – electric 2.4 kW
40 litres/40 kg, heated from 10C to 100C, 90% efficiency
40 x 4.2 x (100-10) / 0.9= 16.8 MJ = 4.7 kWh or 52p

Heating - Aquarium heater - 50W
1 week on for 50% of time
50 x 24 x 7 / 2 = 4200 Wh or 4.2 kWh or 47p

Or cooling - Fridge – 200W with compressor on, 5 W on idle
1 week, compressor running for 10% of time
(0.1 x 200 + 0.9 x 5) x 24 x 7 = 3360 + 756 = 4116 kWh or 47p

That gives about £22 or £1.10/litre.

A fair price for a good quality beer in the supermarket is probably £1.50 a bottle or £3/litre.

I've probably spent £200 on equipment, so the break even point is:
3 - 1.1 = 1.9 £/litre saved by home brewing
200 (£spent) / 1.9 (£saved/litre) = 105 litres

Obviously it works out cheaper buying a big bag of malt/hops, re-using yeast for multiple batches, re-using sanitiser, brewing a low OG, DIY equipment building etc.

If I was to use the actual price per litre of good beer over here (£10/litre) I would have no problems justifying a proper shiny set-up...
:twisted:
 
dennisking said:
battwave said:
My money saving tip is to use the hot water from an immersion chiller to do the washing-up at the end of brew-day.
I also use it to rinse the FV after sterilizing


I dont rinse the fv with the hot water from the immersion. The cold goes in via a hose pipe which could have nasties in and I dont believe the temp to be sufficient to kill them. Maybe at the start of chilling but still not convinced
 
rabbie said:
Right, feel free to rip this to pieces:
Ingredients for 20 litres
Malt say 6kg @ £2/kg = £12
Hops say 100g = £5
Yeast say 1 pack dry = £3
Water say 1p/10 litres – 40 litres for brewing, 20 for washing = 6p
Irish moss say 5p
Sanitiser say 5p
Caps – 40 @ 2p = 80p

Leccy - I'll assume 11 p/kWh

Boiler – electric 2.4 kW
40 litres/40 kg, heated from 10C to 100C, 90% efficiency
40 x 4.2 x (100-10) / 0.9= 16.8 MJ = 4.7 kWh or 52p

Heating - Aquarium heater - 50W
1 week on for 50% of time
50 x 24 x 7 / 2 = 4200 Wh or 4.2 kWh or 47p

Or cooling - Fridge – 200W with compressor on, 5 W on idle
1 week, compressor running for 10% of time
(0.1 x 200 + 0.9 x 5) x 24 x 7 = 3360 + 756 = 4116 kWh or 47p

That gives about £22 or £1.10/litre.

A fair price for a good quality beer in the supermarket is probably £1.50 a bottle or £3/litre.

I've probably spent £200 on equipment, so the break even point is:
3 - 1.1 = 1.9 £/litre saved by home brewing
200 (£spent) / 1.9 (£saved/litre) = 105 litres

Obviously it works out cheaper buying a big bag of malt/hops, re-using yeast for multiple batches, re-using sanitiser, brewing a low OG, DIY equipment building etc.

If I was to use the actual price per litre of good beer over here (£10/litre) I would have no problems justifying a proper shiny set-up...
:twisted:

My money saving tip would be change ingredient supplier they seem expensive :rofl:
 
dennisking said:
Don`t forget folk`s VAT is going up in January, thats going to push up gas, electicity and water.


People keep going on about this like its the end of the world or something. I estimate my total monthly utility cost (that's gas, electric, water, phone, mobiles & broadband) to be in the region of £250 so overall my costs will only go up by just over £6 a month. That's only £1 for each utility so its not exactly bank breaking stuff is it!
 
I brew at work and my electric varies from £70- £100 a month depending on what figure the landlord decides to charge. A farce really considering I had a bill for £100 in summer when I had no heating on, I was quiet and had little machinery running and last january when we had 8" of snow my bill was £80 :wha: :wha:

AG
 
graysalchemy said:
I brew at work and my electric varies from £70- £100 a month depending on what figure the landlord decides to charge. A farce really considering I had a bill for £100 in summer when I had no heating on, I was quiet and had little machinery running and last january when we had 8" of snow my bill was £80 :wha: :wha:

AG

Id be tempted to ask to see the landlords bills or suggest to him that you arrange your own gas and elecy supply?
 
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