So how much is an AG brew costing?

[Druncan]

Loving this, just shows what a bunch of nifty thrifty bargain hunting brewers we all are. Fookin Awesome!

 

[MyQul]

Thanks, I've been wondering if the Hook Head Irish malt from HBC is basically the same stuff GEB sell. Postage is a bit cheaper from HBC too. I'm also not a massive hop head, I like my bitters, stouts and Belgians so never have a big cost from hops.

I think the cheaper postage at HBC would be offset by the cheaper malt at GEB as a 25kg sack of their irish malt is £17.10. I also like my bittersand stouts but not been attracted to belgian beers although I like lagerswhich are usually no big on hops costs either

 

[Zephyr259]

I think the cheaper postage at HBC would be offset by the cheaper malt at GEB as a 25kg sack of their irish malt is �£17.10. I also like my bittersand stouts but not been attracted to belgian beers although I like lagerswhich are usually no big on hops costs either

That's a fair point on the postage MQ. I'm looking forward to getting a brew fridge so I can do lagers. Never been a fan of commercial lagers but some of the continental styles sound very tasty, especially a Vienna lager.

I like how the cost of brewing largely comes down to how much you like hops and if you use liquid yeast but don't reuse it.

 

[Covrich]

I find brews price between 7-15 depending on the recipe. (excluding delivery).. I tend to buy in batches for 2-3 brews.

Hops and on the odd occasional specialty yeast are the big out lays (you can of course harvest yeast and re use it to divide the cost)

Of course even if you wanted to "pimp" up a kit you would need to spend a lot on hops and yeast to get similar effects..

Cost per brew is an advantage but not the but selling point of AG, with AG I get to make exactly what I want and I enjoy the whole process from scratch and the results are much better.

All varieties of brewing have their place, my last brew I actually did one with mostly extract (partial mash) as I ran out of grains and was doing a smaller batch to use up left overs.. It is OK but I do find there is a step down in quality of the beers freshness.. maybe it just needs more conditioning.. That being said.. it was H&B extract so that may have something to do with it.

 

[MyQul]

That's a fair point on the postage MQ. I'm looking forward to getting a brew fridge so I can do lagers. Never been a fan of commercial lagers but some of the continental styles sound very tasty, especially a Vienna lager.

I like how the cost of brewing largely comes down to how much you like hops and if you use liquid yeast but don't reuse it.

Shame you cant re-use hops too.

I dont think we really do lagers here in the UK, Europe is where it's at for those styles. I'm increasingly liking lagers but will never be able to get a brew fridge as I dont have the room for it. What I do have is a cool brewing brewbag. During winter my kitchen floor is about 15C and I can drop the other 5C or so using the brew bag if I want. There's also some experimentation on the brulosphy site whereby W-34/70 lager yeast is fermented at 19C and lager temps and it was very hard to tell the difference between the brews. I will be having a crack at this yeast come the autumn I think.
For lagering Mrs MQ doesnt mind a 5L container in our domestic fridge so I can lager part of a brew properly.

 

[Zephyr259]

If I hadn't worked put a cunning place for the fridge then I'd have beensorely tempted by one of the immersion pro thingies as I'd always assumed we didn't have space either. Just have to wait for my daughter to not need her pushchair then I can claim a bunch of the porch. :-)

It's so cold in my house that during winter I could do a German alt at room temp and then lager it in a cupboard which has and external wall on the north side. Last Xmas it was used as a 2nd fridge.

 

[Cwrw666]

For those who buy in bulk, are you buying whole grains and milling yourself? Or does crushed grain keep ok for the time it takes to brew 5 - 7 batches? I'm buying enough for about 2 batches at a go currently but would love to cut down on shipping further.

I now buy whole grain pale malt. A while back I put in an order and made a mistake and ordered whole grain instead of crushed. So I then bought a grain mill off ebay so I could use it. The difference is amazing. Out of a 25Kg sack I now get 6 brews instead of the 5 I was getting with crushed malt. And the FGs dropped significantly as well.
I generally use Greg Hughes's recipes and where he's saying use 10lb of pale malt, I get the same result with 8lb.
It doesn't add to your brewday either as the time it takes me to weigh everything out and grind it is the same time as it takes my boiler to get up to mash temperature. Plus all that healthy exercise - my little grinder takes 100+ turns of the handle for every pound of grain...

 

[MyQul]

If I hadn't worked put a cunning place for the fridge then I'd have beensorely tempted by one of the immersion pro thingies as I'd always assumed we didn't have space either. Just have to wait for my daughter to not need her pushchair then I can claim a bunch of the porch. :-)

It's so cold in my house that during winter I could do a German alt at room temp and then lager it in a cupboard which has and external wall on the north side. Last Xmas it was used as a 2nd fridge.

I generally like the idea of brewing with the seasons and although I have brew bag so can lower the temp of a fermentation I often dont bother using it and just use the appropriate yeast for the temp of my kitchen. So generally, ales in summer and (pseudo) lagers in winter

 

[Wilfy]

never really worked the cost out but im brewing very cheaply. get a bag of pale malt from a local brewery for just over �£16 and get 7 batches out of that. hops i buy when i see a deal on the forums plus my pal buys in bulk and gives me plenty to get by for free. yeast i use one from a brewery that i crop and have done for 2+ years now so my beer cost very little and im happy with what im making. be less than �£5 id say for a 20 litre batch.

Maxim Brewery?

 

[chesters-mild]

I'll be bottling and kegging 23lit of Citra Smash tomorrow
5kg. pale malt about £9.50
50grm Citra about £3.00 (rest of the 100grm packet in the freezer for future use)
US05 about £3.50
Total £16, therefore 70p per lit, or 35p per bottle of 500cc
Just tried it, nice and hoppy, and just under 1.010 from 1.050 so about 5.2ABV
Cheers!

 

[mickthetrick]

Maxim Brewery?

no. the yeast is off the cullercoats brewery. grain is off newcastle brewing ltd. :thumb:

 

[Wilfy]

no. the yeast is off the cullercoats brewery. grain is off newcastle brewing ltd. :thumb:

Cheers for that.

 

[GlentoranMark]

I have a local HBS close to me so no postage but a quick calculation:

£25 for 25kg Irish Ale Malt,
£1.50 for Zeus 15% hops,
£2.50 for Safale US-05

Wash/ reuse the yeast

Total cost £29 for 150L of 3.6% sessionable beer. I'm not sure what the taste would be like.

That comes in at 11p a pint. I'm sure buying bigger bulk would cheapen things or make the beer stronger.

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.

 

[MyQul]

Hops are one of the bigger costs of course. Personally I like to buy the freshest from latest seasons crop but if you scout about the online shops, it's quite easy to find 100g of hops for £1 from three or four harvests ago. Whilst they wouldnt be as good I've seen posts from forumites who have used older hops and are happy with the results