Saving Money: How low can you go?

I was wandering through the liquor store the other day and noticed just how inexpensive 30-Packs (a.k.a. Suitcases) of really cheap beers are. Especially if they're on sale. I've seen some suitcases for as low as $13 before tax. That's roughly 43 cents per beer. Call me insane, but I became curious. Could I go to my local homebrew store and buy the ingredients to brew my own beer of similar strength for the same price, or less? Saving cash is part of this blog's ongoing theme, so I had to find out.

To meet my challenge, I decided to think light (not Lite). No big Belgians or Barleywines here. A refreshing, mildly hopped and easy to brew Blonde Ale should do the trick.

The prices below are what my local homebrew store charges, rather than the absolute lowest prices I can find. Usually to get discounts, you have to buy in bulk. Since there are no grains that I use an entire sack of in a year, or hops that I need a pound or more of, I didn't pursue that route. You may do better or worse, depending upon your store.

Here's my pretax recipe cost for five-gallons (roughly two cases) of Blonde Ale. All numbers are rounded to the nearest cent:

Base Malt: 8 lbs x $1.49 = $11.92
Specialty Malt: 0.5 lb x $1.99 = $1.00
Hops: 1.5 oz x $2.25 = $3.38
Dry Yeast: 1 packet x $2.39 = $2.39
Total = $18.69

Cost per beer:
$18.69 / 48 = $0.39

As you can see, I beat that on-sale Suitcase simply buying straight off the store shelf. If I culture the yeast to make a few more batches, my cost goes even lower. What's more, my beer will hopefully taste better and fresher than a suitcase of cheap beer that's been sitting out for who knows how long. Besides, wouldn't you rather be drinking a homebrew?

Here's the finished recipe for my Blonde Ale:

Grains:
8 lbs Rahr Two-Row
8 oz Crisp Crystal 15

Hops:
0.5 oz Galena (13.4% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Willamette (4.7% a.a.): 10 min

Total Boil Time:
60 min

Yeast:
Safale US-05

Mash Schedule:
Saccharification Rest: 152F for 90 min
Mashout: 168F for 15 min

Original Gravity:
1.050
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.011

IBU: 32
SRM Color: 4

Fermentation Schedule:
2 Weeks Primary
2 Weeks Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

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