How much have you spent on brewing this year?

[Droodles1]

This year I built a Brutus clone havre not even added that bill up yet. I am guessing $1500 to build. prob around $350 in ingredients

[mordantly]

First let me preface this post by telling you that I am an engineer and we can justify making a spread sheet for nearly anything quantifiable; sick, I know. That being said, I log my recipes and brew-day results in a spreadsheet and have recently added a section to keep track of costs.

I have a column for cumulative fixed costs (equipment and sanitation supplies) to date which I can divide by my total volume to date. This gives me a cost per volume amount that I can add to my variable costs (ingredients and propane) and come up with a total cost per 5 gallon batch. With some simple math (done by the spreadsheet) I can get a cost per bomber and a cost per six-pack.

My last batch, a doppelbock, calc’ed out to be $4.58 a bomber and $14.98 a six-pack. Prior to the doppelbock, I brewed the CYBI Lagunitas IPA clone that cost $3.23 a bomber and $10.57 a six-pack.

Keep in mind that I have only brewed 70 gallons so the fixed costs tend to weigh a bit heavy on the total cost per batch. As I get more volume on my system the unit (hmm hmm, I said unit) costs will go down. Also, I have heard that extract ingredients cost more than comparable all-grain ingredients.

Conclusion: more brew = lower unit costs.

i was scared at how long it will take to even out $1500 in equipment when i thought about it. im in the $50-100/6-pack range, but it is far superior to most beer on the market.

[linuxelf]

Around $400 on ingredients, and around $200 on equipment. But part of that is a grain mill which was just shipped (w00t!), so hopefully that'll help drive the ingredients cost down next year!