Reduce costs of beer by getting twenty (or so) drinking buddies together and forming a small microbrewery. all you'd need is a largish shed to fit in a brewing vat and some storage space for the finished product.

It might not be cheap, but in the long run, it'd be far cheaper than commercial brewery beer
-- gargarax, Jan 09 2002

(?) Brewed http://www.pub.umic...-98/arts/arts2.html
Every detail right down to the twenty (or so) drinking buddies. [thumbwax, Jan 09 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Maybe his labour is very cheap?
-- Aristotle, Jan 09 2002


There's nothing wrong with his accounting. It may or may not be appropriate to assign his labour some kind of opportunity cost; and one-twentieth of the labour may be negligible anyway. The amount they would actually save depends on many things -- local tax rates on alcohol, particularly.

(And there are many profitable microbreweries. There's more to business sometimes than chasing economies of scale.)

It may be, of course, that it'd still be cheaper (and safer) to go to one of the brew-your-own places where they (puzzlingly) brew it for you -- or to start one.
-- Monkfish, Jan 09 2002


Follow the link... The article states that between two and eight hours work are necessary per brew, although it doesn't say how much they're producing.

I apologise for using metric measurements, but follow the math(s)

The cost of labour is factored in, to a degree, due to the fact that twenty or so kilograms of barley is cheaper than ten kilograms of malt and is about equivalent - by putting in the extra work you'd save a considerable amount of money.

The basic idea is to follow the whole homebrewing path, but to increase the scale a little. Instead of twenty five litres of beer, brew two hundred and fifty.

Based on my experience, It costs me about twenty dollars Australian for twenty odd litres (say 25). Following this formula, it should cost about $200 for two hundred and fifty litres, not including discounts for bulk.

If you use recycled bottles, or keg your product, and roster the donkey work amongst the collective, the only place you'd be out of pocket would be at start-up
-- gargarax, Jan 11 2002


Anyway it sounds like a socialable thing to do so making the beer could be considered leisure.
-- Aristotle, Jan 12 2002


Or a hobby, where people do it for fun and enjoy the end product as well.
-- StarChaser, Jan 12 2002


hmmmmmmm.......sounds vaguely familiar.........maybe this could be a sitcom......oh wait.........buzz beer..........ah.....the drew carey show ?
-- grnidlady, Jan 13 2002


Good reason to just collect tails of beer and blend your own full portions … assuming you can afford the labor of a master brewer.
-- reensure, Jan 13 2002


Whether peter Sealy is right or wrong, I have made my own beer. It's good, its cheap, if you have a 50L barrel to store the beer in and large (pub size) CO2 cylinder to dispense it. Best bitter is about 15p a pint. Time/labout? Turn the radio on, drink some of your beer and the labour aspect is non-existent. The real drag is bottling beer, avoid, stick to draught.

Try making ginger beer add lemon juice for a wine-like flavour) to simplify production of a refreshing fizzy drink that can be as strong as malt beer.

BUT home brew is no substitute for going to a pub and meeting folk, listening to humour, or music. so don't give up the local pub, remember they have overheads that add to the cost of the beer - ask your publican.
-- uked, Jan 25 2002


The labor involved would ensure you don't pull out a brewski for just any occasion; the pride involved would ensure it became popular, and people would get into contests of quality over quantity. (County fair brew-offs instead of bake-offs?) Thus, you would reduce alcoholism. Crossaint.
-- Almafeta, May 30 2003


I just stumbled over this while looking for any references to brewing your own sake. Yes, this is brewed, did this in my own backyard and garage back in the late eighties, back when I thought having a score of people over every week was a good thing.

I'm starting my first batch of sake today.....may the brew gods smile on my endeavors.
-- normzone, Dec 25 2004


Wow, and here I am again 8 years later. Currently going from kettle to keg in three weeks, and spending a third of what the gourmet IPAs I love cost.
-- normzone, Aug 21 2012


The joys of brewing. I was just thinking of the 'krauzen' if thats what it's called, the delicious foam that rises during early rapid fermentation. When making darker beers a very stable mass of sweet savoury krauzen rises out of the vessel and this can be spread on sweet wafers or even melba toast like a sort of nondairy whipped topping. It really can be a very tasty dessert like a mousse. I haven't tried freezing any of it maybe I should. A small microbrewery might be able to porduce this substance as a nutritious dessert.
-- rcarty, Aug 21 2012



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