Homebrew ROi

[Did]

Bought a ridiculous massive homebrew system that will send me straight to ERE hell. Brewing 100L batches and filling two 50L kegs. Also bought a canning machine. I have 5 beers on tap.

It’s great craic altogether.

Had my first local homebrew club gathering Friday night. 10 new friends on the drink and a barbie. Mad conversations about all things beer and everything else.

Incremental cost much less than both of us having a bender out, with taxis.

Have also swapped beer, and spent grain, for pawpaws, lemons, oranges, chilies and avocados. Hope to do much more of this later as we don’t get a heap of sun.

Better return than the market? Maybe !

I think if you add the social return and fun I have doing it, definitely.

[Scott 2]

High end gear is a capital investment. It definitely has a place, especially when you are using it to produce new value.

[sky]

I had a half barrel (15.5 gallons) brewing system and had brewed enough batches to the point where my beer was better than anything I could buy. My cellar had a dozen kegs at any time, aging to perfection.

Eventually I got to an age where longevity and health become a priority and made the difficult decision to stop brewing and reduce alcohol consumption to nearly nothing. I gave the brewing system to some college age children of friends. Now on the rare occasions that I drink, I am given beer made from my old recipes and treated like a retired master craftsman. Its a really nice situation.

I think that beer brewing, like bread baking, is an art that every renaissance (hu)man should master.

[AnalyticalEngine]

I recently just got into this. I'm trying to make some mead and so far have spent $50 on starter equipment and $50 on honey. From my research, it seems like equipment runs the gamut of "empty apple juice container and bread yeast" to super fancy professional stuff. My mead isn't anywhere close to done yet, but that hasn't stopped me from telling people that homebrew is my hobby. It's a good hobby for looking cool.

[Did]

I recently just got into this. I'm trying to make some mead and so far have spent $50 on starter equipment and $50 on honey. From my research, it seems like equipment runs the gamut of "empty apple juice container and bread yeast" to super fancy professional stuff. My mead isn't anywhere close to done yet, but that hasn't stopped me from telling people that homebrew is my hobby. It's a good hobby for looking cool.

You definitely don’t need much to get started. A food grade bucket some fruit juice and a packet of yeast or someone else’s dregs will do it. I know Jacob used to make sugar wines.it can be a rabbit hole though.

[Did]

I had a half barrel (15.5 gallons) brewing system and had brewed enough batches to the point where my beer was better than anything I could buy. My cellar had a dozen kegs at any time, aging to perfection.

Eventually I got to an age where longevity and health become a priority and made the difficult decision to stop brewing and reduce alcohol consumption to nearly nothing. I gave the brewing system to some college age children of friends. Now on the rare occasions that I drink, I am given beer made from my old recipes and treated like a retired master craftsman. Its a really nice situation.

I think that beer brewing, like bread baking, is an art that every renaissance (hu)man should master.

Thanks for sharing that. It’s definitely something to keep in mind. I gave up the drink for 5 years and really enjoyed it. Ireland got me back on it, or that was my excuse. I’m trying to just have a glass of wine during the week. I’ve a kit of white fermenting as well. We made lovely wine in a Ireland for a euro a bottle.

[Did]

High end gear is a capital investment. It definitely has a place, especially when you are using it to produce new value.

For me I had a job I didn’t like. But I kept saying if I work till Christmas I’ll buy myself X. I ended up working there for 3 years. So it paid for itself as a motivational tool. Otherwise I would have likely been unemployed or in a lower paid job.

[grundomatic]

I brewed beer in college with a 5 gallon bucket setup and reused bottles. I bought a vintage bottle capper off eBay, in the days where sending a check to the seller was an option for payment. I heard about a professor into brewing beer, so I went and talked to him. He gave me a copper coil he had made to cool the wort. I think I calculated consumables costing me about half what buying New Belgium beer did (the only acceptable choice for a world-travelled beer connoisseur like myself).

After college, I didn't have loads of friends handy to help me brew, or to empty the ~60 bottles of beer made per batch, so I just stopped. Years later, I was happy to sell everything to a guy in my MBA program who mentioned wanting to brew beer. It was fun to go play "consultant" when he was whipping up his first batch. Then another one of our friends got into it too, whose beers ended up being way better than anything I had ever made. I was happy to have passed the baton.

[steelerfan]

I used to be into homebrewing back in the day. At the time I was working in Boulder and our office happened to be in the same office building as the American Home Brewers Assn. Every once in a while you would see Charlie Papazian walking around, who was the homebrewing deity president and author of The Joy of Homebrewing. Drinking became a problem (not uncommon with the many kegs you need to liquidate) and with a new baby crawling around my wife was not crazy about boiling hot wort in the kitchen. Ultimatum issued. I never got to the full grain stage and pretty much stopped at partial mash, Eventually I gravitated to mead making which I loved - particularly sparkling ginger mead with champagne yeast.

You can save money at the all grain level as long as you don't factor in your considerable time commitment and view the process as a hobby. I helped out my all grain friend but eventually he moved to California and got rich in SV and we lost touch. I sold my kegging setup Corny Kegs and CO2 a few years back. Still have one brew bucket my capper the 6.5 gallon glass carboy and some equipment. Maybe someday I will pull it out of the cellar crawlspace. I still have some mead from back in the day. It really messes me up but when you want to dance around a fire in the woods with no clothes on there is no substitute other than perhaps absinthe.

My brother in law was big into brewing. He is now an alcoholic and a diabetic which is not optimal. I am not shitting you.

[Did]

I brewed beer in college with a 5 gallon bucket setup and reused bottles. I bought a vintage bottle capper off eBay, in the days where sending a check to the seller was an option for payment. I heard about a professor into brewing beer, so I went and talked to him. He gave me a copper coil he had made to cool the wort. I think I calculated consumables costing me about half what buying New Belgium beer did (the only acceptable choice for a world-travelled beer connoisseur like myself).

After college, I didn't have loads of friends handy to help me brew, or to empty the ~60 bottles of beer made per batch, so I just stopped. Years later, I was happy to sell everything to a guy in my MBA program who mentioned wanting to brew beer. It was fun to go play "consultant" when he was whipping up his first batch. Then another one of our friends got into it too, whose beers ended up being way better than anything I had ever made. I was happy to have passed the baton.

I think it is hard to keep up enthusiasm if you don’t move to kegging. I found my beer got better too. I don’t think I have enough friends to help me drink the 200 pints of Black IPA I have fermenting. And yet I haven’t thrown good beer out yet.

It’s a bit field of dreams for me, this larger system. I’m sure the beer will be enjoyed one way or the other.

[Did]

I used to be into homebrewing back in the day. At the time I was working in Boulder and our office happened to be in the same office building as the American Home Brewers Assn. Every once in a while you would see Charlie Papazian walking around, who was the homebrewing deity president and author of The Joy of Homebrewing.

That’s very cool. I think he kept his system very simple so there really is no need for all this new fangled gear.

Re your ultimatum and the effect of having kids - I often see gear for sale from new parents. I guess it’s part of the choice of electing to take on parental responsibilities, and a consequence of the happy wife happy life maxim. I’m childfree myself and happily the wife helps me brew. Otherwise it would be a bit much with the scale of the whole thing. Mess also helped me get authorisation for fancier gear and a brew shed / room.

Re your BIL, well that’s a nightmare. I would like to think I’d get out if I was ever fanging for a beer at 7 in the morning. But I guess everyone says that. I’m trying to just have a single glass of wine at nights during the week to break things up.

I can’t say I’ve been fading away with the hobby.

[Sclass]

Hey Did,

I had a coworker who brewed gallons of beer and sold it to a local microbrew under the table in bottles. He and the owner were friends and had a cash for beer arrangement that netted him $500 a month.

The guy was really worried about breaking laws and getting caught but I suspect the local authorities had much more serious things to worry about than backyard brewers. You mentioned ROI so it made me recall this guy. He definitely was making a return.

The brew pub couldn’t produce enough beer for their customers and they leaned on my friend to make up the deficit. The bottles sold under a code name like “Cody’s Special” and the customers grew a taste for it. I believe it was also priced attractively.

[AnalyticalEngine]

How is the winemaking experience vs the beer making experience? Is it easier to make wine in smaller batches so the need to move inventory is less a problem?

[Gilberto de Piento]

Wine takes less gear, no heat, can be made in very small batches. Ever heard of prison wine? If I remember correctly, you just buy a bottle of fruit juice, dump out some, add yeast, replace cap with an airlock, and wait. Hard cider is the same. Obviously it can get more complicated if you want.

Winemaking thread: viewtopic.php?t=2382

[Sclass]

My bootlegger coworker always mentioned sterility. He said wine didn’t require the cleanliness of beer. While the feedstock for the wine was more expensive than the beer making materials. He said those two things balanced out so it was a matter of picking your battles. Just what I heard. I haven’t made either except when I forgot about some cut fruit in a jacket pocket.

[Did]

I had a coworker who brewed gallons of beer and sold it to a local microbrew under the table in bottles. He and the owner were friends and had a cash for beer arrangement that netted him $500 a month.

Great his beer was so popular. Wouldn’t be for me though, to be so brazen. I’m in a profession that sort of requires its members to be upstanding citizens, so I always weigh up being deprived of my income for life before considering such behaviour.

Pity the liquor licensing laws are so strict. I would love to run a brewery tour or brew day with some tasters,

[Did]

My bootlegger coworker always mentioned sterility. He said wine didn’t require the cleanliness of beer. While the feedstock for the wine was more expensive than the beer making materials. He said those two things balanced out so it was a matter of picking your battles. Just what I heard. I haven’t made either except when I forgot about some cut fruit in a jacket pocket.

Sterility becomes second nature after a while. It isn’t expensive. By feedstock do you mean grape juice. I think it would be more expensive for me to get that than some malted barley. When I make my wine I do so from a kit, so it is much less rewarding as a hobby than the magic of brewing beer from scratch using only grain, fungus and flowers.

[Did]

Wine takes less gear, no heat, can be made in very small batches. Ever heard of prison wine? If I remember correctly, you just buy a bottle of fruit juice, dump out some, add yeast, replace cap with an airlock, and wait. Hard cider is the same. Obviously it can get more complicated if you want.

Winemaking thread: viewtopic.php?t=2382

Wine can take heat to ferment out depending on where you live, unless you mean no need to mash and boil. I’ve made punch before it was lovely just frozen fruit and some sugar and yeast.

[Did]

How is the winemaking experience vs the beer making experience? Is it easier to make wine in smaller batches so the need to move inventory is less a problem?

I only made from kits. It was pretty easy but I did bottle which was a pain. I’m going to keg for my current batch but will get another gas so as to not make sparkling wine. You can make beer in very small batches but why would you want to.

[white belt]

How is the winemaking experience vs the beer making experience? Is it easier to make wine in smaller batches so the need to move inventory is less a problem?

It's very easy to make wine in gallon sized batches, which will usually yield 4-4.5 750ml bottles depending on how many times you rack it. I made wine for awhile and have all the equipment still. If you have access to fresh fruit then it can be fun to experiment with various country wines. You can use different types of yeast and fermentation times if you want to make something sparkling.

Whether it has a positive ROI is more complex of a question. If it integrates into your web of goals, then sure. But if you're doing it just to save money, I'm not sure if it'll end up being less than just buying cheapo wine from the store and drinking at home.