pricing help?

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brooklynbrew
Light Lager
Light Lager
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:20 pm

pricing help?

Post by brooklynbrew »

I am very new to brewing and i was wondering what is the cheapest way to brew? dry malt extract?liquid? all grain? partial? And i really need help learning about the all grain brewing. Thanks.
brooklynbrew
Light Lager
Light Lager
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:20 pm

1 more thing

Post by brooklynbrew »

Today i made a recipe on the generator on this page and it was with an amber dry malt extract and a few other things, and it said it would cost $15 to make it for my 3 gallons. But i cant find anywhere that the malt extract is under $10 and the yeast $4.75. Thats already $14.75, than add the dollar for the hops and a couple of dollars for the other grains, it came out to about 25 dollars..Any help is appreciated
BillyBock
Imperial Stout
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Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2000 11:37 am
Location: Ohio

It Depends

Post by BillyBock »

If you were to look strictly at ingredient cost, all-grain is the cheapest. However, there can be a substantial cost in infrastructure to get set up for all-grain and would probably take many, many batches to recover that investment. So with that in mind, I'd say in the beginning extract is cheaper, at least for a while, because you don't need a lot of equipment to do it. You can get by with your standard homebrew kit for $50 and brew like that for years and be happy.

As far as your other question, the recipe generator is probably extrapolating or using a bulk extract price. I would use that value as a guide. Last time I looked, canned extract was about $10 or $12 for a 3.3lb can. Bulk extract was $1.70 per pound. If I remember correctly, for a typical strength 5 gallon extract batch, it seemed to cost me $25 to $30 for ingredients. Hope this helps.

v/r
Bill
brooklynbrew
Light Lager
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:20 pm

thanks

Post by brooklynbrew »

I am using a 3 gallon bucket so i will brew a little over 2.5 gallons. The ingredient kit that came with my beer gave me 1 pound of dry light extract, 1 ounce of cascade hops and 11 grams of brewing yeast. Does this sound right for a 2.5 gallon batch? And do i have to add any sugar to the wort?
want_2_party
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 1:58 pm

Not sure about this

Post by want_2_party »

I punched your ingredients into Beer Tools recipe calculator and came up with an OG of 1.018. That is really low. However, I would never add sugar to a beer to increase gravity. You run the risk of some pretty unpalatable swill. I would suggest biting the bullet and getting more DME. Maybe find a recipe on this site and scale it down to a 2.5 gallon recipe.

If your recipe really only has 1 lbs DME, 1 oz of hops and yeast, I wouldn't expect anything you would be proud of.
brooklynbrew
Light Lager
Light Lager
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:20 pm

ok

Post by brooklynbrew »

ok thanks, i think im gonna just make this batch now and see how it comes out. and tomorrow im gonna order some DME and hops and yeast online..the yeast is $4.95 for that Wyeast, is that a good price. And that only makes one batch. Thanks for the help
want_2_party
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 1:58 pm

Online shops

Post by want_2_party »

$4.95 sounds like a good price to me. If you want a really good place to purchase just about everything, look at www.northernbrewer.com or www.midwestsupplies.com. They are both in Minnesota. I have used both, and have been very happy.
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