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Brew or Brew Not – There is no “Try”
Posted by edpmarriott
First, welcome to my blog. Thanks for visiting!
I like beer. Let me expound. I like good beer. I like craft beer. I like homebrews. I like microbrews. I love touring a brewery, soaking in all the smelly goodness of malt and hops and barley. I love adding a new pint glass to my collection.
I didn’t always like beer. My family drinks one of the mega-market mass production beers. I used to. Now I politely drink one if offered, but I usually don’t take a second. Does that make me a beer-snob? Perhaps. That’s okay with me. If I’m gonna drink beer I’d prefer it be good.
I purchase about three 6-packs a month (moderation counts, people!). But at $8-$9 per 6-pack that adds up. I can’t spend $25 a month on beer anymore. So rather than continuing with that spending rate I have decided to drop a bunch of cash upfront and hope to save money over the long haul by becoming a home brewer!
So after dropping about $140 I am almost ready to go. I still want to pick up a turkey fryer so I can boil the wort in the garage. My wife will likely appreciate that. And then the brewing can begin.
Doing a little math I have determined that my breakeven point, financially, will come after about 5 batches of beer. Each batch can produce 48 beers (eight 6-packs). So 5 batches would be forty 6-packs. If I were paying full price of $8.50 for forty 6-packs my cost would be $340. Since a brewing kit costs $200 (fryer included) and the beer materials cost about $25 each that means 5 batches will cost $325. Therefore after brewing 5 batches I can call it quits and still have come out ahead.
Okay, so that assumes that I can get the bottles for free. It also assumes that I don’t cave in and have special labels printed. Either way, I am joining a fun group of people who have chosen to brew their own beer. This will be interesting.