DanTien said:
Dory -
what do you think your method costs per 12oz/22oz bottle?
It costs ~$33 for three packages of mix, the few extras needed in the process, and shipping. (The shipping is 25% of that -- I haven't found a local supply, but haven't looked all that hard either.)
So an average of $11 per batch, maybe $1 cheaper for some mixes, $1 more for others.
The marketing stuff says you get 28 x 12oz glasses per batch, which would be 39 cents a glass. I have found so far that the last 2-3 glasses are really foamy, just like the end of a keg, so I suspect 24 glasses is a safer number, making the cost per glass about 46 cents.
You can't quite compare home brewed beer with store-bought -- probably about like trying to compare grocery store milk with farm milk, so price comparisons are also difficult. But the home brewed stuff (at least this stuff) compares with the premium stuff that sells locally for ~$1.30 per 12oz bottle in the grocery store, rather than the $0.65/bottle "college student" beer at the other end of the spectrum.
The one-time equipment costs are ~$100. So I figure I have to drink about 120 glasses to pay for the equipment, and then I am ahead financially.
dory36
(ps - fwiw, I'd probably do this if there were no savings, as the home brewed flavor really does grow on you.)