WHAT IS THE BREWING COST OF MAKING BEER WITH A KIT?

What’s up Y’all! Hope the brewing process is going well, and if you’re not quite there yet, no problem you’ll get there. The fact you’re checking out this post is a great sign that you are well on your way to brewing great beer with a kit.

Today we are going to talk about Brewing Costs. How much will it cost to brew your own beer at home using a kit?

Well, it depends

Brewing costs may or may not be an important factor for you in your final decision to begin home brewing. Whether it is or isn’t, I feel the best way to commit fully to something is to fully understand that which you’re committing to. 

Unmet Expectations

This could cause your expectations to go unmet. Unmet expectations of anything spells disappointment. Disappointment in a hobby quickly equals finding a new hobby as soon as that unmet expectation is realized.

The goal of this blog is to remove those pesky unmet expectations! By shedding a light on what to expect while brewing with a kit, you can commit yourself to do so by knowing all the facts and what they entail.

Let’s talk turkey

So let’s talk about what brewing your own beer with a kit is going to cost you to start and continue the brewing process.

Overall, the main things you need to brew are equipment, ingredients, something to store and drink your beer from, and cleaning products. What that entails can vary greatly depending on the level of brewing you get into. 

This post is going to cover the basics homebrewing with a kit. The options are plenty and go way beyond what I will cover. This post is also based on the US dollar from the research of what is available in the United States through Amazon.

I have broken this list into three categories: brewing your beer (discussing equipment & ingredients), storing your beer, and cleaning your equipment.

***Prices listed in this article may have changed over time***

**** HEY Y’ALL, I WANTED TO LET YOU GUYS  KNOW THAT AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE I EARN A SMALL COMMISSION FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES YOU MAKE FROM MY LINKS. HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY SUGGESTIONS OF WHAT I RECOMMEND FOR YOU TO USE. IF YOU DO DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE, OUR FAMILY HERE AT BREW WITH KITS WANTS YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH WE VALUE YOUR SUPPORT. ****

Brewing Your Beer

Starter Kit–

How much money you will need to shell out up front to get started brewing beer with a kit is going to vary a good amount depending on what you are looking for. This is an awesome benefit to living in the States (one that I really miss while living abroad).

If you don’t have or don’t want to spend a ton of money upfront or you just want to give homebrewing a whirl, get a starter kit and go for it!

Starting Simple

There are starter kits with pretty much everything you need to brew your first beer for as low as 30 bucks plus change. Take into account that this doesn’t include bottles, but more on that later.

Take a peek at this one for yourself from Brooklyn Brew Shop Starter Kit. Manufacturer’s description: This includes (grains, hops, and yeast), 1-gallon reusable glass fermenter, glass spirit-filled thermometer, vinyl tubing, racking cane & tip, chambered airlock, Brooklyn Brew Shop cleanser, and screw-cap stopper. Not included: strainer, funnel, pot, and bottles. You can expect to make 1 gallon of 6.8% Alcohol-by-Volume beer (9 to 10 12-oz bottles).

***Whatever starter kit you’re going to buy, make sure to check to see if bottles or another storing solution is included.***

If bottles are not included, continue reading to the end of this post to learn about different options for storing your beer. 30 beans plus change is incredibly inexpensive to become a homebrewer!

Now from this 30 dollar price point different starter kits are going to get more expensive and include differing equipment and brewing ingredients.

On the lower price point of about 30-50 dollars, you’re going to still be able to find different starter kits from several companies offering a range of different equipment options including style of fermenters, numbers of fermentors (helpful for transferring beer from one fermenter to another for secondary fermenting or clearing your beer), beer styles, amount of beers produced, and tutorial videos/ instruction booklets, etc.

A little higher price range

I have seen some great starting kits with everything you need and top-grade equipment for about 220 dollars. This may seem expensive but REMEMBER this is still a very reasonable price for starting your home brewery. I don’t live Stateside, so obviously I haven’t used all these products. But as with anything and everything, I think the higher price point marketed brew kits are going to go a lot farther for you.

The phrase you get what you pay for will apply here in some aspects.

Examples:

The 30 dollar option came with a glass carboy fermenter with a tiny mouth which may or may not be hard for you to clean. Compared with the more expensive kit that comes with a couple of wide mouth bubbler carboys which are going to be a breeze to clean.

Comparisons in kits

Inexpensive

Intermediate 

Expensive

*Awesome but pricey*

Now, all of the following are going to vary depending on the price range of the kit you purchase: Quality of brewing equipment, what equipment is included, the beer ingredients included, the way you brew those ingredients, the amount of beer that it produces. 

Wort or no wort?

Some cheaper options do not include the wort (the main ingredient that your beer is made from). If this is the case, factor in buying the wort which can vary in price (more on that below mentioned in the refill kit options).

Some kits do not include the readily made wort to add to your fermenter but come with the dry ingredients to make your wort. While this is not a huge deal and you will still be able to produce awesome beer using this, there will be more steps involved to brew your own wort, leaving you with more chances to make mistakes and obviously more of your time. With that said, this may be the way you want to go and if that is the case, YOU CAN BREW IT! I am stoked for you.

On the other hand, there are starter kits from the low to high price points that include premade wort. These produce great beer with less chance to make a mistake (though not foolproof) while saving you time. This is the type of kit I started with and I recommend y’all start with this.

Whatever kind of style of beer you prefer to drink I am sure there is a kit for that. If you’re giving this as a gift, try and tailor it to the specific beer your gift recipient likes the most. Refer to this blog post for more great ideas for giving beer kits as a gift.  

Pilsners, Pale Ales, Stouts, Porters, Belgians, really you name the style and they have a kit for that varying in price. I have never used this but solely from my research on the best starting kit, my suggestion is amazons number one seller and comes at an awesome price.

On Average

Let’s say that a safe bet for a middle ground starter kit that you will be able to have a great beer with is 79 dollars on average. Not too shabby to brew your first gallon of beer.

Sugars, sugar replacements, and additions–

With the single beer kit refills, it is not necessary to buy any special brewing sugar. You can simply use regular granulated sugar. If you want a better final product though, you can buy different kinds of sugars.

I won’t list them all out in this post, but keep an eye out for another post on different kind of brewing sugars for more details.

For expample, this is the most commonly used brewing sugar Corn Sugar (Dextrose)

Water– 

If you’re in an area where you can drink good tasting water out of your tap then use that water. If not you are going to need to come up with a water solution.

Beer is mostly water.

Water is the most used ingredient in beer.

If you don’t have good tasting water, your beer is most likely not going to taste good. How good your beer’s final taste is going to be is directly linked with how good your water tastes.

You can get a water filtration system or buy gallon jugs of water every time you brew. Either way, if good water is an issue and you need to purchase something to make your water better, make sure you calculate that cost into your brewing budget.

Something as simple as this should do the trick Ultra High Capacity Direct Connect Water Filtration System

Hops–

Hops are not essential to your brewing experience, but an option you may want to explore. Depending on how much you get, it can be from

Amarillo Pellet Hops 3 oz

US Nugget 1 Lb. Hop Pellets

Beer Kits refill–

Once you get your first batch out of the way, and you are ready for more, the last ongoing expense within the brewing process is your beer kit refill. This is not an all extensive research to find you the best deal, but just an idea of what you should expect to pay overtime to refill your beer kit. 

****Prices may vary depending on what you are looking for**** 

Single beer refill kits (wort with yeast) will be cheaper but you will need to buy the brewing sugar, any additional flavors you want to add (like hops, oak, etc), and priming sugar (what bottle conditions your beer) separately.

These range from around…

Oktoberfest Lager 2 Gallon

Bewitched Amber Ale

All inclusive refill kits include everything you need to continue to brew a tasty beer with your starter kit equipment. You won’t have to worry about anything except to do what the instructions tell you to do.

Check these out:

Evil-Dog American Double IPA – (Produces 23 liters which equal 777 oz)

Festival Pride of London Porter– (Produces 23 liters which equal 777 oz)  

These will give you 64, 12 oz bottles of beer. That comes out roughly to about $1.60 per beer and it will be dang good!

Storing your beer

When you are purchasing your starter kit make sure to check whether bottles are included or not! There are many different options when it comes to what to store your beer in.

Plastic bottles–

15 reusable 25 oz. plastic PET bottles and caps

New Glass Bottles– 

Swing Top Glass Bottles– 12 pack 16 oz. 

Regular Glass Amber Bottles– 24 pack 12 0z. These will need to be capped. 

Bottle Capper

Caps

Brand new swing top or cap bottles is not what I used to store my beer in nor are they what I suggest, but if you do go with new bottles remember it is going to cost you more up front.

If this is the best option for you, and you go this route then definitely get the reusable Swing Top Bottles. This will save you some money in purchasing a bottle capper and caps down the road and save you time by not having to cap each bottle.    

Keg–

I know, a keg! Sounds crazy right? Actually, it’s pretty awesome. If you can pony up for a couple of these to store your beer in it will cut down drastically the number of bottles you are going to need. They are surprisingly reasonable.

Single mini Keg

Mini keg system with C02

This is the exact system I use and I love it!!!! 

It saves me from having to bottle somewhere around 14 beers per mini keg. This saves a lot of time cleaning/ capping and it tastes great.

Really if you’re going to be brewing long term treat your self to this sweet kegging system.

Reused/ Second-Hand Glass Bottles–

(Best and cheapest option) This will cost you a fraction of the cost of other options. 

This is what I use alongside the 1.3-gallon mini keg.

You can save a lot of money just by starting saving your bottles now! If you are currently drinking beer, save your bottles. Tell everyone you know that drinks beer to also save their bottles for you.

The only catch with this option is if you are going to reuse bottles they need to be a pop top bottle. I have been brewing for some time now. In the beginning, getting enough bottles for my homebrew from my own drinking and from friends was difficult.

The sooner you ask before brewing the better!!!

If you are in a pinch, try and go anywhere that collects old bottles and ask if you can buy them off of them for the deposit amount or five cents more then the deposit amount for each bottle. Even with having to pay a little over the deposit amount this option is still going to be a ton cheaper than any of the other options!

Second-Hand Bottles are going to take more of your time since you will have to clean them out. You are still going to save a ton of money so it may be worth it to you. In the end, it sure has been for me! It all really depends on how valuable your time is.

This option saves you money but will cost you time.

Cleaning your equipment

You need to clean your equipment…there is just no way around it. Whether you want to go with a specific brewing cleaning detergent or a dish soap it’s really up to you. Though there is more cleaning equipment I recommend here the basics you will need to get started are a good cleaner, sanitizer and bottle brush.

Cleaner–

Cleaner for brewing equipment & bottles – 8 0z

Sanitizer– 

Sanitize your stuff. Don’t risk wrecking your home brewed beer due to infection. You’re going to need this stuff so might as well add it to your list now. Star San 8 oz

Bottle Brush–

Your starter kit will probably come with one of these but you will also most likely be going to have to replace it the more you use it. Beer bottle brush

To Summarize…

I know this is a lot of info, but to sum it all up, here’s a rough break down of what it will be for the average cost to start and continue brewing with a kit.

*This is just an example and fluctuates a ton depending on what you are going for*

Brewing costs– 

Starter kit- $79, Sugar- $10, Water- $10-99 depending on the option you pick. You can start your own home brewing for around or less than 100 dollars easily! 

Continued brewing costs–

Beer wort Refill- $12-36, Brew sugar– about $10 for a pound (optional), Hops– around $12 for 3 oz packet (optional). So roughly $40 to brew two gallons of beer using these optional ingredients. This will produce an awesome beer.

Storing Costs–

Let’s just say you go with new regular glass amber bottles plus caps and a capper. On average you will spend around $42

Cleaning supplies–

Cleaner– about $7 for 8 oz, Sanitizer– close to $13 for 8 oz. Roughly $20 for these supplies that you will be able to use for months

Conclusion

That’s the list.  This is by no means all-encompassing. There are a ton of things I could have added. That is the beauty of home brewing because you can be creative and add or take away different ingredients depending on the type of beer you want to produce. 

Has this list has helped you understand the expenses to start brewing your own beer with a kit and continue to do so? If so email me and tell me your story. I would love to hear from you! My hope is that you find a new found love in brewing your own beer with a kit.

If you like craft beer, brewing with a kit is still a heck of a lot cheaper than buying craft beer from the store, but more than that it’s beer you get to enjoy that you created.

Now that you have all the information about what the general cost of brewing your own beer at home using beer kits, you can make an informed decision on whether or not you want to try it. My recommendation is… YOU CAN BREW IT!

You’ll be stoked when you are drinking your own great beer brewed with a kit.  

Now that you know monetarily what kit brewing will cost you.  What all does a kit brewing routine entail? Find out more here.

Oh, and don’t forget to take notes if you do decide to brew your own beer with a kit.

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