Home Brew Supplies

[JoeW]

You don't have to swap out tanks at Airgas if you let them know you want yours back.

On the flipside it was nice a couple months ago setting my way-out-of-date tank on the dock, walking inside to pay and coming out to a different current date tank without having to pay for a hydro

[metaltim]

Originally Posted by mobyhack

I bought my 10 lb. CO2 tank from the beverage factory and saved myself about $40-50 on that one item alone, and I believe I got free shipping with it, too.

Kegcowboy.com has about the cheapest I've seen. Their 10 lb. tank is $75, 5 lb. only $54. You didn't save $40 off that, that's how much it should be.
Luckily, they are in houston, so I pay no shipping. They have the lowest Johnson controller price ($53), and great perlick 525 price ($29).

I've started the process of putting together my keezer. I've got the freezer itself of craigslist, 6 kegs/co2 tank. I've got all the hosing for air/beverage, 4 sets of air/liquid posts and just two sets of shank/perlick 525s for now. (that stuff adds up!).

will start building keezer tomorrow. hopefully finish by next weekend. I'll add two more faucets in jan then the last two in feb, to spread out the cost.

[JoeW]

Originally Posted by metaltim

Kegcowboy.com has about the cheapest I've seen. Their 10 lb. tank is $75, 5 lb. only $54. You didn't save $40 off that, that's how much it should be.
Luckily, they are in houston, so I pay no shipping. They have the lowest Johnson controller price ($53), and great perlick 525 price ($29).
.

on Ebay I got a Ranco controller for under $50

[metaltim]

i've heard ranco so many times, is that the exact same thing as johnson, or is that one hard wired in or something?

[JoeW]

Johnson is analog (as far as I know?) and Ranco's are digital, supposedly more accurate and definitely easier to get dialed in to right temp.

The cheap Ranco's you need to wire an extension cord in yourself but if you've ever changed a light switch or anything like that it's no problem

[Torg]

I really do not buy any more brewing equipment, unless something breaks or I really want some new nifty device. I do however need grain and hops.

I buy hops by the pound from hopsdirect.com Of course the sell it only in pounds so I use my seal-a-meal to make 1 ounce packages instead.

I buy my grain from the Yahoo Bulkgrain group. The next buy is around the 15 of January and we buy it in 55# bags. The pickup is near Austin.
BulkGrain : Austin Bulk Grain Co-Op

I generally only buy keg parts, new lines and such. For all that I go to kegconnection. They not only are fair and honest, the shipping is usually within 2 days.

According to BeerSmith my brews are costing between $8 and $14 a 5 gallon batch.

[metaltim]

Originally Posted by Torg

According to BeerSmith my brews are costing between $8 and $14 a 5 gallon batch.

you must be repitching? yeast is $8 by itself. I started repitching recently. last 6 batches have used only 2 white labs vials, so $16 has split into 6 batches.
A ~12 lb. batch plus say 3-4 oz of hops costs me about $20.

[Torg]

Originally Posted by metaltim

you must be repitching? yeast is $8 by itself. I started repitching recently. last 6 batches have used only 2 white labs vials, so $16 has split into 6 batches.
A ~12 lb. batch plus say 3-4 oz of hops costs me about $20.

Yes, I do 5 gallon end on end brewing. It sort of goes like this. 2-3 weeks ferment, 2-3 week lager, 2-3 weeks drink. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The 2-3 weeks is generally determined by the drink stage. Since I travel for a large portion of my job I may be home all week or maybe just the weekends.

I have a stock of saflager s-189 that is maybe 3 years old. I simply "renew" my batch about once every 6 months. And I am not entirely sure that is necessary. The use of that saflager is where the 8-13 difference comes from. I think I paid $5 or $6 a package for it. The grain is from a bulk buy I have participated in for the last 2 years. I get grain for less then .50 a pound. I used to buy extra crystal, but now I make my own. I also buy my hops for about $10 a pound, depends on hops.

so..

(some off the top of my head recipe)
12 lbs of grain at .50/lb $6
2 ounces of hops at $10/lb $1.20 (depends on recipe and hops)
Yest from the last batch Free
Cost $7.20

If I had to use another package of yeast $8
Cost $15.20

At the price of packaged yeast today I can not see why more people are not either culturing their own yeast or at the very least washing it down and keeping it in a jar for the next brew.

[chuckweiser]

Originally Posted by Torg

I really do not buy any more brewing equipment, unless something breaks or I really want some new nifty device. I do however need grain and hops.

I buy hops by the pound from hopsdirect.com Of course the sell it only in pounds so I use my seal-a-meal to make 1 ounce packages instead.

I buy my grain from the Yahoo Bulkgrain group. The next buy is around the 15 of January and we buy it in 55# bags. The pickup is near Austin.
BulkGrain : Austin Bulk Grain Co-Op

I generally only buy keg parts, new lines and such. For all that I go to kegconnection. They not only are fair and honest, the shipping is usually within 2 days.

According to BeerSmith my brews are costing between $8 and $14 a 5 gallon batch.

Where do you get your yeast?

[mbach]

Wow. Farmhouse looks like a great deal.