I’ve been asked plenty of times “how much does home brewing cost?” And frankly, it’s a good 50% of the reason I went into brewing in the first place. Once you’re over the initial investment in equipment (I’d allow between £150 and £250 for that) you’re looking at an average cost of just 30p per pint!
Cost of homebrew equipment
A typical full-mash equipment list would look something like this:
- Boiler – £80
- Bucket (for mashing in boiler) – £10
- Lauter tun – £50
- Muslin (to strain the mash) – £5
- Fermenting Bucket – £15
- Conditioning vessel – £15
- Syphoning tube – £3
- Paddle (to stir) – £5
- Airlocks (x2) – £2
Cost of homebrew ingredients
I’d always recommend buying homebrew ingredients in bulk. Go for a large sack of malt – it’ll last 5 or 6 brews at 60 pints a brew. Hops are an essential luxury, it’s worth adding more but if you’re on a budget you’d be surprised how few you can get away with. Don’t skimp on yeast – buy the best you can afford.
For a typical batch of 60 pints, you could estimate costs based on the following:
- Grain (4Kg) – £5
- Hops (50g) – £3
- Yeast – £2.50
Yes, that’s just £10.50 for 60 pints (17.5p per pint!) but you’ll need to consider additional costs such as electricity, water and any finings such as Irish Moss. You can see where I’m getting 30p a pint as a fair average from then.