How tough is it to learn this well enough to make decent beer? Is it cost effective?
Beer at home, easy or difficult?
Jun 24, 2004
26 Replies
homebrewing ranges from very easy (all extract) to about as complicated as you want to make it.
is it cost effective? i don't homebrew to save money, and probably when you factor in the cost of equipment, ingredients and time, is more expensive overall than just running out and picking up something commercially produced. i do it for the variety, quality and satisfaction that comes from "doing it yourself".
bob p
I'll add a bit more... if you like typical American Bud/Miller/Coors style beers (
Depending on the type of beer you want to make, it can be very easy to produce very good beer. If the beer you want toproduce is a lager, though, it's more difficult and takes more equipment and time. Cost effective? Maybe, but do it for a hobby, not the economics.
-------------->Denny
complicated as
expensive
I bought a homebrew kit for something like $50.00. Using just what came with the kit, I got five gallons of decent brew -- better than the commercial stuff, but rather 'winey' because I used white sugar. That comes out to ten bucks a gallon, or something like $22.00 a case. It's not as cheap as bud, but it's cheaper than a lot of the higher quality brews.
After that, it's about twelve bucks a batch of five or six gallons, or more like twenty or twenty-five if you like to make all malt brews (no sugar).
Just to cut the discouragement factor, I would recommend starting with prehopped extract and the like. Purists may sneer at it, but it beats the megabrewed beers by a long shot. Whether or not you like it as much as the microbrewed fare is a matter of taste.
The point is that it's inexpensive, very simple to make, and produces very good results.
The next step up is to use malt extract and hop it yourself. That requires a little more equipment. Besides the fermenter, airlock, siphon hose, and some kind of bottle capper, you need a big pot to boil the wort in.
The next step is to use malted grain and mash it yourself. That takes more equipment and time. Whether it tastes better than beer made from extract is the subject of much discussion. I won't even go there. ;-)
In summary, if you start with a kit and make beer from pre-hopped extract, you'll have some good beer at a price that beats all but the cheapest swill. Once you have tried that, you can decide how far you want to get into the art of brewing.
Ray
"Derric" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@bhm29.hiwaay.net...
You have also to take in mind that the more you get in the hobby, the more you want to upgrade your equipement. I know people who strated doing kits whit equipement costing around $50 but are now making all grain beers and using Stainless Stell equipement made for them by professionnal that cost 3 or 4 thousand $$ (the kind where you set mash temp on a digital keypad, open a few valves, push a button and check the beer making itself). It take a lot of batchs to make it a sound investement.
For myself, i putting my equipement to go all grain slowly together, i have now an electrnic scale, a valley mill grain mill and an immersion chiller that i made. I can use all that to make extract beers but it will be realy usefull only when i will go all grain.
I've been doing it for a year, and I learn more and more every day. I have a feeling I can do this for 20 years and still not know everything.
Brewing beer can be very simple or very complicated, I'm still doing it the easy way with concentrated kits, and I progress to the more complicated methods at my own pace. My first batch was a 23 litre kit where all I had to do was pour it into my fermenter, sprinkle the yeast, and wait.
It sounds easy, but there is work involved, as there is in any hobby.
Cost effective? Here in Canada it is. Aside from startup costs, at about $20 a kit that makes about 66 bottles (2 3/4 cases of 24), compared to $30 for a case of 24 domestic, it is definitely cost effective. If you use glass bottles, the bottle caps will have to be bought.
I hope you enjoy it should you choose to pursue it.
I can't speak for beer, but I found by accident that perfectly drinkable alcohol can be made VERY cheaply.
get a 2 liter bottle of grape juice at Wal-Mart or similar, and drink about a third and leave it with the top not too tight for about a 3-4 days. then tighten the top and give it a shake. you will see the bottle expand with a pop and the contents get very foamy. you will also smell alcohol in the bottle. from this you are now on your way to freedom from alcohol taxes. have fun.
"Altair" a écrit dans le message de news:H3ICc.8098$ snipped-for-privacy@weber.videotron.net...
To learn more about homebrewing, the best online book is:
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Altair
Can you provide a list of sources (web sites, etc.) where more advanced equipment like you mentioned can be purchased?
Thx
"MaddMaxx2000" a écrit dans le message de news:9mKCc.5057$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.tampabay.rr.com...
If you are not afraid of the price, the best place i know is:
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You can check "The Brewing Comerade BC-50" for homebrewers. They are based around Montreal, Canada but most of their production are sold in USA.
But that equipment is a choice, not a requirement. I use a 48 qt. cooler, a 7 gal. AL pot, a converted SS keg, and a propane burner. That's it...cheap, easy, effective.
To see the easy, inexpensive way to do all grain, see
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-------->Denny
Werry Werry hard.
Honestly if you can make tea you can make beer.
__Stephen
OH Derric!
where can I buy Bud or Coors for less than $5.99 a sixpack ? It's been six or seven bucks a sixpack here for long as I can remember.
I am heartened by the promising responses within this thread. My first batch of Cooper's Lager is racked and bottled after a vigorous week of fermentation at 76 degrees till on day five somebody told me about swamping. This lesson probably cost me my first batch as I see very little activity as the bottles stand
warmest regards
Yodar in orlando Life is a lesson, live it and profit from it
The beer will be great - you've done nothing wrong. Red
Sorry, but he did...no way you can make a decent lager by fermenting at
76F! Lagers ferment at 45-55F, then are cold conditioned (that's "lagering") at 32-35F for several months afterwards. A lager fermented at 76F will not have lagerlike characterisitcs. 76F is too high for pretty much any beer but a few Belgians.---------->Denny
snip
76 degrees is a bit warm; the yeast might have produced some fusel fuels that will give you a heck of a headache. I suppose it also depends upon the particular strain of yeast you used, but I try to never let my temp get much higher than 72, and I prefer to keep it in the 68 to 70 degree range as much as possible.Bill
so that fusel stuff is related to temperature?
There are other sources, but fermentation at too high a temp is the main cause.
--------->Denny
Denny - this link apears to be bad....
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