Here’s the deal. Since my current Prime Minister’s Canada no longer recognizes an Arts degree as usefull, I have started work in an accounting program.
My first assignmet was open to whatever topic you wanted. I did a cost analysis comparison of a months supply of various commercial beers vs. the same volume of homebrew (I estimated a month’s supply at 40l)
I showed this to my wife last week. Last night when I went to conduct a night brew session, instead of the usual sour look for brewing instead of spending quality time with the family, she went as far as to tell me not to bother with the dishes, just go get your brew on.
Since going all grain and having the resources to buy most of my ingredients in bulk, reusing my yeast etc, I have been amazed at how cheap each batch is.
But what opened my wife’s eyes is that several months ago we started making dog treats with the leftover grains. The dogs go nuts over them and like them even more than the stupid really expensive treats she had been buying. Plus she makes them, so she is involved in the “recycling” of the grain product and she knows that there is all good ingredients in the treats.
I swear with the money she used to spend on dog treats, my beer is now practically free. And she encourages me to brew so she can get more grains.
[quote=“560sdl”]Since going all grain and having the resources to buy most of my ingredients in bulk, reusing my yeast etc, I have been amazed at how cheap each batch is.
But what opened my wife’s eyes is that several months ago we started making dog treats with the leftover grains. The dogs go nuts over them and like them even more than the stupid really expensive treats she had been buying. Plus she makes them, so she is involved in the “recycling” of the grain product and she knows that there is all good ingredients in the treats.
I swear with the money she used to spend on dog treats, my beer is now practically free. And she encourages me to brew so she can get more grains.
Win Win[/quote]
Could you post your dog treats recipe? Maybe I can work some of that magic on my wife
[quote=“Brew Meister Smith”]Here’s the deal. Since my current Prime Minister’s Canada no longer recognizes an Arts degree as usefull, I have started work in an accounting program.
My first assignmet was open to whatever topic you wanted. I did a cost analysis comparison of a months supply of various commercial beers vs. the same volume of homebrew (I estimated a month’s supply at 40l)
I showed this to my wife last week. Last night when I went to conduct a night brew session, instead of the usual sour look for brewing instead of spending quality time with the family, she went as far as to tell me not to bother with the dishes, just go get your brew on.[/quote]
I know our friends to the north pay way more for beer than we do so I am sure it is easier to find a great deal of savings brewing your own. If I take into account the cost of not just ingredients but the cost of equipment it is hard to find any savings but that isn’t why we are into this. The two most often questions I get are can you brew your own cheaper? and what percent alcohol is it? My answer is no I can’t brew it as cheap as you can buy Milwaukee’s Best but I can brew some pretty good beer you can’t buy anywhere.
As for quality time with the family, why not see if you can get them involved with brewing. Then you can have quality time and brew some beer. I would think kids would have fun helping you brew.
[quote=“HD4Mark”][quote=“Brew Meister Smith”]Here’s the deal. Since my current Prime Minister’s Canada no longer recognizes an Arts degree as usefull, I have started work in an accounting program.
My first assignmet was open to whatever topic you wanted. I did a cost analysis comparison of a months supply of various commercial beers vs. the same volume of homebrew (I estimated a month’s supply at 40l)
I showed this to my wife last week. Last night when I went to conduct a night brew session, instead of the usual sour look for brewing instead of spending quality time with the family, she went as far as to tell me not to bother with the dishes, just go get your brew on.[/quote]
I know our friends to the north pay way more for beer than we do so I am sure it is easier to find a great deal of savings brewing your own. If I take into account the cost of not just ingredients but the cost of equipment it is hard to find any savings but that isn’t why we are into this. The two most often questions I get are can you brew your own cheaper? and what percent alcohol is it? My answer is no I can’t brew it as cheap as you can buy Milwaukee’s Best but I can brew some pretty good beer you can’t buy anywhere.
As for quality time with the family, why not see if you can get them involved with brewing. Then you can have quality time and brew some beer. I would think kids would have fun helping you brew.[/quote]
I was drinking Milwaukee’s Best (by the case for best pricing) and I have run some numbers and I do believe I am coming in below that cost. I already had most of the equipment from wine making…I did buy a Fiz-Giz. (Great little device) With tax here in Kentucky, the “Beast” costs about $.62/beer in the case. My first batch came out to be under $.50/beer and my second batch should be a little less than that as i went with tap water instead of bottled.
The best part is…even my first brew came out waaaaay better than the “Beast”. My boss came over tonight and tried some and he said it was better than Heineken. (Which he loves) So, I am getting a much better beer for less money. Not a lot less money really, but even if it cost the same it is better beer. Plus, I got to meet all of the nice folks on this forum who are so helpful.
[/quote]
I know our friends to the north pay way more for beer than we do so I am sure it is easier to find a great deal of savings brewing your own. If I take into account the cost of not just ingredients but the cost of equipment it is hard to find any savings but that isn’t why we are into this. The two most often questions I get are can you brew your own cheaper? and what percent alcohol is it? My answer is no I can’t brew it as cheap as you can buy Milwaukee’s Best but I can brew some pretty good beer you can’t buy anywhere.
As for quality time with the family, why not see if you can get them involved with brewing. Then you can have quality time and brew some beer. I would think kids would have fun helping you brew.[/quote]
Yes, we likely do pay more up here for everything. In this case I did the annalysis for 2 imports / 1 local Craft Brewery / and 1 macro - Labbatt’s Blue. My sample recipe was an all grain which is cheeper than using extracts for the most part. I did involve a quality rating - Blue being a D / my beer being a B / and the others either A or A+. Something I did not factor in was time spent making the beer, which would have brought the homebrew much closer to the cost of buying Blue, but the quality differential would still have stood out. For the quality, the imports I used were actually reasonably priced compared to some others, but as always Ontario Craft beer is extremely expensive. Good thing is people are buying it. Bad thing is, I cannot afford to buy it.
