Homebrew

[chefchris]

Looks like some tasty bread. Were you able to measure the OG?

No, but I did check my gravity as I was sparging so I never went below 1.010.

[badwhale]

Chris,

Do you have a figure in your head as to how much each bottle costs to make (roughly), excluding the initial equipment startup costs?

Will

[chefchris]

Chris,

Do you have a figure in your head as to how much each bottle costs to make (roughly), excluding the initial equipment startup costs?

Will

Well, it takes about $150-$200 to start. You buy a kit and then you gotta buy a pot. You can find turkey fryers for under $30. Then you're average extract batch is gonna cost somewhere between $30-40, but it's easy to find them in the $20 price range depending on what recipe you're picking. Higher alcohol is going to cost more because it includes more fermentables.

When you go into all grain is where it gets cheaper per batch. I bought a cooler and some spare parts from home depot for under $50. That's pretty much all you need for All Grain.

So I did an English Mild a couple months ago. The total cost me about $16 for all the ingredients. Let's say I got 48 bottles out of it (about 2 cases), that brings it to .33 cents a bottle. I just did an Imperial Honey Porter that cost a little more since it's higher ABV and requires more grains. The whole batch cost me about $38 so that comes to .79 cents a bottle. That is not including equipment.

If you've got a burner or huge pot (perferably over 8 gallons) then that's less to spend. I got my 15 gallon pot for about $60. Or you can find a keg and convert it into a 'keggle'. You'll want to be able to do a full boil. So if it's a 5 gallon batch you're boil volume will be around 7 gallons. After an hour boil, it should have it down to 5 gallons, but you need the room for the full boil. And of course, it's going to be cheaper to go ahead and get the equipment you'll need now instead of upgrading as you go.






I know cost is important, but I freakin' love this hobby. You're learn to love good beer even more when you start appreciating how it's made. I find myself trying all kinds of new beer looking for what to brew next.

Try looking around Austin Home Brew Supply and you can price all the different kits. You'll probably want to start off with extract. If you want to see price per bottle, just divide the price by number of bottles. You usually yield around 2 cases.

If this doesn't make any sense or you have any more questions, ask away!

[FactoredReality]

Just brewed a batch of Scottish 60 shilling, have a English Bitter in the secondary. Anyone have anything good brewed or on deck?

[chefchris]

Just brewed a batch of Scottish 60 shilling, have a English Bitter in the secondary. Anyone have anything good brewed or on deck?

Sweet. I just brewed this past Sunday at my new apartment with a two friends. One's never brewed a beer, just a couple of ciders using my equipment. So I just sat back and told him what to do. It was awesome. Brewed a Double Chocolate Sweet Stout. It's a recipe I put together.

Efficiency: 93%
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.39 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 46.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.1 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
5.25 lb UK Pale Malt (2 Row)
1.00 lb Black (Patent) Malt
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
0.55 lb Chocolate Malt
1.60 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min)
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min)
1.00 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose)
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)

Add 8 oz of Hershey's Baking Cocoa Powder and 1 lb of Lactose near the end of the boil.
Add 8 oz. Cocoa Nibs to secondary fermenter at transfer and age for two weeks.


I've also started kegging since I last chimed into this thread. I it !!! I brewed a Stone IPA clone but messed up when putting in the grain bill and forgot to up the recipe to my efficiency. The OG was suppose to be around 1.060 or so and I ended up with 1.090 OG !!! Whoops. Best beer I've made to date. Also got the highest attenuation I've ever had with that beer. FG was 1.012 ! Came out at 10.5% ABV. Man is this thing good, no taste of alcohol, dry and drinkable. Sending a couple off to a competition. Hopefully I'll get to post some pics up of my awards.


Also, I've started a homebrew club here in Gainesville. There's one already here but they're a bunch of snobs. So I figured I'd make my own. Got about 15 people on board so far and a homebrew shop to back us up all the way. In fact, one of the guys who worked lives in my complex and just left my house after sharing a couple beers. We're called Motley Brew.

[wild]

Is that the club out of Broken Bow?
If not, im me the your club contact info so I
can notify you of upcoming competitions.

[chefchris]

Well, the IPA that I was talking about in my last post took 2nd place out of 51 beers in the category. Not too shabby.