A hobby that actually saves money? It’s true! This post is for the spouses or significant others of would-be homebrewers. I will go through the numbers and prove you can save money homebrewing. Have your objecting spouse or significant other read through the first part. After that, I will get into some technical information that will be of no interest to them, but important for the would-be brewer.
If you drink the large brewer’s products, I find a price for Budweiser of $18.99 for a 30 pack. Sam Adams can be bought for $12.99 a 12 pack. Most importantly, since most aspiring homebrewers enjoy a broad range of craft brews, the typical cost for craft breweries smaller than the Boston Beer Company typically range from $8-12 a six pack, with some “higher end” being considerably more.
On average, that’s 5.3¢ per ounce for Budweiser, 9.0¢ per ounce for Sam Adams, and 13.9¢ per ounce for other craft beers. Let’s start by stipulating that you are not interested in replicating Budweiser, as the economies of scale allow the big breweries to produce beer for a price that’s hard to match for a starting brewer using extract kits (switching to all grain brewing is another story, however!).
What’s it cost to homebrew? Let’s look at the cost for a five gallon batch of beer.
A Brewer’s Best Amber Ale extract kit runs about $31.00, and makes five gallons of beer (let’s assume 53 12 ounce bottles). That’s 4.9¢ per ounce for ingredients. Assume there’s another $2.50 worth of water, sanitizer and cleaner cost, and $3.00 worth of energy costs. That brings the total up to 5.7¢ per ounce. On top of that, we need bottles (caps are included in the Brewer’s Best Kit). Five gallons is 53 12-ounce bottles (48 if you tend to slop beer when bottling, don’t ask how I know about that). New 12-ounce bottles cost about 60¢ each (add another forty cents if you are having them shipped), so 53 bottles adds about $32, or 5.0¢ per ounce ($53, or 8.3¢ per ounce if you don’t buy them direct from your local homebrew store). However, bottles can be reused, and even better, you can keep the empty craft brew bottles you and your friends drink and get bottles for the price of your labor in washing them out and removing the labels (hint – soak them in PBW).
If you get new bottles, you have five gallons of beer at a cost of 10.7¢ per ounce (14.1¢ per ounce if you have bottles shipped). Reusing your bottles means every batch after that is just 5.7¢ per ounce (and even the first batch would cost that if you and your friends save your pry-off top craft beer bottles for this purpose).
Thus, for five gallons of beer with new bottles, you will almost break even on homebrew versus the typically priced smaller craft brewers beer for your first batch. If you reuse bottles, for 53 12 ounce bottles, you will save over $85 versus $10/six pack craft beer, and will even save $55 over Sam Adams priced beer. You are just breaking even versus the macro beers, although
However, the sharp spouse or significant other will recognize those are only the production costs. What about the cost of equipment?
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So let’s assume you drink one twelve ounce beer per night, or 365 beers per year. That’s 35 gallons of beer, or seven homebrew batches. At the prices above, with a $105 homebrew kit including kettle, an ingredient kit costing $31, and washing out bottles for reuse, the homebrewer will save over $350 in one year over the cost of buying the beer of smaller craft breweries. Versus Sam Adams priced beer, the product savings would exceed $105 equipment cost by $35 (meaning in the second year, there would be a $140 savings).
I mentioned there are even more savings if grain is purchased in bulk, with yeast being repitched. This can lower the production costs under 3¢ a gallon, meaning even the price of the big breweries can be beat by the homebrewer!
This doesn’t even go to the quality of the product. By brewing your own beer, you can have fresher beer, and you will be certain the beer didn’t sit in a hot warehouse for several weeks before finding its way to your glass. You can taste what imported beer should taste like in its home country, and not what we get here after it has spent a couple of months on the ocean.
So, reluctant spouse or significant other, you can see that this hobby can actually save money. If you also enjoy good beer, encourage your would-be homebrewer to rush out, get the equipment, and become an actual homebrewer!
Ok, that’s all the economic information necessary for the spouse or significant other to support your decision to homebrew. Spouse or significant other can stop reading now, the next post is just going to go over a few technical details that will be of interest only to the would-be homebrewer.
Bye, spouse or significant other!