Is Homebrewing cheaper than Buying Beer? Yes, here's why!

Let’s be honest, most people don’t start brewing beer at home in order to save on costs but rather because they enjoy doing it and also because drinking a beer that you brewed yourself feels much better than drinking the one you got from the store.

However, there is also a financial point to be made about brewing beer at home since it can save you some money in the long run.

In this article, I’m going to analyze the costs of brewing your own beer vs buying it from the store and if it makes real financial sense to do so.

So, let’s get started!

Cost comparison of Buying vs Brewing Beer at home

Let’s first start by going over the prices of store-bought beer in different regions to have a better understanding of what we’re dealing with.

Note: I will be doing this entire comparison with really well-known commercial beer, such as Heineken, since listing all the different brands doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In short, here’s the answer: A typical 12 oz. or 330 ml bottle of commercial beer costs about $1 depending on the brand, whereas brewing your own beer (without taking into account the initial equipment costs) ends up only costing $0.43 per bottle when brewing a typical 5 gallon or 20 liter batch.

Cost of Buying Beer

Here I’m basing the process off of Walmart for the US, but I’m also going to be listing a couple of Prices that may apply to most European countries as well (although prices vary slightly between those countries since there’s a pretty big price difference between the US and Europe).

Cost of Buying Beer in the US:

Heineken 12oz. 330ml bottles: $26.50 for 24 Bottles, or $1.11 per bottle.
Heineken 12oz. 330ml Cans: $22.50 for 18 Cans, or $1.25 per Can.
Bud Light 12oz. 330ml Cans: $20 for 30 Cans, or $0.66 per Can.

Cost of Buying Beer in Europe:

Heineken 12oz. or 330ml Cans: €8.88 for 12 Cans, or €0.74 per Can.
Mahou 12oz. or 330ml Cans: €7.68 for 12 Cans, or €0.64 per Can.

Note: The beers that I’m listing are generic ones that you can find everywhere and that most people know of in their specific region. I know that there are a lot of different brands out there with varying quality that can have a huge price difference (where I live in Spain, you can get a pack of 12 cans for €3, but it’s terrible), but I’m not going to be listing all of them.

Cost of Brewing Beer at home

If you’re interested in brewing your own beer, you need to know that there’s an initial investment that you have to make since you will have to buy all of the brewing equipment, such as fermenters, kettle, bottles, etc.

This means that the initial cost of brewing will be high but will go down over time as you brew more and more beer.

I would recommend getting started with either a complete brewing kit, or at the very least getting a plastic bucket fermenter, buying regular beer that comes in bottles, drinking it, and using those bottles for brewing, and, if possible, using a large pot you have at home as a brewing kettle.

Startup Costs (Equipment)

At the very least, you are going to need a brewing kettle, a fermenter, grains, hops, yeast, thermometer, an airlock, bottle filler, hydrometer, bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, and sanitizer, which is why I’d recommend getting an entire kit since it’s usually more affordable to do so, such as this one from Northern Brewer which costs $120 and comes with everything you need except for bottles (it comes with extract and not all-grain, but this works really well for making your first brew).

Startup Costs:

Full kit in the US: cheapest Northern Brewer kit is $120 and you only need bottles.
Full kit in Europe: Similar kit for €80 here (Without bottles or Kettle).
24 Bottles (12oz. or 330ml): $12 – $24.
Brew in a Bag: $39 (you will need it for the next batches if you buy any of those kits).

Note: These kits come with malt extract which replaces the sugar you would get out of the malt when you do the mash (easier and quicker to do).

Once you brew your first batch, you can move on to all-grain brewing which is way cheaper (it’s also where you will start using the bag).

Grain Bill

10 LB or 4.5KG Pale Ale Malt (US Price)= $17
11 LB or 10KG Pale Ale Malt (Europe Price)= €10.85

Hops

1oz. or 30g Cascade Pellets (US): $2.90.
50g Cascade Pellets (Europe): €3.95.

Energy Costs

This is where it gets tricky since it depends on if you’re brewing your beer on the stove, if it’s electric or uses gas, if you have a dedicated burner, etc., but in the interest of keeping this as simple as possible, let’s assume you have either a gas or electric stove.

So, let’s take a very general look at how high of an energy cost you would have:

Energy Costs of Brewing beer in the US:

If you’re using an electric stove top, which I generally wouldn’t recommend since, at least in my experience, they take way too long to get a large 5 Gal. or 19lts. pot to a boil, you will be using it on full blast for roughly 3 hours.

The Country’s average kWh cost is 14.92 cents but it ranges from 43.11 to 10.34 cents depending on the region (check your electric bill and see how much you pay per kWh).

This gives you a total cost of $0.6714 for the three hours of having the 1500w stove top set to max.

If you’re using a gas cooktop, then you can expect to pay anywhere from20% to 50% less.

Energy Costs of Brewing Beer in Europe:

If we follow the same example as above (3hs of having the stove top at max), then the costs are as follows:

Europe’s average kWh cost is €0.2396 but ranges from €0.3448 to €0.07 depending on the country.

This gives you a total cost of €1.08 for the three hours of having the 1500w stove top set to max.

Similar to what happens in the US, Gas is still more affordable in Europe and should reduce this cost by about 30%.

Total Cost of Brewing Beer at Home (Per Bottle)

Let’s add it all up and come up with an initial cost per bottle (for the first batch), as well as the cost for each subsequent batch.

Total Cost of Brewing in the US (Initial Batch):

Note: Since the brewing kit comes with malt extract and hops, you won’t need to buy grains or hops separately.

Brew Kit: $120.
Bottles (Pack of 48 12 oz. or 3.30 ml): $44.
Energy Costs: $0.6714 (round up to 0.7).

Total: $120 + $44 + $0.7 = $164.7.

Divide that by the total number of bottles to get the cost per bottle.

Cost per bottle: $3.43 ($164.7 / 48 bottles).

Now, $3.43 might seem a bit high but remember that you had to buy the kit, but now that you have it, each subsequent batch will be a lot cheaper. Let’s take a look:

Cost of Subsequent Batches of beer:

10 LB or 4.5KG Pale Ale Malt (US Price)= $17.
1oz. or 30g Cascade Pellets (US): $2.90 (you will probably use a little less depending on the recipe).
Energy Costs: $0.6714 (round up to 0.7).

Total: $17 + $2.90 + $0.7 = $20.6.

Cost per bottle: $0.43 ($20.6 / 48 bottles).

Total Cost of Brewing Beer in Europe:

Note: Since the brewing kit comes with malt extract and hops, you won’t need to buy grains or hops separately for your first batch, but you will need to purchase a kettle/pot.

Brew Kit: €80.
Kettle 32 Quart / 8 Gallon / 32 Lts: €60.
Bottles (Pack of 42 12 oz. or 3.30 ml): €20.75.
Energy Costs: €1.08 (round up to €1.1).

Total: €80 + €60 + €20.75 + €1.1 = €161.85.

Divide that by the total number of bottles to get the cost per bottle.

Cost per bottle: €3.85 (€161.85 / 42 bottles).

Cost of Subsequent Batches of beer:

11 LB or 5KG Pale Ale Malt = €10.85.
17oz. or 50g Cascade Pellets = €3.95 (you will use about half or less for one batch, so €1.9).
Energy Costs: €1.08 (round up to €1.1).

Total: $€10.85+ €1.9 + €1.1 = €13.85.

Cost per bottle: €0.33 (€13.85 / 42 bottles).

Note that I’m doing the calculation with 42 bottles here instead of 48 because that’s the quantity that they sell at the stores I checked.

Total Cost Difference between Buying vs Brewing Beer

If we don’t account for the initial investment, then it’s much cheaper to brew your own beer than to buy it, especially if you think about the difference in overall quality since a homebrewed beer is MUCH tastier than any commercial beer you can buy at the store.

At $0.43 or €0.33 per 12 oz. or 330 ml. bottle of homebrewed beer, when compared to cheap alternatives such as bud light which cost about $0.66, it makes a lot more financial sense to brew your own (in the long run, of course).

Why Brew your own beer instead of Buying it?

There are many reasons to brew your own beer, but I think that the main one is that you’re going to enjoy it, plus drinking beer that you brewed yourself just feels a lot better than buying one from the store.

On that same note, if you want to save money, then home-brewed beer is the way to go even when taking into account all the necessary equipment costs since once you have it, that’s it, you only need to spend on raw ingredients and sometimes buy new crown caps, but that’s about it.

Summary

Home brewed or craft beer is definitely more affordable, especially in the long run, but not only that, it’s really enjoyable and the product you get is of a much higher quality than store-bought beer.

You just need to pay for all the equipment once up front and then every single 5-gallon or 18-20L batch will cost you about $20 in the US, and €13.85 in Europe, which is extremely cheap, plus, as I mentioned, homemade beer tastes a lot better!

Sources: