i feel like less people are getting into homebrewing than a few years ago?
perhaps its the ubiquity of decent craft beer everywhere, people feel like they can get what it is they want and might not even consider the option of homebrewing. but really: craft beer is more expensive than ever before when it shouldnt necessarily be, while homebrewing prices have been stable but i have much, MUCH more access to homebrewing supplies and equipment than ever before.
the people i run into who did homebrewing generally say “oh yeah, i tried it with some buddies once a few years ago.” and they clearly did not continue on with it. i haven’t run into anyone in the past 2 years here who is an active homebrewer. perhaps you guys have different experiences elsewhere. but this feels like less than even 10 years ago, when it was starting to build up.
craft beer is not worth the price to me most of the time. i try to get new stuff to test out, and the prices seem bloated for what it is nowadays. ive heard the responses before here, blah blah, inflation / “what was the price of a coke 20 years ago”. the prices i see on beer have gone up about 150-200%, i seriously doubt there are many supermarket products that have gone up 150-200% in price without a clear explanation (ie. stocks of X fish type have depleted so that fish is more expensive, etc), and im not seeing the quality increase.
i know i keep ranting tonight about odd topics, but im thinking about beer as i write about beer for college.
Making your own beer is not for the squeamish. No, it’s not hard necessarily but a lot of people would ask why they would go through the process of getting equipment, educating yourself, etc. when you can get beer almost anywhere. People who want to make their own beer have a good reason do to it, IMO. For me that means making beer that I might not be able to get readily or maybe it’s because I can make 5 gallons of beer for $12. It could also be that I like the process and not everyone can say that. The craft beer world is expensive because starting a commercial brewery is expensive and the people who cut through all that red tape and who have invested A LOT of money in equipment need to get that money back now. Personally I don’t see the connection between craft breweries and homebrewing unless the homebrewer uses the craft brewery’s beers for inspiration.
A while back, my son and his family were over for burgers and dogs on the grill. At one point my son and I were standing in front of the taps pouring ourselves a beer and my granddaughter asked me if I make all the beer I drink. I said I did. She asked “why? …you can just buy it.” My answer to her is why I brew:
I enjoy taking raw ingredients, combining them, and making something special from them. Same with other forms of cooking such as BBQ, bread, pizza, charcuterie, etc.
The process is a fun part of it but the end product that I can share with family and friends, especially when someone says “did you make this?”, gives me a sense of pride and satisfaction.
Same thing with gardening or even getting the lawnmower to run, repairing a trailer to take the grandkids for a ride, fixing the tractor, or tiling my own backsplash really. I can buy a side table for my grill and smoker but I’d rather build it myself.
I have the exact same reasons for brewing as Brewbama. I don’t consider brewing a distinct hobby, it’s just part of what I would describe as a quasi homestead lifestyle. I have always been into nature and history so making or doing things for myself like people have done for millennia is very appealing and satisfying. So gardening, beekeeping, foraging, cooking, building, brewing, etcetera are all one thing to me.
I think people who don’t tend to do things like this themselves and try home brewing as a hobby because either they think they can make beer cheaply or better get frustrated fast and give up. People who tend to do things themselves go in with eyes wide open and expect a learning curve and a long time to recoup the original investment.
Well said Pete! I started brewing because I wanted to learn how beer was made and I learn better hands-on.
I have also been what people have started calling a “maker” for my whole life (56 1/2 years so far). If I can fix it, I fix it. If I can build/grow it, I build/grow it. I like the processes it takes to make and fix things. I also know my limits and hire what I can’t do.
I agree that the prices on craft beers seem somewhat extreme and don’t tend to purchase much. I can convince myself that my beer costs me less than beer in the store (probably not 100% true, but it works for me ). No one I know who currently owns a brewery is getting rich. A company can’t survive selling below cost no matter how many MBAs suggest “you sell at a loss and make it up on volume”.
Yeah, this is as simple as it gets. We all know a lot of brewers because we hang out here but we also know way more non-brewers, I assume. For some, making your own beer is insane.
Really? I honestly don’t care or keep up with this but I feel like a few years ago I heard that homebrewing was at an all-time high. There are definitely a lot of homebrewers and there are definitely a lot of new craft breweries opening up. In 1988 Chicago had one brewery. ONE! Goose Island. Now there are 167.
The owner of my LHBS tried to sell it about 2 years ago, saying that people these days just aren’t taking up the hobby like they used to. This is also my general sense because when I go to the store, I am usually the only one in it. I think there is some truth to your thesis, although the pandemic may have steered some people to try the hobby.
I doubt, however, that the price of craft beer has anything to do with people trying homebrewing. I’ve never met a homebrewer who took up the hobby to save money.
Personally, I see a very tight connection between craft breweries and homebrewing, in the sense that while not all craft-beer enthusiasts are homebrewers, I think it’s safe to say that all homebrewers are craft-beer enthusiasts, and frequent breweries in their area.
What I’m curious about is whether there is a correlation between the number of homebrewers in a region and the number of breweries in that region. Are there more homebrewers in areas where there are a lot of breweries, or fewer? (Or maybe there is no correlation, which would also be interesting…)
What Brewbama might have added in his answer to his Granddaughter is that he probably makes a number of beers that can’t be purchased for any price. I know that is the case for me, hardly anything I brew has a comparable option available to be purchased locally.
I also am a die-hard Maker/ DIYer, and frequently more frugal than I might ought to be. FWIW, I recently added up everything I spent over the previous 12 months in order to brew [including a new, larger BK], and divided by the number of bottles or beer that produced and discovered that it cost me just < $0.59 @ bottle, not including the cost of natural gas and tap water . Most of my beers have an O.G. of 60ish or higher, so it’s not like I’m making a lot of cheapy NAILs. My guess is that if I were to go back and add up everything I’ve spent on equipment, ingredients and books since I resumed brewing ~ 5 years ago the per bottle cost would be pretty close to last year’s cost. The last batch I bottled put me over 9,500 bottles to date, which at $0.60 @ bottle would be $5,700 spent - I’m pretty sure I’ve spent less than that. Of course if I assumed that my labor had even nominal value the cost per bottle would go through the roof.
I feel bad the way I give my LHBS much less business than I used to. But they simply did not even attempt to compete with the online distributors in terms of quality and selection. The only thing they had going for them was that I could phone in an order and pick it up that day. They stagnated big time.
I know some people in poorer parts of Canada whos parents homebrewed presumably to just make crappy pale lager equivalents for less money. My grandma apparently made beer and wine and I know she did it to be frugal. This would have been 1940s to 1960s i believe.
There definitely must be a correlation between craft beer or style availability and homebrewing. I will always remember my first real “wow this beer is something more than i expected from a beer” experience was unibroue maudite. started researching other “great” beers online, and noting i didn’t have access to a lot of styles at all, i considered how they might be made and yeah. If I had extreme access to more beers I might have been slower to get into homebrewing. We have never really had great access to the great american microbrews you guys have known for 20 years now and still barely do.
That’s a really cheap price you have there, those are 330ml(12oz?) bottles i assume? i go with 500mls and my price is usually about $1.05-$1.50 per 500ml bottle for cheapest to most expensive beers i make. i’m actually focusing less on unit cost as i get older, but i always record it, as i love bragging “yup this imperial stout was only $1.25” would be 5 bucks at the store, etc.
re: “cheap” nails. i tried doing some math on how cheap i could potentially go while making a beer that was still possibly drinkable and purposeful (has alcohol), and it just wasnt that much savings to make a decidely bad beer vs making an actually decent one.
to save money and still make good beer:
-low ibu or very high AA hops
-dry yeast
-low OG but good speciality grains to cover up 2row
It definitely feels like there is a resurgence right now, to me.
As far as brewing as a hobby goes, I just really enjoy it. I enjoy the beer I make often times better than beers I buy. For instance, I love Delirium Tremens. It’s $22 for a 22oz four pack. I can make about 5 gallons of a comparable beer that I will enjoy just as much for about the price I would pay for a 4 pack (buying my grain in bulk). Obviously this doesn’t take in to consideration my own personal time investment, but I enjoy brewing so I take that out of the equation.
I think a lot of people took up homebrewing during COVID because they couldn’t go out to a brewery or a bar for craft beer. Those of us that were already in the hobby upped our game for the same reason. I made more beer last year than I ever did for that reason. I am sure that has had impact on the LHBS.
). No one I know who currently owns a brewery is getting rich. A company can’t survive selling below cost no matter how many MBAs suggest “you sell at a loss and make it up on volume”.