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You are here: Home / Archives for costs

[The Cost] First Beer I Ever Brewed – Amber Ale

Posted on May 18, 2011 · 7 Comments

Here is the cost break down for the Amber Ale:

  • American Yeast Ale: $7.00
  • 7 lbs. Liquid Malt Extract (Amber): $13.65
  • Cascade Hops (Alpha 7.0): $5.00
  • Fuggle Hops (Alpha 4.5): $5.95
  • 1 lb. Crystal Malt Grain (80L): $1.30
  • 0.5 lb. Special Roast Malt Grain (50L): $0.50

Grand Total: $33.40.  Spent for 5 gallons of beer.  One gallon equals 128 ounces.  Times five equals 640 ounces.  Divided by 12 ounce bottles equals 54 bottles (rounded up).  $33.40 / 54 = $0.62 cost per beer.*

Do you keep track of how much your beer costs per bottle?

* This doesn’t take into account the cost of caps, sanitizer, Irish Moss and Gypsum.  These items raise the cost of the beer, but since I can use them for more than one batch I don’t count them.

Filed Under: Equipment, Recipes Tagged With: amber ale, costs, hobby

Hobby Costs – Getting Started

Posted on May 16, 2011 · 2 Comments

Empty Carboy

Empty Carboy

Like starting any new hobby, there are some costs involved.  My goal is to always keep my homebrew around the same price as a craft beer.  So I keep track of how much I spend on each batch (possible future blog posts…)  But here’s the break down of my first homebrew investment:

  • Starter kit: Free!  This I actually borrowed from a family friend.  He was traveling for a year and I reaped the benefits of him being gone.
  • Gypsum: $1.05. In case you were wondering, gypsum is used for adding hardness to water used while homebrewing.
  • Irish Moss: $1.55.  Irish Moss is used to help clarify homebrew.  This fining agent works by making the smaller molecules aggregate into larger particles so they settle out of the solution.
  • A-1 Sanitizer: $5.10.  Sanitization is key in homebrewing.
  • Hop bags: $2.60.  This makes it super easy to remove hops from the wort during the cooking process.
  • Clip Thermometer: $9.99.  Key for keeping track of wort temperatures.
  • 7 Gallon Pot: $49.99.  Super easy to make 5 gallons of beer in.

Initial Investment: $70.28.  Not that bad for getting a hobby off the ground.  I also took a free class at Above the Rest Homebrewing to make sure I had a good understanding of what exactly I was supposed to do.  Since I’m a visual learner that was key.

What’s your hobby?  Do you keep track of the costs?

Filed Under: Equipment Tagged With: costs, getting started, hobby

Jennas Pretty Face

My name is Jenna.

I'm small.

I like beer.

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