inexpensive beer making/grocery store ingredients?

[beyondhuman]

Hello beer making folks

I've been making wine for a while now and I really enjoy it. However, I prefer drinking beer.

Part of what is great about making wine is that I can, through a labor I enjoy, turn ingredients I can find in the grocery store into wine at a lower cost/bottle than buying alcohol from the store.

The beer making information and recipes I have seen all involve the use of extracts that must be purchased from a brew store. While I don't mind buying some special ingredients and I am certainly fine with buying any equipment I need I would like to keep my costs equal to or below $5.33/gallon (the price of my current store bought beer).

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on how to go about doing this? Recipes? certain styles that might be cheaper to brew? etc?

 

[seth8530]

As far as brewing using single malt single hop bears can be a easy way to cut cost while at the same time getting to learn about the unique flavour of each malt and hop. I think it might be cheaper to do an all grain setup once you have all the needed equipment also.. But dont quote me on that.

 

[Boatboy24]

Most of the kits I've seen run between $25 and $35 for five gallons. And you can go cheaper than that. I think Seth is right about going all grain being cheaper - especially if you are simply buying the grains and yeast and not a "kit".

 

[Jeff180]

A set of wine equipment gets you most of the way to making extract beer. You'll just need a capper, bottle caps, and bottles. And hopefully you already have a large pot around. You'd need to boil 3 gallons of water, but it can be done with multiple pots.

After boiling up the batch, you can leave it in the fermenting bucket for a month until bottling, then rack to a bottling bucket. The kits are for 5 gallons, smaller than the typical 6 gallon wine kit. You don't need to buy the 5 gallon carboy though - primary bucket is fine. It seems trendy to completely avoid the carboy for most beers. Some have gone months in the bucket without issues.

For ingredient costs, I just order 3 kits (15 gallons) shipped for $90 from Northern Brewer. Comes out to $6 per gallon. Seems to be about the cost of your current beer so I don't think you'd be saving money with this. Might be better quality though. Plus are you including tax on your current beer? I pay at least $8 for a decent 6 pack where I live. I definitely save money by brewing.

Costs will come way down if you use "all grain". As little as $10 for a 5 gallon batch. This method requires more equipment. I haven't tried it, but minimal equipment might be Brew in a Bag (BIAB), with a large pot for a "full boil", and an immersion chiller. Then look into the "yeast washing" technique. Beer yeasts are in the $4 to $7 range, so it becomes beneficial to reuse them.

 

[Codza96]

I'm making ginger beer myself and have started with an non-alcoholic plant and was thinking I'd follow my recipe through but rather than bottling it add it to a brewing barrel and then add some yeast and let it ferment for a week or two. Any suggestions on how much yeast to add to 9.5L of mixture and how long to ferment it for?

 

[Codza96]

Recipe:
6 tea spoons of sugar
6 tea spoons of ginger
12 saltanas
Juice of 2 lemons
2 cups of cold water

Method:
Add all ingredients to a 2L container and mix together

Step 2
Add 4 cups of sugar, 3 cups of boiling water and juice for 4 lemons. Mix and leave sit for 2 days

Step 3
After leaving sit for 2 days add 2 tea spoons of ginger and 4 tea spoons of sugar, do this for 7 days

Step 4
Bring to the boil 3 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar, heat till sugar dissolves.
Add 28 cups of cold water and juice of 4 lemons

Step 5
Using a muslin cloth drain and squeeze all the liquid out of the ginger beer plant and add liquid into the water mixture. If you plan on making more ginger beer half plant and add 1L of water, 6 tea spoons of ginger and 12 tea spoons of sugar. Leave sit for 2 day and then feed plant for another 7 days

Step 6
Stir mixture and bottle. Makes 25 375ml stubbies.
Cap them and store in a dark place for 3 days or more, serve chilled.

Note:
Ginger beer matures so the longer you leave It he better it tastes

 

[Codza96]

This is the recipe I'm following, but I intend on adding all my liquid at the bottling stage to a fermenting barrel with yeast to create an alcoholic version.
Any ideas?

 

[g8keeper]

the other piece of equipment needed that you don't already have from winemaking, would be a wort chiller of some type, most likely an immersion chiller....it is important to get the wort down to a yeast tolerant, pitchable temp as quickly as possible before any type of bacteria has a chance to develop...i know a copper coil immersion chiller can noprmally be gotten for, starting around 50-60 bucks normally...

 

[seth8530]

You actually do not need a copper wort chiller set up. But, yes you need a quick way to chill the wort down to fermentation temperature. The setup we used involved placing a kettle full of ice water inside of our brew kettle which was then placed in a tub full of cold water. Which pretty much attains the same goal as an immersion chiller. In fact, it is rather similar in design to one i guess.

 

[Codza96]

Recipe:
6 tea spoons of sugar
6 tea spoons of ginger
12 saltanas
Juice of 2 lemons
2 cups of cold water

Method:
Add all ingredients to a 2L container and mix together

Step 2
Add 4 cups of sugar, 3 cups of boiling water and juice for 4 lemons. Mix and leave sit for 2 days

Step 3
After leaving sit for 2 days add 2 tea spoons of ginger and 4 tea spoons of sugar, do this for 7 days

Step 4
Bring to the boil 3 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar, heat till sugar dissolves.
Add 28 cups of cold water and juice of 4 lemons

Step 5
Using a muslin cloth drain and squeeze all the liquid out of the ginger beer plant and add liquid into the water mixture. If you plan on making more ginger beer half plant and add 1L of water, 6 tea spoons of ginger and 12 tea spoons of sugar. Leave sit for 2 day and then feed plant for another 7 days

Step 6
Stir mixture and bottle. Makes 25 375ml stubbies.
Cap them and store in a dark place for 3 days or more, serve chilled.

Note:
Ginger beer matures so the longer you leave It he better it tastes[/QUOTE]