Why Brew?
Why brew? I started for 2 reasons. One because college buddy Chris Penner and I brewed at college and I seem to remember it tasting pretty good. But my memory of these times in none too clear and there are some VERY good reasons for that. So maybe I just want to see if we were any good or if it was all in my head. I do remember brewing a couple of ales back home in good old New Malden, but was that just beginners luck? My tastes have matured over the years so will I still like the beer today? Only one way to find out.
Second reason is the money. Like so many people in this current economy we are having a tough time. I have been out of work for most of this year and am actively seeking employment. So budgets have been slashed and we are always looking for ways to save money. So I made a spreadsheet, for those that know me this will come as no surprise, I have spreadsheets for almost everything. I figured out the ROI on the equipment I would need to buy, including ingredients, and figured that after 6 batches of 5 gallons I would pay back the money I spent. We will get into the equipment in my next post.
So how cheap is it? For a batch of Best Bitter, a solid session brew of medium strength and taste, the cost of a simple extract based recipe is ~$32. If you aren’t lucky enough to live near a good homebrew supply store you would need to add shipping also. I use Northern Brewer for almost everything these days and their fixed shipping price of $7.99 per order works well for me as I tend to order over 20lbs of ingredients at a time. So this adds up to $40 for 5 gallons of high quality ale.
Using $40 as a benchmark lets see what the savings work out to. In theory a typical homebrew batch of 5 gallons yields 40 pints of ale. In reality once you have racked the ale a couple of times to remove the sediment you tend to have about 35 pints or approx 560 fl oz.
So what is 560 fl oz of premium Best Bitter worth to me (Best Bitter is a form of English Pale Ale)? My favorite London Best Bitter is Fullers London Pride. I can buy a 6 pack of 12 fl oz London Pride at Blanchards for ~$12 or $2 per 12 fl oz bottle. Multiply this up to 560 fl oz (~46 bottles of Pride) and you get a price tag of $92, over 56% savings. You will find the pricing works out for the lower end ales which tend to require less ingredients = less money. If you can remove shipping from the equation then high quality ale really can be enjoyed on a budget.
So I hear “homebrew really isn’t as good as the real-thing?”, “what about the choice?”. I can honestly tell you that homebrew is the real thing, it does taste better, you have infinite variety thanks to sites like Hopeville, and you can even clone your very favorite beers and compare just how different they are.
The only real issues come when you run out and have to go to the store and pay double for a weaker brew (and don’t forget the sales tax). Another issue is time, you cannot just run down the road a buy a six pack whenever you feel like an ale, you need to plan ahead. Patience is definitely required to make great ale, something we will discuss next time.
So what are we waiting for, next post we will get into the basic equipment required and cover the basic ground rules of the road. Time for a draft pint pulled fresh from my own tap 🙂
