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BREW DAY!! WATCHA' GOT, EH!? 2019


ben 10

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11 hours ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Yeah mine range from about 12 or 13 bucks for a 19L batch of asian lager made with slurry to about 30 when i do a hoppy IPA. 

Malt is cheap. Hops are the killer. Yeast if you reuse it doesnt cost much per batch. 

Come to think of it my 2 megaswill batches made with home grown POR was  probably the cheapest i have made. Probably 8 or 9 in malt and table sugar per batch.

How much do you guys pay for your grain? I fail to find it for less than $3/kg.

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11 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

I suspect some LHBS are capitalising on the opportunity to make some money...  still cheaper than megaswill.

I think I can get most base malts like 25kg bags for $75 or less...  $3kg per kilo - more for specialty malts. 

So yeah I am a beginner and cos I got questionable efficiency and brew at high ABV.... am probably doing 7kg... so 

that's $21 for grain.... I do mill meself… and then well... say 150g or hops... say $15... 

What's that - $36 for around 23L plus... 

I have got my yeast for $4-5 or just used slurry... say $40....

let's say for 30 Largies….  well 

come down to the Bottlo - and see REAL BEER - micro brews like what we are doing - selling there for $17 for 500ml?

Then - Go Figure....

I reckon you might be less $$ for KnK but...……….. unless you use liquid malt adjuncts - I really believe you cannot achieve the same brew quality.

Anyway....  just thinking out loud...

 

Oh yes, it is a lot cheaper than the bottlo. Some of those prices are just ridiculous but the craft beer trend allows them to charge what they want. 

But looking at your numbers, they're right there where I expect them to be. That's the prices I find around the place and they're not that much lower than an extract batch.  But if I pay $40 for an AG batch, I don't complain as buying the equivalent of megaswill at the bottlo, I'd pay closer to $150. Hey, even a carton of VB sets you back 50odd bucks. Unbelievable!

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38 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

How much do you guys pay for your grain? I fail to find it for less than $3/kg.

Depends on the grain. Base malt I can get under $3/kg if I get it through a bulk buy. Spec grains are usually around $5/kg but given the generally small amounts they're used in, they don't contribute much to the cost.

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16 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Oh yes, it is a lot cheaper than the bottlo. Some of those prices are just ridiculous but the craft beer trend allows them to charge what they want. 

...But if I pay $40 for an AG batch, I don't complain as buying the equivalent of megaswill at the bottlo, I'd pay closer to $150. Hey, even a carton of VB sets you back 50odd bucks. Unbelievable!

The high price for your commercial beer at the bottleshop isn't the fault of the retailer, or the brewery. You can thank your friendly neighbourhood federal government for that.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6192988/federal-government-slurps-up-beer-tax-billions/?cs=14231

It's crippling an industry.

Lusty.

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48 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

How much do you guys pay for your grain? I fail to find it for less than $3/kg.

I pay 65 for a 25kg sack of ale or pilsener. So 2.60 a kilo. Thats pretty standard for normal base malt in Sydney. If you go other stuff like maris otter or golden promise or floor malted pilsener it becomes more expensive 

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12 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

The high price for your commercial beer at the bottleshop isn't the fault of the retailer, or the brewery. You can thank your friendly neighbourhood federal government for that.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6192988/federal-government-slurps-up-beer-tax-billions/?cs=14231

It's crippling an industry.

Lusty.

Yes, I know the government reaps a lot of the fruit, but that alone doesn't explain a carton of craft beer costing almost double a "normal" carton at the same alcohol level. That has other factors like higher cost and less output of the brewery, which leads to higher prices but also the willingness of shoppers to pay the higher prices. 

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8 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Yes, I know the government reaps a lot of the fruit, but that alone doesn't explain a carton of craft beer costing almost double a "normal" carton at the same alcohol level. That has other factors like higher cost and less output of the brewery, which leads to higher prices but also the willingness of shoppers to pay the higher prices. 

Craft beer costs a lot more to make than normal beer due to the hops input as well as you say the big boys have the scale to do it much cheaper.

The prices got ridiculous years ago prompting me to get into brewing. I still get upset when i run out of my brew and have to hand over 60 bucks or so at Dans. 

Edited by Greeny1525229549
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3 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

The prices got ridiculous years ago prompting me to get into brewing. I still get upset when i run out of my brew and have to hand over 60 bucks or so at Dans. 

True, which is why I am pumping it out big time. I just want to have enough beer in the house, so I can stuff up the odd batch and still have plenty of stock, to brew up another batch, carbonate it and let it age a little before I run out 🙂 

The problem is that even at Uncle Dan's do you pay through the nose for something good.

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That's why I've been getting a second fermenter happening this year. It's taken longer than I wanted but I suppose other shit gets in the way at times. All ready to go now though, just spinning up a starter and brewing the batch tomorrow for pitching either Monday or Tuesday. Bloody annoying having to buy cartons all the time with the stupid prices. I've generally been getting that arc valley lager because I just don't want to pay the cost of 3 batches for one carton. 

 

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The stuff that really irks me is the price of belgian beers. They are high alcohol and get hammered for it. 

My case in point is duvel. $152 per case of 24 in Dans. 

Home brewed

5kg pilsener - 13 bucks

1kg dextrose - 3.50

About 60gm total of sytrian and saaz - 5.00

2.50 LDME for my starter

$24 for a 19L batch which makes 55 bottles. To buy that in dans. $348.

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33 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

The stuff that really irks me is the price of belgian beers. They are high alcohol and get hammered for it. 

My case in point is duvel. $152 per case of 24 in Dans. 

Home brewed

5kg pilsener - 13 bucks

1kg dextrose - 3.50

About 60gm total of sytrian and saaz - 5.00

2.50 LDME for my starter

$24 for a 19L batch which makes 55 bottles. To buy that in dans. $348.

It's probably why I never got interested in Belgian's. 😜

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Looks like my brew has sparked off quite a discussion on relative costs!

That prompted me to cost this particular beer out so I could get an accurate idea of how much of a saving AG actually was in this case:

  • AG = $22.99
  • Extract = $32.45

That's a pretty good saving!  👍

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On 8/19/2019 at 10:07 AM, Otto Von Blotto said:

Water and Treatment
33L Distilled Water
0.44 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent 2 - -
0.34 g Baking Soda (Mash) Water Agent 4 - -
0.32 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent 5 - -
0.30g Gypsum

Grains
4.000 kg Bohemian Pilsner (Weyermann) (3.5 EBC) Grain 6 93.8 % 2.61 L
0.150 kg Melanoidin (Weyermann) (59.1 EBC) Grain 7 3.5 % 0.10 L
0.100 kg Acidulated (Weyermann) (4.5 EBC) Grain 8 2.3 % 0.07 L
0.015 kg Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1300.2 EBC) Grain 9 0.4 % 0.01 L
Mash at 63C for 45 minutes, 72C for 25 minutes, 78C mash out

Hops
60.00 g Saaz [2.40 %] - First Wort 90.0 min Hop 10 19.0 IBUs -
70.00 g Saaz [2.40 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop 11 19.9 IBUs -
40.00 g Saaz [2.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 12 5.3 IBUs -
30.00 g Saaz [2.40 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min, 90.2 C Hop 13 2.0 IBUs -
Originally 90 minute boil, increased to 120 minutes

Yeast
Czech Pilsner Lager (Wyeast Labs #2278), pitch and begin ferment at 12C

The Numbers
Est Original Gravity: 1.0478 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.0107 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 %
Bitterness: 46.2 IBUs
Est Color: 11.4 EBC

Cheers

Kelsey

Brewing this again tomorrow. No ingredient changes as I still have 250g or so of the Saaz left. There will be a slight process change though, I'll use 31 litres water to mash in, then boil a couple of litres in the tin kettle on the BBQ and tip it over the grain bag while it's draining, as per a discussion in another thread recently. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, difference it makes.

I'll also get the costing from Beersmith compared to doing it with extract, although the only real difference would be the extract itself, which would probably be double what the base malt cost, maybe more since I bought this malt in a bulk buy.

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1 hour ago, Beer Baron said:

I really need to find another place to buy my ingredients from...…

I reckon mate if you can get yourself a lovely Australian Made-Mashmaster Mini-Mill and buy whole bags of malt you will be miles ahead... 

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2 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

I reckon mate if you can get yourself a lovely Australian Made-Mashmaster Mini-Mill and buy whole bags of malt you will be miles ahead... 

That’s the plan. It’s just hard to save up that much with my small budget. It will come eventually 

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