Saving Money

Is Home Brewing Worth the Investment?

Walk into any liquor store and you’ll find an endless number of commercially brewed beers. Dark, light, sour, mass produced and craft beers line the shelves at just about any price point. As an alternative, beer lovers can also brew their own beer at home. Many times it’s less expensive to do something yourself, but is it cheaper to brew your own beer? Is home brewing worth the investment?

One can brew your own beer at many price points depending upon the quality of brewing equipment and the ingredients used. For the purpose of this experiment, I will compare the price of making beer using a highly rated brewing kit from Amazon to a popular mainstream beer.

Home Brew Kit

The BrewDemon Craft Beer Brewing Kit comes with everything a beer lover needs to make their own beer, including bottles and the ingredients for one batch of beer. The cost of the kit when ordered from Amazon is $102, and makes two gallons, or 256 ounces of beer. That works out to be about 39.8 cents per ounce.

That price per ounce is a little misleading, since it includes the one time cost of the equipment. The ingredient packages for subsequent two gallon batches of beer is $24.15, or 9.4 cents per ounce.

Price Comparison

Checking a website for a local liquor store, I found a case of Coors Light advertised for $17.99. A case of beer contains 24, 12 ounce cans for a total of 288 ounces. That comes out to 6.2 cents per ounce.

Even when comparing the cost of home brewing without the cost of the equipment, it is more expensive than a common mainstream beer. The price differential would be even greater when compared to craft beers. Additionally, while this home brewing kit is highly rated, one can buy high end brewing equipment and ingredients which would make home brewing much more expensive. You could invest in labeling and capping machines too, but it all depends on how much you want to invest in the whole thing.

Conclusion: Making your own beer is NOT cheaper than buying directly from a retailer.

The Case For Home Brewing

If home brewers aren’t saving money, why do they do it? There are many reasons why people may brew their own beer at home including:

• It’s Fun: Home brewers find the process of making beer, and then tasting the fruits of their labor, fun. It’s satisfying to make something you normally buy in stores.
• Quality: Many argue mass produced commercial beers are low quality. Home brewers may make beer they feel is superior in taste.

Making your own beer will not save you money.  However, it is a hobby that can bring you and your friends a lot of enjoyment making home brewing worth the investment.

How about you, Clever Friends, do you brew your own beer? Do you know anyone who does?

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Check out additional articles on CleverDude: 

• Beer vs Liquor: An Alcohol Price Per Ounce Comparison
• Which is Cheaper: Keg or Canned Beer?
• Brew Bros: How to Throw a Beer Tasting Party