I guess its a sign of the times that a homebrew blog would ask such a question. At least for me it is. What about you?
Beer and homebrewing, some might say are two areas that we will continue to spend our money. You know "drown our sorrows" or perhaps keep the joy of homebrewing going during tough times. My wife and I have been talking about what we can do to save money. Everything has been put on the table; eating out, less travel, buying less expensive groceries, shopping around for a better car insurance rate and on and on.
Up until now, I've never really seriously questioned my spending on beer and homebrewing. Well last night I found myself doing just that. I'll share the details or our conversation after others have had a chance to comment.
So, BB2 readers. How does a financial crisis change your beer/brewing habits?
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10 comments:
It really doesn't affect my brewing. However, I'm putting off purchasing cool gadgets and equipment for a little while ( Kegerator, chest freezer, temp controller, etc. )
I'd start with backyard homegrown hops ;-)
It is something to consider. With the price of hops these days you can save a few bucks. The first year is tough to wait through, but, after that you see rewards.
Speaking of hops. We ought to harvest ours :-) Now that you're back from GABF maybe we can git 'er done.
That was my not-so-sneaky way of suggesting just that :) After mowing tonight, I noticed that many of them are drying up. Still a bunch of hop juice-filled smelling ones on there too!
On a more serious note to your question, I'd recommend not going on the cheap with regard to homebrewing, but rather slow the consumption and continue the brewing so that good quality homebrew is always available.
In addition to homegrown hops, keeping a yeast bank going at home can cut the homebrewing bills a bit as well.
No effect yet on my homebrewing as I only brew a few batches a year. If anything, when I go out for dinner I'll skip having a beer if there's nothing interesting on tap, and have a couple from the fridge when I go home.
I brew about once a month in summer and twice in the winter. I would suggest approaching breweries to get spent yeast, purchase in bulk and run grow what you can. My homebrew store allows us to purchase 50#'s at a time, they store the grains and we use a punch card. Also, get a job in a brewery :)...
I'm a little more hesitant to upgrade my brewery (specifically I keep putting of buying a grain mill) but overall I'll make my cuts elsewhere if necessary. Don't mess with my beer!
So far nothing. I just got a bunch on a new kettle, new mash tun and a propane burner, but that was from b-day presents and money i had been saving for a while for that purpose.
I did however just apply for a part time job at my local BYO shop, www.barleycorn.com. it's about a block from my house and thought it would help me with two things, 1) give me some extra change to brew with, 2) allow me to brew a hell of a lot more and help people who want to leanr to brew! BTW, 11/1/08 is teach a friend to homebrew day. http://www.beertown.org/events/teach/index.html
Good to see everyone chiming in. Jason, interesting. Getting a homebrew related part time. Cool.
I'd actually rather brew than purchase beer. So far, lack of time has affected my brewing recently instead of the monetary issue. When I know that I can make @ 2 cases of good beer for roughly $35, instead of spending close to that on a case of something tasty, I got the homebrew route, because of my love of the hobby. Lately, though, I've "had" to buy. When my wife looks at my cellar, though, she thinks differently.
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