Does it get expensive? (2024)

This post got me thinking..

New To Brew Sort OF said:

I can see this hobby getting expensive if I let myself get carried away down the all grain route

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That's a very interesting point.....

I honestly believe you get a massive taste improvement.

But expensive not sure.
I purchased a BM20 more that 10 years ago, it has made many bottles. If I total them up vs the cost am I ahead? Probably. My house beer is cheaper than co*ke!

Does anyone think all grain is expensive?

Yes and no. It's all relative, compared to buying the equivalent beer in a pub, no. What people can buy compared to what you actually need to brew AG, yes. It can be an expensive way to save money.

There's cost and benefits that go beyond the financial aspect.

For about 15 years I used the same set of plastic kit (3 vessel setup) that probably cost £150-£200 initially. By the end of that 15 year period I was well ahead in the saving money race.

Then I got a grainfather and a bunch of other kit. But as mentioned, it's Hobby, so I'm not trying to save money.

At a rough guess, I said say that even after the purchase of all my new kit, I'm probably roughly even (or maybe still ahead) Vs buying the same quantity of beer from the supermarket

Interesting question which prompted me to do some maths (easily done). I was looking at a nice shiny fermenting vessel recently which costs around £1,000. My initial thought was it was expensive. If you use it to save £2 per pint (saving chosen to make the maths easier), you'd break even after 10 batches. So the cost would be justifiable, especially if you like what is produced. (Saving figure would need working out properly to get past the purchasing committee ).

One of my goals when I took brewing back up was to stop regularly buying bottles of beer. Goal achieved, but it's currently expensive because I'm brewing to stock up so I'm making more than I can drink. Once I've got healthy stocks it will be cheap

Home brewing is the most expensive way to save money.

Did I need to spend £30 on a Rapt Pill in the MM Black Friday sale? Not really. Did I buy one? Of course! Will I replace my Inkbird with a Rapt temperature controller at some point over the next few months so I can link the pill to it? Probably.

DuncR said:

that the idea of that Rapt pil is tempting

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MM have sold out - 50% off was a very good deal, especially since some retailers are still selling it at a higher price than MM’s £60 “before” price.

I’d been eyeing them up at £75 in the summer around birthday time.

Like others I enjoy the hobby (more than the drinking ! The 200+ bottles in garage will testify to that). I don't think it's a particular expensive hobby compared to many others (scuba diving in the 90's required much more initial expenditure and you couldn't really scale up!).

Yes I am guilty of 'upgrading' from buckets to fermizilla, pots to an AIO but that's part of the fun.

Overall don't see me quitting for a while

Sadfield said:

Same. I've spent way more on guitars, amps, pedals, music recording software and that's a hobby I'm far less competent at. Oh..

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No keyboards ?

Twostage said:

No keyboards ?

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Had a Yamaha S30 for a while, now have a small midi controller. I'm even less competent on keys.

It is an interesting question. I did the sums a while back, in order to convince myself it was OK to buy a G40. At current prices it costs me about £20 for a 20 litre batch, ie 50p a bottle (£6 for 5kg Golden promise, £1.50 for 500g crystal, £3 yeast, £8 for hops, £1.50 odds and sods).

A nice beer in the supermarket is typically around £2.00 a bottle, £1.50 saving, means that after 600 bottles I have broken even. That is 15 batches, which for me is about 18 months. I've had it that long already.

It is a hobby, and it is fun, and that is why most of us do it. But it is nice that - unlike the vast majority of hobbies - you recover any investment fairly quickly.

I honestly don't know how it compares for price with kits or extract (which I guess was the actual OP question - oops sorry), as I went all grain 30 years ago, but I do know I wouldn't want to go back to kits or extract.

Cheers!