Do the Math

Often times I'm asked about how much it costs to homebrew. When I first started brewing about 4 years ago I always said "Don't brew because you want to save money, brew because you enjoy it." While I still feel that, with the costs of craft brews going up these days I'm finding that brewing yourself does actually save you some money in the end, along with having pride in what you made. I'll break down some dollar points and lets do the math.

I bought all the materials for my Coffee Oatmeal Stout. While I still have the receipt next to me I'll break down the costs:

• Grain: $14.38 (13 lbs)
  
• Hops: $4.10 (Pellet Hops)
  
• Yeast: $2.75 (Dry Yeast)
• Coffee: $4 (Ok, I didn't really buy coffee, I'm using some stuff we have around the house so I guessed at the price)
  

Total: $25.23 Not bad for 5 gal of beer. Now lets look at the spendy stuff aka the equipment used to brew this. A note before we begin. I really contemplated writing this entry because I wasn't really sure I wanted to think about how much I've spent on this hobby already. After thinking about it for a while, I figured I would still do it in order to justify the upfront costs that I've already spent.

The BIY brewer is also the DIY person. Most of the items I have I made myself or was thrifty in buying. Nothing wrong with 2nd hand. Craigslist can sometimes be your friend. I'm sure there's a few guys out there who now have kids, never brew anymore, and the wife is telling him to get that damn crap out of (fill in the room/location).

For this math, I'm going to break it down 3 different ways: My way aka the BYI DYI with most of the fun toys, the BYI DYI brewer that has enough to get by, and the lazy man aka full retail price. This should be interesting. Remember, these are fixed costs, though like any hobby there's always something more to buy.

First up, my gear. This will be everything that will touch this beer from start to finish. Items that I made I'll round the price, some items were gifts.

• 7.5 gal stainless steel pot boil kettle: $80
• 4 gal water heating pot: $15
• External Propane burner: $12 (After t-day homedepot floor model. I scored huge here)
• DYI 10 gal rubbermade mash tun: $60
• 36" mash paddle DYI: $5
• 28" plastic spoon: $5
• DYI wort chiller: $45
• Northern Brewer Better Starter Kit: $120 (This is what started it all. Thanks Erin!)
• Homebrew Keg: $20
• Kegorator: $300 (Thanks honey!)
  
• CO2 refill: $15
• San-Star cleaner: $15
  

Now for the time I've been fearing.. Grand Total: $692. Now people who know me are going to say "But Ryan, I've been in your basement and you have a lot more gear then that." Yes, I do. Right now in my basement I have two 6.5 gal glass carboys and four 5 gal glass carboys along with a bunch of bottling gear. I just won't use all of that stuff for this brew, but I do use most of those glass carboys. Also I got some of that gear for free.

Next: The BYI DYI get by brewer. This will give you an idea of how cheap you can get by with brewing all grain. To keep it extra cheap I'll go with bottling, though I hate bottling with a passion now.

• 7.5 gal stainless steel pot boil kettle: $80
• 4 gal water heating pot: $15
• External Propane burner: $30 (I'm guessing you won't find my sick deal, but I'm still guessing you'll find a deal)
  
• DYI 10 gal rubbermade mash tun: $60
• 36" mash paddle DYI: $5
• 28" plastic spoon: $5
• DYI wort chiller: $45
• Northern Brewer Better Starter Kit: $120
• San-Star cleaner: $15
• Bottle Caps: $5
  
• Bottles: $free. Make your bum friends give them to you.
  

Grand Total: $380. Not bad.

Finally the lazy man buy everything from the store you're not finding any deals situation. We'll go kegging on this one, but no kegorator.

• Northern Brewer Ultimate Starter Kit: $410
• Midwest Supplies All-Grain Cooler setup: $200
• 7.5 gal stainless steel pot boil kettle: $80
• Burner: $70
• San-Star cleaner: $15

Grand Total: $775. Adding a kegorator would be another $500 for a brand new one.

Now that we have our fixed costs, let's figure out how many brews it takes to make up the costs. I'm going to be assuming a 5 gal batch of beer, which is 640 oz of beer. There's 2 ways I see of calculating the value of one brew. The first way is based on price per bottle at the local liquor store, the other is price per pint at the local bar. We'll do both.

At my local store, the average price for a craft brew is $1.50 per 12 oz bottle. Yes there are others that are higher and lower, but for this I'll just base it on my average findings. That means that a 5 gal batch of beer would be worth $80. Now if we remove out the cost of materials that gives it a net profit of $54.77.

At the bar, a craft brew typically sells for around $5 per 16oz pint. Once again, some are higher, some are lower, I'm just going off average. That means a 5 gal batch of beer would be $200. Minus out the cost of materials it comes to a net profit of $174.77.

Awesome. Now we have all the numbers. Let's make a fancy excel graph to see the brew points for the 3 different BIY situations.
The graph presents some interesting information. It's nice to see about how many brews it will take for me to break even on all my gear. Of course I seem to acquire additional gear as time goes on but overall I've enjoyed what I've made. Do I think it could become a profession? Unlikely.. unless I win the lotto.

Until next time!

Prost!

-Ryan