Comment by yamtaddle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yamtaddle | Hacker News Reader

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What are you making that saves money? When I half-assed got into it (hasn't everyone, at least once?) it became obvious fast that even if I scaled up enough (including significant capital investment) that it wasn't more expensive than equivalently-good commercial beer, it'd only take a failed batch every two or three years to wipe out the savings, even valuing my time at $0/hr.

I've considered getting back into it to make mead and maybe cider, but mostly just because mead's expensive (here) and really good cider is usually imported and marked up like 4x what it would be back where it came from, which is usually England or northern France (back there, it's cheap—though I do doubt I can match theirs without turning it into a high-time-commitment hobby, since the method is part of what makes theirs so good, plus I'd have to find a source of the right kinds of apples), but the economics for beer didn't even come close to working out. Fruit and honey can also be fermented without some of the steps & equipment you need for beer, which helps a ton.

It depends on scale and stuff. Really fancy equipment can be a drag on any economy.

I have a 6 gallon stock pot for primary fermentation, or a large mash of beer ($30ish). I use a smaller kitchen pot for most of my batches of beer (1-2 gallons is a usual size for me). I use my grandparents old 3 gallon carboys and bottle capper. I also bought a used glass carboy 5gal for $20. Used beer bottles can be found for nothing through local Facebook groups and friends. I use screwtop wine bottles to save on cork costs. Gallon jugs are about $5 (you can also use these as carboys). So a low tech setup that can do 5gal batches can run less than $100. My initial setup was the stock pot ($30) and a 4pk of 1gal jugs ($20), and ballons ($2) for airlocks. That can give you enough room to make 3 gallons. A 5gal bucket and some strainer bags can be helpful depending on the recipes ($20ish).

Depending on the fruit wine I want to make, I can make it for between $3 and $15 per gallon at 18% ABV. Even for for beer, which admittedly can involve more equipment, I can make a case of NE IPA for about $16. That's probably about a third of the cost in the store.

The only additional beer equipment I have is a capper and a grain mill. The only reason I have the mill is that it was free. You can order your grain pre-milled.

And yes, I make mead, which as you said is where the real savings can come in. I also use my own honey so it's super cheap.

I just always have 5 gal of apple wine going. Apple juice, sugar, and EC118 are cheap and produce something that tastes good. Just throw it in a carboy with air lock and in 2 weeks you are done.

This is how me and my underage roommates did it in college :-) It was super cheap after the initial investment. Pretty sure we used a home depot bucket lol.

My wife got me one of those diy kits from northernbrewer for Christmas. I was able to produce almost 5 gallons of a perfectly drinkable IPA at 6-6.5%ABV with it. Five gallons is a LOT of beer. There isn't much labor to speak of, maybe 4 hrs total. You just have to be patient and wait, it took about 4 weeks for my batch to be ready.

I haven't worked it down to the penny but the initial kit is about $150 (which comes with a recipe kit) and then around $40-50 for additional recipe kits. On the other hand, my favorite beer, Manhatten Project Beer Co's Half Life, is pushing $12 for a 6 pack.

EDIT: if i just wanted to be inebriated though i'd probably just get THC gummies. That would be easiest and likely the most inebriation per unit money.

If you want your beer to be ready in a week, you can use Kiviek yeast at 90F for most ale recipes. Two weeks around 50F for lager styles.

I've been tracking my costs for ~13 years. The cost here includes all equipment and ingredients over that time, including all of the unnecessary stuff that I bought for fun, like pH meters and titration gear.

  |-----------------+-------------------------------+--------|                                                                                                                                      
  |           Years |                               |  12.92 |                                                                                                                                      
  |          Liters |                               |  831.5 |                                                                                                                                      
  |         Bottles |                               |   2494 |                                                                                                                                      
  |      Cost (SEK) |                               |  35373 |                                                                                                                                      
  | Cost/year (SEK) |                               |   2738 |                                                                                                                                      
  |       SEK/liter |                               |  42.54 |                                                                                                                                      
  |      SEK/bottle |                               |  14.18 |                                                                                                                                      
  |      USD/bottle |                               |   1.38 |                                                                                                                                      
  |-----------------+-------------------------------+--------|

It obviously matters what you brew and what you brew with. This is mostly pale ales and stouts. They certainly haven't all been great, but I've never dumped a batch, so there's no waste to account for.

I found it made more sense to brew 10 years ago. Back then craft brew wasn't as easy to find, so if I wanted something particular I'd have better luck making my own and sharing it with friends. Now I can go down to Whole Foods and have more options than I can fathom.

Cost-wise it just doesn't make much sense. A batch might be somewhat favorable in price for ingredients if you do all-grain, but if you factor in equipment cost and time cleaning up...

Depending where you buy your beer ingredients a very basic 5 gallon batch of 5.2%ABV blonde/pale ale (10lbs 2 row, 2oz of hops, dry yeast), would be around $0.55/12oz pour for someone in the us (priced from morebeer). Of course $0/hr for labor. It would be very easy to lower those costs 20%+ buying a slightly more bulk amount, or buying the grain from your local brewery. On the equipment side you can go all out and get a setup for $1-2k or go super basic for a few hundred dollars.

Wine is even cheaper and easier. Most wine kits come out to be around $3/per bottle. And only need about $100 in equipment.

"go super basic for a few hundred dollars."

My very basic setup is less than $100.

My first wine setup was under $55, and could still be under $75 today.

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