Savings on Suds: Home-Brewed Beer

So you may have noticed by reading the blog posts at Savings.com that most of us here have some level of expertise on a given category, and we do our best to save folks money on the items we are knowledgeable about. When I asked myself what is my area of "deal" expertise two things sprung to mind: motorcycle parts/maintenance and beer. The first is a bit niche, so we'll table that and focus on how one saves money on beer.

Until recently, saving money on beer has been more of an opportunistic endeavor for me. The most extreme example of this occurred about 5 years ago when I lived in Santa Barbara. I strolled into a local grocery store and not five steps in the door I noticed a shopping cart filled to the top with loose (and many dented) cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Atop this glorious pile of bargain brew was a hand written cardboard sign that read: "Open Box PBR $0.05 Each."

I stared in disbelief for a moment, then promptly put the sign under my arm and wheeled the entire cart to check out.

Aside for taking advantage of obvious golden opportunities like this, how does one save on beer? I mean anyone can buy cheap poor quality beer, but how do you save money on high quality IPA, porter, and ales that actually taste good?

The answer is simple: You make it yourself.

Now realize you do need to have a certain amount of patience, a meticulous nature, and a healthy love of beer to pursue something like this, but after the initial investment in equipment, the ongoing savings are undeniable. So what's the cost? Well you could always take the easy way out and snatch up one of those two gallon all inclusive systems you hear about like Mr. Beer, The Beer Machine, or Coopers.

For me there was only one way to go: all glass and stainless steel equipment that I could add to and build off of as my brewing skills grow over time (did I mention that I like beer?). I was able to assemble a very respectable home-brew setup that will support years of making a wide variety of beer for about $175.00. You can save significantly if you use plastic fermenters, but I don't recommend it (scratches in plastic can hold bacteria that will cause off flavors or just completely ruin the beer).

Once you have the necessary equipment the easiest way to make beer is with an extract kit. These kits usually consist of malt extract, grains, hops, yeast and priming sugar for bottling. I've seen plenty of good quality beer extract kits that range from about $24 to $50 and yield about 5 gallons of beer. To put that in perspective five gallons is about 50 to 55 bottles, depending on how much you spill in the process, so you can see the savings coming into play here. Walk into your neighborhood pub and see if they have a decent brew on tap for $0.43 and let me know how that works out for you.

My first brew was a triple hopped American style pale ale made from such an extract kit. How did it taste? You'll have to ask the Savings.com crew members that made it to our Relaunch Party early enough to try a few!