Can You Save Money with Homebrew?

In my recent post on beeronomics – how the cost of bottled beer impacts your budget – I highlighted several ways beer lovers can save some cash, courtesy of Chad Lothian’s great post, “Craft Beer on a Budget.”

An original draft of that post opted to talk about homebrewing, but was dropped due to space. With some nudging from Oliver at Literature and Libation, I’ve decided to take a look at how my homebrewing has helped save me money on beer.

Surprisingly, it’s quite a bit.

Over two years, I’ve brewed 14 extract batches. Of those, I kept details on how much I spent on 11 of them. Below is a chart showcasing the beer I made, how much I spent on ingredients for each beer and the cost per bottle, which I’ve extrapolated to show how much a six-pack of my beer would cost.

I determined the cost per bottle based on an average of 42 12-ounce bottles per five-gallon batch, with one exception being my watermelon wheat, which provided 50 bottles thanks to healthy dosages of watermelon juice that upped the amount of liquid available.

Because it may matter for commercial brewers and how they price beer, I’ve also included the ABV of my beers, which was amateurly deducted through my hydrometer.

Beer (K) = Prepared Kit (R) = My Recipe	Ingredient Cost	Cost per Bottle	Cost per Six-Pack	ABV
Jalapeno Blonde (K)	$30	71 cents	$4.26	6.5%
Bass Ale Clone (K)	$33	79 cents	$4.74	5%
Belgian Saison (K)	$39	93 cents	$5.58	6%
Beer/Cider Hybrid (K)	$40	95 cents	$5.70	7.3%
Poor Richard’s Ale (R)	$45	$1.07	$6.42	5.5%
Apricot Wheat (K)	$47	$1.12	$6.72	6%
Blueberry Wheat (R)	$48	$1.14	$6.84	6.5%
Honey Basil Ale (R)	$48	$1.14	$6.84	7%
Imperial IPA (R)	$63	$1.50	$9.00	9.2%
Watermelon wheat (R)*	$65	$1.30*	$7.80	7%
Double IPA w/ honey (K)	$66	$1.57	$9.42	8%

*Watermelon wheat yielded 50 12-ounce bottles due to use of watermelon juice, which increased overall amount of liquid

When you look at it like that, things seem pretty good. At best, I’m spending about half of what a craft beer six-pack may cost and at worst, I’m more or less breaking even.

I like this even more considering the cost of my more “exotic” recipes, where I spent about $15 on watermelons and $12 on blueberries. For my Honey Basil Ale, I only had to buy a jar of honey because I pulled basil leaves from my backyard.

But what about when I compare my beer and their prices to commercial equivalents? Here’s five of my beers and their prices compared to professional brew alternatives:

Bryan’s Beer per Six Pack	Commercial Beer per Six Pack	Price Difference
Bass Ale Clone – $4.74	Bass Ale – $8	-$3.26
Apricot Wheat – $6.72	Magic Hat #9 – $8	-$1.28
Blueberry Wheat – $6.72	Sea Dog Blueberry – $9	-$2.28
Honey Basil Ale – $6.84	Bison Organic Honey Basil – $9	-$2.16
Watermelon Wheat – $7.80	21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon – $9	-$1.20

I’m still coming out on top per batch, ranging from saving $8.40 on my batch of 50 bottles of watermelon wheat to $22.82 on 42 bottles of my Bass Ale clone.

But of course these numbers only deal with the cost of each batch individually. I’ve also spent about $300 on “start-up costs” for my equipment, in addition to the dozens of hours I’ve spent making beer. For fun, let’s see how those costs impact my bottom line.

The $300 equipment cost spread out (so far) over 14 batches comes to $21.43 per batch right now – that will drop over time as I make more beer. I also spend four hours on each batch from when I first pull out equipment to when it’s clean and put away.

The additional cost of equipment dramatically impacts the cost per batch, making the cheapest brew, Jalapeno Blonde, go from $30 to $52.82. I don’t know what kind of price I’d put on my time, but the good thing is I make my beers early in the morning on weekends, so the only real thing I’m missing is either sleep or watching TV. The tradeoff cost of that compared to making beer should be moot.

So what does this tell us?

If you ignore the cost of equipment – essentially the cost of “doing business” – making and drinking homebrew can actually be a really easy way to save money over buying beers from the store. Of course, you have 40 to 50 bottles of every batch to drink which may get repetitive, but you’ve also got 40 to 50 bottles of every batch to drink.

So there’s that.

Why worry about money? Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac

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