One of the things that inspired this series was a sort of challenge I had in mind: Would it be possible to walk into the Brew Shop with only a $20 bill and walk out with all the necessary ingredients to brew a five-gallon batch of beer?

Why $20? Well, at one point when there was a bit of belt-tightening going on, it seemed like a reasonable price point to support my beer habit: the equivalent of a case of beer for $10, cheaper even than the alternative—canned macro lagers which run around $13-15 per case. Could I really produce beer cheaper than on-sale PBR? The more I thought about it, the more I decided I had to explore it.

Of course, you can brew some pretty awful stuff for pretty cheap, so of course one of the requirements is that it has to be good beer—flavorful and enjoyable. So, for less than the retail cost of any beer on the shelves, can it be done?

There are some guidelines and assumptions to keep in mind:

• As I mentioned, the beer needs to be a quality brew: flavor, character, more enjoyable to drink than cold canned lagers. Otherwise, what’s the point?
• $20 won’t buy much, so heavier, higher-alcohol beers are out of the question.
• There’s nothing wrong with raiding the pantry for adjuncts and additions: anything you have already in the house can be considered “found” ingredients that don’t count against the $20, particularly if it’s something that doesn’t have a “high turnover rate”—in other words, it’s not being used (much) and won’t need to be replaced any time soon.
• You should already have all the equipment you need to brew your beer—this isn’t a challenge to see how cheaply you can put together a basic brewing system.
• Prices I quote are the current ones at my local Brew Shop. Your mileage may vary.

Since I’m (currently) an extract brewer, I approached this challenge in an extract frame of mind. But not to worry: I’ll also tackle the all-grain perspective as well.

Extract

Obviously the biggest expense in the beer is going to be the fermentables: malt extract, either in liquid or dried form (DME). We can immediately discount liquid: the seven pound container costs $18, and that would leave me with only enough money left over to buy a packet of dried yeast.

Fortunately the Brew Shop sells DME in three-pound and one-pound packages at cheaper prices: $11 and $4.25, respectively. That makes it easier to work with, but it’s still apparent that we’re probably looking at about four pounds of DME as a maximum: $15.25, which leaves some wiggle room for hops and yeast. And possibly a few ounces of specialty grains.

Knowing this informs us better of our end target: three to four pounds of DME by itself will give you a starting gravity in the range of 1.027 to 1.036 for five gallons of beer, which can get you in the range of 2-3.6% alcohol by volume in the finished product. That certainly makes for a light session beer, but if you want something stronger, the cheapest way to add strength is by adding sugar.

Gasp! Adding sugar as an adjunct! Isn’t such a thing strictly verboten?!? Hardly! Belgian brewers use sugar as an adjunct all the time, and forget the old myth about sugar adding a cidery character to your beer—it just isn’t true. Stan Hieronymus has done a good job debunking the sugar myth, both in his book Brew Like a Monk and on his blog. Adding sugar (corn or even table/cane sugar) to the fermentables bill will add strength, lighten up the body, and won’t cost much at all.

I wouldn’t recommend more than 20-25% of the fermentables as sugar, though, which means at most a pound in addition to the three or four pounds of DME. Keeping those numbers in mind, here’s a table with some approximate gravities and alcohol expectations for a five-gallon batch of beer:

* These costs are based on our previous charts—in particular, corn sugar costs $1.25 per pound. But guess what? You likely already have table (cane) sugar in your pantry—so I’m ranging the table sugar costs from free (you already have it) to approximate cost per pound (based on an average cost of $0.67 per pound in the grocery store (bargain brand, of course)).

With this data, there are a number of beer styles we can experiment with:

• Ordinary Bitter
• Mild Ale
• Scottish Light 60/- to Heavy 70/-
• Berliner Weiss
• American Light Lager
• Blonde/Cream Ale
• English Brown Ale

(In the case of Berliner Weiss, you’d want to use wheat malt extract. The Brew Shop has wheat DME for $4.75 per pound. Of course, there’s a whole lactic sourness issue with this style that may not be viable for $20.)

Note, of course, that in addition to light extract, you can (usually) also purchase amber and dark extracts at the same price—so you’re not going to be limited to lighter-colored and flavored beers (just limited on strength).

What about specialty grains? Let’s get to those in a minute; first, there are two other ingredients that have fixed price points that can’t be avoided: hops and yeast.

Most hops come in two-ounce packages, so that’s what you’ll have to work with, and our budget (probably) will allow you one package of hops that range in price from $3.25 to $3.75. Fortunately this should apply to hops across the board, so if you want a bitter beer you can purchase high alpha acid hops at the same rate as lower alpha acid (aroma) hops.

Similarly, you can get a packet of dried yeast for $1.25, so that’s the budget price we’ll work with. These days dried yeasts are of a decent quality so you shouldn’t have to worry about the “good old days” of dubious yeast that might be little better than what you’d put in bread.

Knowing these two fixed prices, here’s an updated pricing chart based on the above one, with an additional figure: remaining money to play with.

* Since adding 50 more cents to a hops price would push the total over $20, we have to only look at the cheaper hops (whatever they may be).
** Since even the cheaper hops push the price to $21, this option would be knocked out of our challenge.

It’s clear from this chart that if we want to incorporate any specialty grains in the beer, it needs to be with the 3-pound DME recipe. Assuming an average price of $2 per pounds for the grains (depending on the grain, it ranges from $1.90 to 2.25 per pound), we could use anywhere from about 2.5 to 4 pounds of specialty grains within the $20 budget—not bad at all!

All-grain

As we discovered from the last article, all-grain brewing saves you about 28% over the cost of extract brewing. That puts the dollar figures in the above chart in the range of $11.16 to $15.12—plenty of wiggle room inside the budget. In fact, you’d be able to scale your recipe up to 12 to 20 pounds of grains within the $20 budget, which opens up most beer styles to brewing availability.

Need I say more? If you’re set up for all-grain, and are looking for a budget challenge, start with $15 rather than $20. Or change the parameters: can you walk in with your $20 and walk out with all the ingredients you need to brew a tasty, quality beer, and one or two bottles of craft beer from the bottle shop to enjoy while brewing it?

Pantry Raiding

I did mention the use of “found” ingredients already on-hand to liven up your beer, and not count against the budget. Off the top of my head, these could include:

• Molasses
• Honey
• Rolled oats
• Raisins (and other dried fruits)
• Brown sugar (though generic brown sugar is just cane sugar colored with molasses)
• Coffee
• Maple syrup (though commercial/generic syrup is mostly corn syrup)
• Cocoa/chocolate
• Spices

And of course, you could supplement the pantry by taking any leftover money and browsing the grocery store for interesting additions. (In fact, pantry raiding and grocery browsing might make an interesting “Brewing on the cheap” article on their own.)

Conclusion

Obviously, keeping the budget considerations I laid out in mind, you can absolutely walk into your Brew Shop with a $20 bill and walk out with everything you need to brew a potentially great batch of beer—given that your Shop has similar prices to what I’ve presented here.

I had a sense of this before, though last year hop prices were in the $5-6 range and presented more of a problem. But solidifying the numbers and breaking down by the fermentables possibilities is definitely eye-opening. It can be done.

Can you do it?

One of the comments from the last “Brewing on the cheap” post mentioned all-grain brewing as “far cheaper” since you’re buying grain in bulk, and in fact an examination of all-grain brewing as compared to extract brewing is something I had been planning in this series. How economical is brewing all-grain? Let’s take a look at some assumptions and work up some costs by style, and contrast with the extract costs. Also, there are some other economics considerations I’ll touch on at the end that you should consider when making the decision as to what type of economical brewer you are going to be.

The main difference in the two styles of brewing is that rather than using pre-processed malt extract (in the form of syrup or dried powder), you are mashing the grains yourself to convert and extract the sweet wort which you will boil for the beer. This process will give you more control over the brewing process but will significantly increase the amount of time you spend on brew day—for myself, brewing an extract-based batch of five gallons from start to clean-up takes about three to three-and-a-half hours; brewing all-grain with friends, I know the process can take five to six or more hours.

However, by using whole grains (cracked, of course), you are “cutting out the middleman” involved with the production of extract: it goes through the exact same mashing process to extract the wort, but it is further processed (via near-vacuum evaporation) to extract the majority of the water and concentrate the wort extract down to its syrup form (about 20% water) or dried powder form (1% or less water). Naturally, you are paying for these processing costs when you purchase malt extract.

What is the cost difference? Well, an assumption: let’s say an “average” beer uses ten pounds of grains for an all-grain batch (I’m picking up this figure from Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing), versus a seven-pound can of liquid malt extract.

The liquid malt extract, as we’ve previously established, will cost $18. The whole grain, if you buy it by the pound at the brew store, will cost $12.50. Why? Because the two-row malt at the brew store (my local one, anyway) costs $1.25 per pound (as opposed to the $1.90+ per pound for specialty grains). 1.25 x 10 = 12.50. Right there is a savings of $5.50.

But, if you’re a serious all-grain brewer, then you more than likely will buy your grains in bulk—by the 55-pound bag (and store it yourself). On average this will cost you in the range of $42 (at the local Brew Shop) to $60 per bag (from this online source), which equates to a per-pound cost of $0.76 to $1.09. Ten pounds at this rate will only cost the equivalent of $7.60 to $10.90—a $7.10 to $10.40 savings over extract for this “average” beer.

With these figures in mind, let’s update the pricing chart (again), and build a (new) table of per-beer-style costs, with comparison to the extract numbers, and notes of approximate amounts of grains used.

The costs-per-style in this next table are based upon the previous style cost estimates, for a five-gallon batch of homebrew.

(Of course, my estimates on pounds of grains used are approximates only and may well be off, depending on a number of things including your particular recipes, your extract efficiency, mashing regimen, etc.)

There is clearly a huge savings in all-grain brewing over extract brewing, even given the range of bulk grain prices. In fact, looking at the first article’s example of the retail cost for the equivalent volume of Pale Ale ($46), you’re looking at slashing the cost of the beer in half, whereas extract brewing yields a 28% savings over retail. Interestingly, the average savings in all-grain over extract works out to be about 28% also.

Based on these numbers, should you abandon extract brewing and switch over to all-grain immediately?

Well, not necessarily. As with everything else, there are (economic) tradeoffs. Let’s take a look at some of those:

• Time. Do you value your time? Do you put a dollar value to your time? Remember, all-grain brewing doubles (or more) your time spent on brew day. Is saving, say, $10 worth the extra 3+ hours you’ll spend brewing? (Saving, or earning, depending on your point of view, $3.33 per hour.)
• Initial equipment costs. If you don’t have the necessary equipment to move into all-grain brewing, then you likely need to purchase it. This won’t necessarily be cheap, so while you can amortize these equipment costs over the number of batches you brew on it, it’s still an expenditure which can push your all-grain brewing efforts into more expensive territory than extract at first.
• Storage costs. Are you planning on buying your grain in bulk? If so, do you have a place to store it? (It needs to be dark, cool, and relatively dry.) You may need to buy something like a Rubbermaid garbage can to store the grain in and spare some closet space—and while to most people this may not seem like a significant expense (or any at all), I’ve known people (mostly real estate types) who actually would consider the cost of the square footage being used (as a percentage of your rent or mortgage costs).

In the end, both extract brewing and all-grain brewing have their economical high points, and I’m not going to advocate for either method here—it’s entirely up to you to make up your own mind which way you want to go. But hopefully some of these numbers will prove useful in that decision-making process.

When I started this series, hops at the local Brew Shop were selling for $5 to $6.50 per two-ounces of whole flowers, and that was what the various estimates were based on. Since then, the price of whole hops has dropped to $3.25 to $3.95 per two-ounce package, so here I present some updated figures.

(Note: the online prices of hops are still averaging around $5-6 per two ounces, so it’s possible that hop prices in your area—if you have a local homebrew shop—are still similarly priced as well. But there is currently a hop surplus (a reaction to the hop shortage several years back), so I would expect to start seeing those prices go down sooner rather than later.)

Without further ado, here’s our updated pricing chart:

And, here’s an updated table of costs by style:

Not a huge difference from the original estimates, but every little bit adds up.

In the last (introductory) article, I set out baseline prices for ingredients and established a base price for an American Pale Ale. In this article let’s expand on that and figure out some base prices for a variety of other styles.

Bear in mind there are always ways to shave costs off the estimates I’m giving here. Switching from liquid to dry yeast, for example, can save you $5 or so. Different varieties of hops vary in price, and you may save money buying hop pellets rather than whole flowers. If you only use one ounce of hops from a two-ounce package, you can use the other ounce in another recipe and split the cost of the hops between two batches. And so on.

Also keep in mind these are all estimates, both in price and approximate recipe for the style. Your mileage may vary.

(In fact, I’ll even debunk some of my own numbers at the end.)

American Pale Ale: $32.90. (Based on last article.)

• 5 lbs. light dried malt extract (DME): $19.50
• 0.5 lbs. 40°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 0.5 ounces chocolate malt: $0.07
• 2 ounces Willamette hops: $5.50
• 1 ounce Goldings hops: $5.50
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar (for priming at bottling time): $1.25

Total: $39.27

Here we see a bit of an anomaly: pound-for-pound dried malt extract is more expensive that syrup. But DME comes in smaller packages and is easier to measure out say, a pound and a half than syrup (not to mention is lighter in color), so it’s a trade-off.

• 7 lbs. light malt extract syrup: $18
• 2 lbs. light DME: $8.50
• 0.5 lbs. 10°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 0.5 lbs. 20°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 2 ounces Chinook hops: $6
• 2 ounces Cascade hops: $5
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $47.15

Based on my “San Diego Pale Ale” recipe that I brewed, the approximate total cost would be $59.92. (In reality I believe it cost me in the neighborhood of $46-48.)

• 7 lbs. light malt extract: $18
• 0.5 lbs. 20°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 0.5 lbs. chocolate malt: $1.12
• 2 ounces Willamette hops: $5.50
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $33.32

• 7 lbs. light malt extract: $18
• 1 lb. 40°L Crystal malt: $1.90
• 0.5 lbs. chocolate malt: $1.12
• 0.5 lbs. roasted barley: $1.12
• 2 ounces Galena hops: $6
• 2 ounces Willamette hops: $5.50
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $41.39

• 7 lbs. amber or dark malt extract: $18
• 1 lb. 80°L Crystal malt: $1.90
• 0.5 lbs. roasted barley: $1.12
• 0.5 lbs. Black Patent malt: $1.12
• 0.25 lbs. chocolate malt: $0.56
• 2 ounces Galena hops: $6
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $36.45

• 14 lbs. amber or dark malt extract: $36
• 1 lb. Special B malt: $2.25
• 1 lb. 80°L Crystal malt: $1.90
• 0.5 lbs. roasted barley: $1.12
• 1 lb. Black Patent malt: $2.25
• 1 lb. chocolate malt: $2.25
• 4 ounces Galena hops: $12
• 4 ounces Chinook hops: $12
• 2 ounces Willamette hops: $11
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $88.52

Yes, this is a big recipe, probably bigger than it should be. There’s a lot of leeway in these “guidelines” I’m laying out—in particular, also remember that you will not be using all of the hops you purchase here—so you can spread out the cost (and use previously purchased hops) between batches.

• 7 lbs. liquid wheat extract: $18
• 0.5 lbs. 10°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 2 ounces Mt. Hood hops: $5.50
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $32.20

Based on my Cream Ale recipe that I brewed, the approximate total cost would be $30.40.(In actuality my batch cost me in about $23.)

• 5 lbs. dried wheat extract: $19.50
• 0.75 lbs. 10°L Crystal malt: $1.43
• 2 ounces Mt. Hood hops: $5.50
• Yeast: $6.50
• Coriander: $2 ?
• Orange peel: $2 ?
• Corn sugar: $1.25

Total: $38.18

I’m making a guesstimate on the spices (coriander and orange peel) here, because I have no idea how much you might find them for. Many brew shops will stock these in 1-ounce packages, but you may find quality spices at a health food store or some other source.

I’ll cheat a bit on this formulation, because you could basically take by Double IPA recipe, reduce the hops, and have a Barleywine. Likewise, you could scale back the dark malts and the hops a bit on the Imperial Stout recipe above. If we split the difference, let’s call it $75 total—though you could range anywhere from $58 to $88.

→ First of all, corn sugar: you will simply not need to buy a pound of corn sugar for every batch of beer simply for priming bottles. To prime a five gallon batch of beer for bottling, you will use about ¾ of a cup of corn sugar; at this rate, one pound will last you about three or four batches of beer.

Spreading out the cost per batch, you will use 31 to 42 cents of corn sugar.

→ Next, let’s look at hops. As I mentioned above, you may very well only use a fraction of a two ounce bag of hops for a batch of beer, and be able to save the remaining hops for future batches. I do this all the time; many of recipes I’ve brewed use hops that are amalgamated from what I have already purchased and left over.

So bearing this in mind, aside from the initial investment in hops (for instance, you have none in the house and need to buy three new bags for the variety), you can cut the cost of hops in these guidelines in half.

The use of hop pellets may or may not be cheaper, depending on the price at your local brew shop. I believe for me, they are about the same price—and there isn’t as wide a variety available to me as whole flower hops.

Of course, I live in Oregon, a major hop-growing region of the country, so it could very well be an availability issue. Last month in San Diego, I visited a home brew shop (also a Ballast Point Brewing tasting room), and whole hop prices there seemed much more expensive than here—and the pellets were cheaper. So it all depends on where you are.

→ Yeast: Of course, I’m quoting prices for liquid yeast, based on Wyeast Activator packs. I couldn’t tell you how much White Labs liquid yeast costs, but I would guess it’s similar. For some people, using liquid yeasts (cultured specifically for beer styles) is a must. There’s no doubt, you get quality results with these—but don’t overlook the dry yeasts either. They will brew quality beers and are much cheaper per batch.

The last two beers I brewed were with dry yeasts: a packet of Coopers for $1.75, and another (I forget which brand) for $1.25. Both produced good beers. So right there I’ve knocked the price of yeast down in these guidelines by $5.

A more advanced technique—one I freely admit I have never yet done—is re-using your yeast. I’ve known homebrewers (in person, not just what I’ve read about) who have used the same batch of yeast through three or four batches of beer. If you can spread the cost of one packet of yeast across four beer batches, then that reduces your liquid yeast cost to $1.63 per batch, and dry yeast to about 38 cents per batch.

(I’ll cover this and more in an “Advanced money saving” article later.)

→ Finally, some miscellaneous ideas: the costs of malts, sugars and grains (the main fermentables in the beer) are pretty static, but you might think about using adjuncts to “stretch” the fermentables and save some money. Some styles even call for such: think molasses, honey, and raw sugars. Maybe these items aren’t cheaper by themselves, but check your pantry: a jar of molasses bought for last Christmas’s ginger snaps? That will add character and color to your beer and might save you from buying an extra pound of dark malt extract or several dollars’ worth of specialty grains.

Keep these cost guidelines in mind when you’re formulating recipes and comparing against the costs of similarly-styled commercial beers: also keep in mind that you can shave off $10-15 of these prices depending on what you already have available.

And, considering these costs in comparison to our price point of equal amounts of microbrew ($46): many will be as much in cost or higher, but our price point is only an average. If you’re looking to buy two cases of an Imperial Stout, for instance, you’ll be paying considerably more than $46.

But if you’re not, tell me where you bought it, ’cause I want some!

It’s no secret that beer prices have been rising in recent years: unless you’re drinking macrobrewed lager or have a local, large-ish microbrewery, you’re likely paying in the neighborhood of $7 to $12 for a six-pack of beer, maybe more if the beer is harder to get or exclusive somehow. (Dogfish Head, for instance, sells four-packs for $11 to $12.)

Enter homebrewing. The prospect of brewing your own quality beer for far less than what you’ve been paying retail has huge appeal, particularly these days. But is it true? There’s been some debate lately over whether brewing your own beer is truly cheaper (in the long run).

Personally, I think homebrewing is the cheaper alternative—but I’ve never taken the time to fully explore that assertion. I want to definitively answer the question, “Is homebrewing really a more economical way of keeping you supplied with beer?”

Let’s look at some numbers to get a baseline for how much you can expect to pay for good beer:

• I find on average that a five gallon batch of homebrew yields approximately 48 12-ounce bottles, or two cases of beer.
• Here in Oregon, craft beer prices average $7-10 per six-pack. At that price, that’s approximately $56 to $80 for two cases.
• However, buying by the case at, say, Costco, you’ll average $23 per case for the same or similar beer, or about $46 for two cases.
• For truly cheap macrobrewed beer, say Pabst Blue Ribbon, I think you can buy it for about $14 per case, or $28 for two.

Looking at this breakdown, it becomes immediately clear that buying beer by the six-pack is a ridiculously expensive way to go if you’re looking to cut back and save money. To do that, you need to look at buying in bulk—in other words, by the case.

(Of course, not every craft brew is easily available by the case, nor is it available at Costco—i.e., warehouse—prices. But for simplicity’s sake I’m going with these figures; naturally, if beer costs more in your area, then you have more leeway to work with.)

Based on these numbers, my back-of-the-napkin calculations seem to indicate that the “magic” price to beat for microbrewed-quality beer (two cases worth, which is what a typical homebrew batch will approximately yield) is right around $46.

So we have our “economical price point.”

Let’s figure out some base prices for beer ingredients. First, some assumptions:

• I’m completely overlooking the start-up costs associated with homebrewing (that may be a future article), and assuming that we’re working with the cost of ingredients for a five gallon batch only.
• I’m only examining extract-based brewing (for now). When you get into bulk grain prices, the numbers change (that will be a future article).
• Prices I quote for homebrewing ingredients are generally based on what I’ve seen at my local homebrew shop, but certainly may not apply everywhere. I’ll also try to compare prices against online sources if applicable.

With those in mind, here is a basic table of prices:

As we can see, the prices are generally comparable, so I’ll use my local price references most of the time.

As a quick exercise, let’s figure out the cost of a five-gallon batch of Pale Ale, using liquid yeast and two ounces of hops. I’ll throw in some grains as well to make it interesting.

• 7 lbs. light malt extract syrup: $18
• 0.5 lbs. 10°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 0.5 lbs. 40°L Crystal malt: $0.95
• 0.1 lbs. Roasted barley: $0.25
• 2 ounces Cascade hops: $5
• Yeast: $6.50
• Corn sugar (for priming at bottling time): $1.25

Total: $32.90. Yield: approximately two cases of moderately-hopped Pale Ale, roughly 5 to 6% alcohol by volume.

Remember our economical price point for two cases of microbrew? $46. So already, brewing a fairly basic beer, we’re ahead $13.10.

(Naturally, there is time involved too—four to six weeks, say—and I’m not accounting for the cost of bottles and bottle caps. Bottles can, of course, be recycled from the beer you’re already drinking; and caps will probably cost $3-4 for 144 or so.)

Seems pretty straightforward, right? At first glance, it appears brewing your own beer is cheaper than buying it. But remember, this is for a pretty basic style of beer, without a lot of bells and whistles.

So a question to keep in mind which I’ll address in the next installment: about how much can you expect to spend on various styles of beer?

And, a bonus question for later on: how much cheaper can we go?

I only looked at programs that run on a single computer—even though in this wired-internet-"web 2.0" world it seems like a no-brainer that there should be web-based brewing sites that do all the same things, only online and shareable with other users out there. Perhaps there are, but that’s a subject for a future article.

Well, that future article is finally here, and in surveying the field of online, web-based beer brewing software, I’ve found three sites that aim to fit that niche, but my overall conclusion is that the field is wide open.

Now, my criteria might be a bit limiting: like many of the "next generation" websites out there, I want a "Web 2.0", free-and-unlimited-access web application. (It could be ad-supported, or offer pay-for-premium access somehow; but generally, I want to be able to create, save, and share as many recipes as I want without being charged. I’m greedy, I know.) Essentially, I want to be able to access and manage my brewing recipes and notes from anywhere online.

Let’s take a detailed look at those three sites, and then cover just what it is that should go into such a website.

The Beer Recipator

The Beer Recipator is an online "beer recipe calculator" that has been around since 1997. The problem is, it’s been around since 1997… and hasn’t changed since the last major update—in 1998. The site offers several handy calculators, a discussion forum, a recipe database (user submitted), and, the most important part, the "Spreadsheet" which is the actual page where you build your recipe.

This is done via a two-step process: first, you enter various "starting" values, like the beer style, unit types, and grains, sugars and hops used in the recipe. The next step is the "spreadsheet" page.

This is an all-in-one entry page, divided into logical sections (you can see an example in the screenshot). The other sites I checked out follow this convention as well, though only the Recipator follows the "Spreadsheet" paradigm literally: when you finish a recipe, you stay on the main entry page (just as if you were using Microsoft Excel), whereas the other sites take you to a preview or summary page (with an option to return to the entry form).

You enter the various recipe data through form entry that lets you fine-tune various details (extract points and color for grains and syrups, for example, and bitterness units for hops). When you hit the "Calculate" button (any of the various "Calculate" button peppering the page will do), the Spreadsheet is updated according to the values you entered; you can scroll down and tweak various numbers as needed.

Once you spend a few minutes getting acquainted with the site, it’s easy enough to use, seems fairly accurate and covers all the bases, and even allows you to post the recipe(s) on the site (giving it a bit of a social aspect, as well).

It’s freely available without limitations, which is good. However, I have my list of criticisms:

• No user accounts. I can post recipes to the site with my name, email, and website URL but that seems to be the extent of it.
• Clunky interface. This might seem petty, but face it, the form handling on this site is less than ideal and the interface doesn’t take advantage of more modern (and ubiquitous) browser technology.
• Outdated data. Particularly with the beer styles. Not such a biggie, since it doesn’t hold you hostage to any particular piece (I can custom-enter anything in the forms), but still, I’d like to have up-to-date items and numbers to reference.

Essentially, it works very well in a pinch, but is designed more for one-off recipes or one-time entries than as a recipe management system. That, and the fact that it’s over a decade old (and is very much showing its age, cosmetically and technically), is the big strike against it for me.

That having been said, if I’m just tinkering with numbers or recipe ideas, this is the best site for doing that.

BeerTools.com

BeerTools.com is a site that offers pay-for-use recipe management; you can sign up for a trial account but you will only be able to save one recipe.

Beyond the trial account, you can sign up for "Gold" accounts on a tiered pricing package system: from $1.25 per day to $4.25 for three months all the way up to $99.95 for 10 years. They also offer some combo deals—pairing Gold memberships with software or a magazine subscription.

I signed up for the trial account. They primarily offer two tools to build/manage recipes: their "Generator" and "Calculator."

The "Recipe Generator" takes you through a step-by-step wizard which first allows you to select the style you are creating (annoyingly, these are listed in BJCP style number order and not something logical, like alphabetically) and the type of recipe (all-grain, extract, partial mash), and then moves on to things like the extracts, specialty grains, hops, etc.

It’s an easy enough process—if a bit limited—but I ran into one terrific limitation: when building a test American Pale Ale recipe, I selected "Liquid Light Extract" and "Crystal Malt 10°L"—both of which are entirely appropriate for the style. However, the Generator determined that those ingredients produced a color too dark for the style, and refused to let me continue the wizard until I corrected it.

That’s pretty much a deal breaker for me. Guidelines are great, but not if they force me into an impassable dead end.

I was able to bypass the Generator manually by clicking on the "Recipe Calculator" link, which took me to the page of the same name—which is basically ad "advanced" version of the builder and which helpfully remembered the selections I had made in the Generator before getting stymied by the system.

The Calculator screen is straightforward enough, but not entirely intuitive to use; to select multiple items (grains, extracts, hops, etc.), you need to select which form field line you’re editing via a radio button and then a drop-down selection. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? You’d be right; it’s more complicated than it needs to be.

Click "Calculate" and you get the final screen, summarizing your beer and giving you the option to save the recipe. I don’t know how or if trial members can share their recipes; I searched around their Recipes page but couldn’t find mine, so I can’t judge as to how good the sharing features are. The multiple-option recipe search form is nice, though.

There is another nice feature on this site I hadn’t considered: Cost to brew. I don’t know what pricing criteria it used to calculate this—or if it allows users to customize their ingredient prices (which would be a great option)—but it’s a feature I’ll add to my desired list.

Overall, this is not something I would return to.

TastyBrew.com

The TastyBrew.com site is the closest of the three to what I’m looking for.

After you create a user account (free), you can add recipes to the system. (If you hit the site anonymously, they still have some recipe-building tools you can use, but you won’t be able to save anything.) That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though; the site also offers articles, forums, the ability to connect with other users, and user journals (blogs, basically).

The recipe system is still in beta, however; a notice at the bottom of the recipe "Preview" page states that you will not be able to edit the recipe one it’s saved. Nor is there any way to delete it, or otherwise "manage" it; it appears in the list of recipes and that’s it. This places the site on the exact same footing as the Beer Recipator (at least until they—presumably—add the various management functionality and move it out of beta).

Despite this (rather serious) drawback, there are two more pluses to point out: first, all recipes are licensed under Creative Commons copyrights and belong to the users who submitted them. Second, they offer a nice visual color representation using a pint glass of beer (more creative that a simple color swatch).

The recipe entry page is straightforward and easy to use: text entry fields and drop-down selections where appropriate, and just enough dynamic functionality (the "standard" alpha acid percentage for hops is automatically filled in, for instance) to be promising.

I would like to see the yeast entry handled as an optional drop-down selection list; right now it’s plain text entry.

Overall, it’s definitely moving in the right direction. There are still a number of kinks to iron out, but the site has potential.

What should a web-based brewing site have?

Basically, it should be a full Web 2.0, AJAX-y, highly dynamic site with all the "usual" elements: bookmarking, tagging, RSS feeds, social networking, APIs, plugins, Creative Commons copyrighting schemes, user ownership of their data/content, free to use—all the buzzwords and functionality people have come to expect.

Okay, perhaps a little less of the Facebook/MySpace kind of stuff; I guess I’m envisioning something along the lines of what Google might create, with the polish, ease-of-use and social aspects of say, a Flickr.

Tall order, I know.

Here’s some of what I’m looking for in such a site:

• All of the standard recipe-building features offered in other software (and the recipe sites reviewed above);
• User accounts with profiles;
• Full recipe management: create, edit, share, import, export, print, delete, etc.
• Two recipe "types": the base recipe, and the "session" recipe—i.e., a record of a specific brewing session (based on a recipe). So my Pale Ale recipe would be the "main" one, and I would have multiple Sessions based on it. (Not to be confused with The Session.);
• Import and export recipes using the standard BeerXML format to allow interop with other programs;
• Flexible beer styling system; offer up the "standard" BJCP styles as well as, say, the BeerAdvocate styles, and include the ability for users to define their own styles;
• Several recipe-building modes: at minimum, a "wizard" which is the easy, step-by-step mode, and an advanced mode (all on one screen, for instance);
• An ingredients database that is user-customizable, and lets users enter their own prices for ingredients;
• Auto-calculate cost of a recipe (based on user prices);
• User ratings/reviews of recipes (which in turn can lead to "top recipes" stats, etc.);
• Perhaps allow multiple users to collaborate on recipes.

As near as I can tell (or find), nobody is doing this. The sites I reviewed above are all on the right track (to various degrees), but the reality is, nobody is there yet; the niche is wide open.

Which leads to me two questions:

First, is there such a site that I’m not aware of?

Second, web development and PHP programming is what I do (in my other life)… should I undertake to build such a site? (Could be interesting to follow in future Beer Hacker articles.)

And to finish a little tongue-in-cheek, the natural name for such a Web 2.0 site should of course be "Brewr". (Don’t bother rushing out to register "brewr.com" though… it’s already taken.)

Of course, the reality is, the sky’s the limit—but to keep things simple I’ll cover a few of the broader categories.

Beer news

There are a number of very good beer publications out there which cover the gamut of beer-related news: Celebrator, BeerAdvocate Magazine, Ale Street News, and so on.

But this is a focus on the online world, and accordingly there are a number of very good online resources for beer news. Let’s examine several.

• Google News
  Google’s description of their news offering says it best: "Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader’s personalized interests."

  The real value Google brings to this continuous news compilation is, naturally enough, in search. Google’s search flexibility works just as well here, so you can query with something as simple as "beer", or use complex queries like "+beer +(brewing OR brewery) -busch -miller -coors".

  The other plus with Google News is that you don’t have to manually search the site every time you want the latest updates; you can sign up for their email alerts and/or their RSS feeds (RSS is covered below).

  Email Alerts send you an email, once a day, for each search you’d like to set up—that is, any news flagged with "beer" (for instance) will be compiled and emailed to you in a summary once a day, just as if you’d visited the site and typed it in yourself.
   

• Topix
  Another aggregated news source similar to Google News that uses a combination of automatic and real-life editors to compile news. Topix offers a couple of beer categories (here and here) that are fairly relevant and feel more "edited" than the automated Google results seem at times.

  For instance, when Google’s automated system will just as willingly pull in a story about a robbery involving beer, Topix’s results would bypass that story, and tend to be more appropriately focused.

  And, like Google—indeed, like all of the sources I’m recommending here—you don’t have to visit the site every day to get the latest news; you can get it via RSS feeds.
   

• Newsvine
  This is a "social news" site, where the community of users is able to vote and comment on the stories. Like the other news sites, news is aggregated from thousands of sources (including the Associated Press directly). But it’s the social aspect of the site that makes it interesting.

  In theory, the most relevant beer news (as determined by the voting users of the site) will filter to the top.

  You’ll need to register with the site to be able to vote on stories (registration is free), but not required just to read the news.

  The Newsvine page for beer is here, with links for RSS feeds available.

Blogs & RSS feeds

Of course, often the best way to get the latest beer information is to go to the source: the blogs. Yes, I’m considering blogs a primary source: aside from the personal blogs, many of the professional beer writers have them, a number of professional brewers and breweries have them, and more and more brewers (or their marketing agencies) are reaching out to bloggers first with samples and new products to review.

In fact, I’d venture to say we’re somewhere near a beer blogging tipping point—look at the rapid growth and spread of The Session (an entirely blogger-launched event), for instance: I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time before that "breaks out" of the beer blogging world and gains notice elsewhere in the "mainstream" world.

So it makes sense—no, it’s basically a requirement—to follow the beer blogs if you’re going to write your own. The easiest way to do this is to use a news reader application and subscribe to the various RSS feeds that are out there.

A "news reader" is a program that essentially aggregates all the content of the blogs (or other sites—they don’t have to be just blogs) into one location, automatically. It’s subscription-based, so you get to choose what to follow. And it’s enormously convenient—you don’t have to remember or bookmark every single blog you want to read every day.

An "RSS feed" is an alternative version of the site’s content, bundled up in a coded format that is easy for other programs to use or display. A term you’ll often see in referring to this is "syndication" or a "syndicated feed"—as in, "syndicating" the site content for other purposes. News readers subscribe to these to easily follow updates.

Going into the details of setting up a news reader is beyond the scope of this article, but I’ll point you to two that I like: Google Reader and Bloglines. Both are entirely web-based, so you don’t have to install special software on your computer to run—just open them up in your browser. And both are very easy to use.

Once you’ve set yourself up with a news reader, you can start adding subscriptions to it. This is basically as simple as copying and pasting the URL of the site in question into the news reader form (a good news reader will do the rest).

For sites that aren’t blogs, but do have RSS feeds (like the various news sites I discussed above), the procedure will be a little different. You’ll want to look for the symbol on the page that denotes the RSS feed; typically it’s something like:

or

So where do you start? Well, here’s a beginning list of blogs you can check out:

• A Good Beer Blog
• Appellation Beer
• Beervana
• Brookston Beer Bulletin
• Hail the Ale!
• Hedonist Beer Jive
• Hop Talk
• Lyke 2 Drink
• My Beer Pix
• Seen Through a Glass
• Stonch’s Beer Blog
• (And I hope you’re not forgetting The Brew Site!)

I hate to make it seem as though I’m showing a bias here, though; for a much more thorough list, check out my reading list page.

Beer tasting notes/reviews

Any regular reader of my site knows that a fair amount of my blog posts are beer reviews. Simply put, reviewing beer is a great and guaranteed way to have stuff to write about.

Make sure to keep notes on the beers you’ve tasted; I have a notebook at home that is filled with my tasting notes, and every time I have a beer that I have yet to review, I write down my impressions as I drink.

Your method might vary, of course, but I follow a basic, somewhat standard format:

• Appearance: How does it look when it’s poured into the glass? What color is it? Is it clear or murky? What does the head look like?
• Smell: Inhale nice and deep several times. What does it smell like? Any particular aromas standing out? Something unusual? Smells you wouldn’t normally associate with beer?
• Taste: My first few sips I tend to swish around the mouth and savor the flavor, not unlike tasting wine. What are the big flavors? What are the subtle ones? Does any particular flavor stand out?
• Mouthfeel: How does it feel in your mouth? Thin? Thick? Syrupy, or soapy? Dry, or fizzy?

I tend to just regurgitate my notes word-for-word to my review, with some additional commentary if I feel it’s warranted. I like to link to the beer reviews on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer, too, to give a balanced, "general" view on what people think of the beer.

Most importantly, be honest in your review—don’t be afraid to be negative if you don’t like the beer.

Brewery reviews

Much in the same vein as beer reviews, you can write about the breweries you visit. Myself, when I visit a brewery these days, I try to have my notebook along with me to take notes (especially if it’s a brewery I’ve never before visited), as well as a camera to take pictures.

Since I’m not really covering any new ground here, here’s a few tips:

• If the brewery offers a sampler tray of their beers, try that; an essential part of the review is, of course, the quality of beer the brewery offers.
• Pictures, pictures, pictures! (If you can manage that.)
• Be sure to review the food, too, if you eat there; if the beer is great but the food isn’t, that’s good to know.
• What beer(s) do you recommend?
• Like reviewing beer, be honest! If you don’t like something about the brewery, say so.

So that’s about it, four general ways to help you come up with things to write about for your (new?) beer blog. Remember, though, the sky is the limit; by no means limit yourself to what I’ve explored here—be creative! Join The Session each month! Write about homebrewing! Beer and food!

The possibilities are almost endless, so what are you waiting for?

In fact, today it’s easier than ever to start a beer-themed blog, and over the next several Beer Hacker articles, I’m going to cover just that. The focus will primarily be on the free online services that have sprung up around blogging to get you accomplishing this goal—writing about beer.

Part 1 of this series will focus on setting up a new blog with two of the most popular and easy-to-use blog hosting services, the ones I already mentioned: Blogger and WordPress.

Selecting a Name

The first thing you’ll need to decide on is a name for your blog. There are two things to consider here: first, you’ll want something catchier and less-generic (i.e., unique) than "The Beer Blog"—something easy to remember but not a mouthful; and second, you’ll want to apply this to the domain URL for the site, so the less cumbersome, the better.

What do I mean by the "domain" of the site? Well, both Blogger and WordPress.com host their blogs with the URL form of "name.blogspot.com" and "name.wordpress.com", respectively—"name" being the URL-friendly version of your blog’s name. Going with my (poor) example title of "The Beer Blog" above, the domain version might be "thebeerblog"—so the URL for each service would be, respectively, "thebeerblog.blogspot.com" and "thebeerblog.wordpress.com".

(Incidentally, both of those are already taken, though whoever started them so far has not gotten past the "First Post" phase.)

For our purposes, I’ll keep using "The Beer Blog" as the example.

For each service, you’ll need to have a valid email address to sign up. Depending on which service you’ve selected, the respective experience is a bit different.

Blogger

Blogger is part of the Google suite of services; when you sign up for a Blogger account, you’re actually signing up for a Google account (which gives you access to the gamut of services that Google offers).

Signing up is a multi-stage process. The first step asks for your email address, password, and display name (how you’d like your name to appear). There is also the inevitable "captcha" to figure out to prove that you’re not a robot or script.

The following screen prompts you to name your blog, and enter the blog address. This blog address is the domain address I discussed above. A handy feature here is the "Check Availability" link just below the blog address field; it tells you in real time if the address you’ve chosen is available or not without reloading the entire page.

Finally, on the last screen you can choose a template for your blog—how it will look. You are offered a dozen basic templates to pick from, with the ability to preview each one (in a separate window). Don’t worry too much about the design at this point, you can change this template later at any time, with more choices to select from.

After this step, Blogger creates the blog for you and you’re ready to go—literally! You are taken directly to the "Create Post" page.

WordPress

The sign-up for WordPress is even simpler. The first step asks for your WordPress.com account name and email—no password is necessary, they will provide you a password once you’ve signed up. (You’ll be able to change your password later.)

The next step allows you to select the address and name for your blog, just as with Blogger. If you select an address that already exists, you’ll be prompted to try again.

The final stage in the process is the actual email verification—you’ll receive the confirmation email at the address you provided, and once it comes, you click through on the confirmation link. This will activate your account and your password will be sent to you in another email. Once you receive your password, you can log in at wordpress.com and you’re ready to go.

Writing That First Post

The process of actually writing a blog entry is so similar in both platforms that I don’t really need to cover each individually.

From each system’s "Dashboard", you click "New Post" (Blogger) or "Write" (WordPress) and you’ll immediately be taken to the entry form.

The first field to fill out is the "Title"—this will be the title of your post. You can leave this field blank, but I generally recommend you enter something—not only will it make your blogging more readable, but it will ultimately show up better in search engines if you have good titles for each entry.

Next, and most prominent, is the field in which you will actually compose your writing. Both services offer this as a basic WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form, meaning you have a series of formatting tools, similar to a word processor, that let you format the text the way you want it, and it shows you in real time how the formatting (mostly) looks.

(In the old days of blogging, users often had to compose their blogs in plain text or—worse—HTML code. This was a time-consuming process and a barrier to entry for non-techies. Allowing users to enter text as they’ve grown accustomed to—using the WYSIWYG tools to do the heavy lifting—opened the floodgates to popular blogging.)

So, you write your entry—it can be short or long (there’s no practical limit on length), with images or without (uploading images is an advanced topic for another day), with links or not, and more. Once you’ve finished, there are two essential buttons at the bottom of the form: Save and Publish.

"Save" will save the current state of your work—typically as a draft that won’t be live on the blog without explicitly publishing it. It’s prudent to save your work often, but both Blogger and WordPress include an important (essential!) feature when writing a post: autosave. They periodically save your work automatically, so in the event that you forget, or your browser (or computer) crashes, there will still be a version saved for you.

"Publish" does just that—saves the entry and makes it live for the world to see. Once you’ve clicked "Publish" you can still edit the post later, of course—or even delete it—but typically this would be the end-stage of the blog writing process.

And just like that—you’re done. You’ve set up a blog and written your first post, and there’s nothing to stop you from writing more—writing as much as you want. So the question is, what will you write about on your new beer blog? Beer reviews? Brewery visits and reviews? Random or odd beer news? Commentary on other beer blogs? Homebrewing?

It’s a good question. What you write about—and more importantly, how to find it—will be the subject of the next Beer Hacker article. In the meantime, get those blogs started—and send me a link to them when you do. I’d love to read them!

Seeking out those inexpensive "step up" beers can be a bit of an adventure—often you’ll come across beers you’ve never heard of before, some of which will just barely be a step up from MGD and some which will be jewels in the rough. Sometimes you’ll find some excellent, well-known microbrew for a really good deal, too.

But be warned: if you have to have that really good bottle of Rogue or Dogfish Head, most of the time you’ll just have to suck it up and pay the premium price for it.

So where do you go about finding inexpensive beer? Let’s examine some of the options.

Dock sales

"Dock sales" refer to the practice of buying the beer directly at reduced prices, often for wholesale. Typically there are two sources for dock sales: a beverage distributor and the brewery itself. Not all states allow such dock sales, however.

Beverage distributors usually have dock sales where the general public can purchase a variety of brews (as well as other drinks). The catch is you usually don’t know in advance exactly what will be available—sales are announced on a day-to-day basis—so it can be hit or miss. One day they might have Anchor Steam Beer or Stone Pale Ale and the next it’s all Coors Light and Zima.

The other catch is that they usually operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Show up early to maximize your options.

Many breweries offer dock sales; a Google search for "brewery dock sales" turns up a good number, many of which are in Oregon. A good example is Caldera Brewing.

According to Caldera’s Dock Sales page, you can buy beer direct from the brewery (cash only) two days a week from 3pm until 6pm. In additional to buying by the keg, they sell their pale ale for $25 per case—compare with the average microbrew retail of around $32 per case. Plus, they helpfully list other distributors in Oregon where you can find their beer in dock sales.

In some cases you can find beer even cheaper; anecdotally, we used to make the occasional trip to the Portland Brewing (MacTarnahan’s) dock sales location in Northwest Portland, and very often the beer they were selling were cases that had been mislabeled or otherwise mispackaged in some way. This was always the best deal, around $8 for a half-case, if memory serves.

Trader Joe’s

This is the one place I’ve named specifically, for one main reason: they have locations all over the country, in 23 states and the District of Columbia. And when it comes to beer, this is what they say:

In addition to wines, we’re known for our eclectic selection of beers. Craft brews/microbrews and imports are what we’re known for – you won’t find the “big brands” at Trader Joe’s. You will find interesting, craft beers in a variety of styles from around the country and around the world at great prices, every day.

Those "great prices" aren’t just PR copy—I’ve seen six-packs of beer for as little as $2.99 at TJ’s. You likely won’t find prices over five or six dollars per six-pack, either. No matter how you look at it, that’s a great price for beer; most supermarket outlets sell microbrews for (on average) seven to nine dollars per six-pack, or more.

One way they’re able to do this is by having beer contract brewed under their own label, Trader Joe’s Brewing. I first blogged about that here, and Stan in the comments indicated that they go through Gordon Birsch and Goose Island for some of their brews. Contract brewing and cutting out the middleman of normal distribution channels is a good way to be able to control costs and still deliver a quality product.

And while many of the beers I’ve tried from Trader Joe’s are just average, they have all still been head and shoulders above the cheap macros out there. And in some cases, they might be cheaper than those, too.

Grocery Outlets

Even though there is a western-U.S. chain of stores actually called "Grocery Outlet", I don’t mean to point to one specific name or company in this case (although they are an excellent example): what I’m referring to are outlets of overstock, closeout, and liquidation items. These are mostly canned and pre-packaged goods and are sold at discounted prices.

These aren’t the types of places you would expect to find beer, either—but you may be surprised. I’ve found otherwise-unknown craft beers at our local store (Pocono Blonde Ale from The Lion Brewery comes immediately to mind) that were much cheaper than retail counterparts.

What were the circumstances bringing the beer to an outlet store? In the case of the Pocono Blonde, that particular beer appears to have been discontinued.

Happy hours & Brewpub deals

Ah, the obvious options for cheap beer. Happy hours are always good sources for beer deals—if you don’t mind drinking the beer on-premise and being constrained to the time limitation. Years ago, a local sports bar had $1.50 pints during their happy hour—and not just on the cheap macros, but a good selection of microbrews. A great deal, and we were visiting every Saturday from 4 until 6pm. Of course, we couldn’t get there during the week because we worked until 5pm or later, and they didn’t have happy hour on Sunday. So we were limited to the two-hour window once a week.

Of course, this is the common lament that everyone is familiar with. If you have a place with a good happy hour you can enjoy—great. But as an alternative, check out growler deals at your local brewpub.

Obligatory definition: a growler is simply a half-gallon glass jug that the brewery will fill with beer to go. Some breweries, like Stone Brewing in Southern California, offer growlers in a variety of sizes—one, two, and three liters.

While the initial cost of a growler full of beer may not seem like such a deal—you’re paying for the beer and the container, after all—many brewpubs offer refill deals if you bring the growler back (cleaned, of course). For instance, you may pay $12 or more for the initial growler—but if you bring it back, you can get it refilled for only $8. And there’s no limit to the number of times you can get it refilled.

Finding deals like that and like I outlined above can really be a boon to the budget. And I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface; I didn’t even get into the economics of homebrewing, for example. The main thing is to keep an eye out for deals, and be willing to experiment now and again.

A few years ago I posted on my other blog on the subject of brewing software, and had laid out a set of criteria for what I’d like to see in such a package. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at brewing programs, and figured revisiting and reviewing a bunch of them would make a good topic for the Beer Hacker.

I only looked at programs that run on a single computer—even though in this wired-internet-"web 2.0" world it seems like a no-brainer that there should be web-based brewing sites that do all the same things, only online and shareable with other users out there. Perhaps there are, but that’s a subject for a future article.

Since I use Windows XP, I’m unable to test any software that runs on Mac or Linux, so if there’s a fantastic non-Windows brewing program out there, let me know. The programs I found and tested are shareware—there is a trial period which you can use the software, then you must buy it at the end of that period for the full-featured version to continue using it.

Here are the programs I evaluated, and their terms:

• Homebrew Calculator: 30-day trial; $25 to buy
• BeerSmith: 21-day trial; $19.95 to buy
• ProMash: 3 recipes/9 sessions; $24.95 to buy
• StrangeBrew: 30-day trial; $15 to buy
• SUDS: 30-day trial; $20 to buy

In addition, I looked at Beer Designer Pro, which is freeware, but I couldn’t get it to work—the site indicates you need the Vbrun50 support file(s), which was more a requirement for the older version of Windows (3.x), and I didn’t want to bother with that (since the program didn’t already come with it).

The rating criteria I use matches my general needs:

• Ease of use
• Clear differentiation between brewing levels (extract, all-grain, etc.)
• Does it calculate color? And give a visual example?
• Export to XML? (If the data is exportable and accessible, I can move it to other programs, etc.)
• How good are the predictors? (For original gravity, final gravity, color, bitterness—four items of criteria)

I installed and tried out each one of these programs, loading a Russian Imperial Stout recipe I had recorded ages ago into them to compare performance. Let’s see how they fared.

Homebrew Calculator

Click thumbnail to see full-size screenshot

This seems to essentially be a Microsoft Access application; the file format it stores data in is MDB, and you are required to open the provided database to store your recipes in. Not only is this counterintuitive (I kept looking for a "new" command), but the program installs this data into "C:/My Documents/Homebrew Calculator"—which on the face of things seems reasonable, until you realize that this is not the actual My Documents folder on Windows XP.

So, two strikes against it right off the bat. Next, when I was entering my recipe, the "Calculations" button kept saying "Errors"… one of which was spawned by it’s own data! It said the maximum Lovibond color number for the system is 500, but their own data for black patent is 525. Hmmm.

The databases are minimal, though expandable, and the overall interface is awkward. This may have been more relevant or "cutting edge" when Access was still new—as was Windows 95—but it’s definitely showing its age.

• Ease of use: Not very friendly; it’s an Access form application, and clunky.
• Brewing level differentiation: Token checkboxes; doesn’t seem to change the recipe handling.
• Color calculation: Yes, but no representation.
• Export to XML: No.
• Predictors: 75%: OG 1.099, no final gravity (though alcohol by volume is 9.5, so you could work backwards), color (SRM) 215.8(!!), IBU 52

Wow, something is funky with their color calculation—it’s off the chart!

Final verdict: I don’t recommend it.

BeerSmith

Click thumbnails to see full-size screenshots

I’ll get straight to the point: I like this program the best. It has a clean, well-integrated three-pane interface (like an email client), seems to be the most user-configurable, and autoscales the recipe based on batch size, among other things. It’s nice and responsive and intuitive.

When you first install the program, it runs you through a three-step wizard to set your preferences and unit value defaults. Nice and user-friendly, and gives you the option to cancel and set preferences manually later.

Databases are comprehensive and very easy to edit, and exportable—along with every other bit of data—to a variety of formats. Including, crucially, XML.

• Ease of use: Excellent. Everything works like you’d expect—double-clicking, drag-and-drop, etc.—and the interface is immediately graspable and obvious. Nice suite of built-in tools.
• Brewing level differentiation: Adjusts recipe and details based on mashing efficiencies… nice. Auto-converts between brewing types.
• Color calculation: Yes, and shows a color representation.
• Export to XML: Yes, and several other formats. Format is "BeerXML", an apparently open standard.
• Predictors: 100%: OG 1.077 for "Extract", 1.092 for "Partial Mash", FG 1.020 for "Extract", 1.024 for "Partial Mash", color (SRM) 60.7, IBU 82.8

Interesting to note, however, the OG estimate from BeerSmith under "Extract" was lower than the other programs.

The big bonus: It autosaves your recipes.

Final verdict: Best of the bunch. This is powerful and easy-to-use for beginners and advanced brewers alike.

ProMash

Click thumbnails to see full-size screenshots

I liked this program when I first used it, years ago, but to be honest, it really hasn’t changed at all, and now seems outdated. The interface is a bit confusing and not well-designed; too many bright colors that are harsh on the eyes don’t make this fun for me to look at.

On the plus side, it comes loaded (by default) with a good set of databases for beer styles, malt, hops, yeast, and extras, and is fairly flexible in allowing the user to expand and modify these databases. A user can maintain inventory numbers here also. Much of the overall data and settings can be configured manually, as well. However, there seems to be no way to export this data (which would be a handy feature) and the files are generic-looking DAT files.

• Ease of use: Intermediate; building a recipe and subsequent brewing session record is fairly straightforward, but restrictive: by default you don’t manually enter the pounds of grain used, you have to click a plus or minus button to get to the amount you want. Built-in features like alcohol percentage calculation are handy.
• Brewing level differentiation: Handles all-grain, extract, partial mash well; auto-adjusts numbers based on different inputs (batch size, etc.).
• Color calculation: Yes, and shows a color representation.
• Export to XML: No, but it will export to a text file and and HTML file.
• Predictors: 75%: OG 1.095, no final gravity (although there is a field to enter it manually), color (SRM) 61.1, IBU 115.8

The IBU calculation here was much higher than for the others.

Final verdict: This is a good program for beginners, but ultimately seems to be behind the curve on being up-to-date. Not as flexible/open as I would like.

SUDS

Click thumbnail to see full-size screenshot

On the face of it, SUDS appears to be more like BeerSmith than ProMash. The screen is a two-pane system, with "Inventory" and "Categories" in an expandable list on the left, and the data/interaction takes place on the right. Seems fairly straightforward, except there’s a glaring usability problem that I’ve run into repeatedly: there is no "Open" command to open a saved recipe file (unlike nearly every other Windows program in existence), and recipe data is instead integrated and stored as nodes in the expandable tree in the left pane.

Except this isn’t immediately obvious, either, because most programs that offer this interface allow you to navigate down the tree in the right-hand pane, as well. Not so this one. So I waste a bunch of time re-discovering how to find and open data that I’ve entered. This, for me, is a huge strike against it.

Otherwise, it’s a fairly basic program, it gets the job done without many frills. At first I thought it didn’t offer a final gravity predictor, but then I finally found it under the "AHA Comparison" tab, not very obvious.

The databases are very basic, but they are editable.

• Ease of use: Aside from the initial confusion on how to find find and handle recipes, it’s fairly basic and straightforward to use.
• Brewing level differentiation: Allows you to indicate the brewing method in a drop-down menu, and specify how the malt is to be used ("extract", "steep", "mash"), but I can’t tell if these are simply labels or not.
• Color calculation: Yes, but does not show a representation, only the number.
• Export to XML: Yes, but only XML.
• Predictors: 100%: OG 1.099, FG 1.025 (under a different tab, not obvious), color (SRM) 59.2, IBU 88.3

Final verdict: It would be recommendable if it were freeware, but if you’re going to spend $20 on brewing software, go with BeerSmith instead.

StrangeBrew

Click thumbnail to see full-size screenshot

This program resembles nothing quite so much as another Access database form application; you can navigate backwards and forwards among recipes (the recipe open dialog lets you sort them by style, brewer, and folder), and each one is contained in a tabbed field map that feels too cluttered, too constricted.

So my same criticism applies as with Homebrew Calculator: when Access was new, this would have been a more relevant program. Unfortunately, it hasn’t progressed beyond that "form" stage.

The included databases are minimal, but expandable; I had to add the Magnum hops from my recipe.

• Ease of use: A bit of a learning curve, has too many "Access database form quirks" to be truly easy.
• Brewing level differentiation: Not really; the only thing I can find is the "Mash?" checkbox on the main screen; turning this off seemed to remove my Cara-Pils ingredient entirely—but only the label; the data was still there.
• Color calculation: Yes, with a color representation.
• Export to XML: Yes. Format is undefined and a bit of a mess, though.
• Predictors: 100%: OG 1.092, FG 1.023, color (SRM) 48.2, IBU 86.9

Final verdict: My least favorite of the bunch, after Homebrew Calculator.

Conclusion

If you’re serious about brewing software, go with BeerSmith. It’s the best of the bunch, both in ease-of-use and features, and is the most up-to-date. For $19.95, you’re getting a ton of value, if you’re a reasonably active homebrewer. (I suppose it goes without saying, however, that if you only have a few recipes to enter, you’re probably better off with a notebook and pen.) BeerSmtih is absolutely worth the investment.

Use grains in addition to malt extract

Adding grains to the mash adds character to a beer that extract alone cannot add. I’m not talking about mashing barley grains—although you could, you would then technically be brewing a partial mash—but steeping (not boiling) adjunct grains in the mash water. Typical grains used here would be Crystal, chocolate malt, and black patent. These are grains that are simply used to add flavor, color, and mouthfeel to a beer (not fermentables).

I like the Papazian method for using adjunct grains: add them to the kettle water, put it on the stove to heat to boiling, and extract them just before the boil. The end results is the grains steep nicely in the heating water, lending their character to the beer.

Using grains like this with extract will definitely improve your beer.

Use boiling bags for steeping grains

Unless you’re set up for sparging your wort, steeping grains in the kettle can be a pain to deal with: as the mash approaches the boil, you’ll need to strain the grains out with a hand strainer. Invariably, you won’t be able to remove all the grain from the kettle, and you’ll likely splash or drip hot liquid around the kitchen.

There are a variety of bags that are available from your homebrew supply shop, ranging from cheap muslin boiling bags that are good for one or two uses, to sturdy nylon reusable bags that typically have drawstrings. Need a more Macguyver-esque alternative? Cut the lower 12 or 18 inches from a pair of clean, new nylon stockings (be sure to tie off the open end).

Place all the grains into a grain bag for steeping, and when it’s time to come out, grab your tongs and fish it out. No mess!

These also work great for whole flower hops.

Use hop pellets in place of whole flower hops

If you love to use whole flower hops (I do), no worries—just use a boiling bag (see above). But if you’re looking for a less messy option that works just as well, use hop pellets. These are hops that have been dried, ground up and pressed into pellets and are, in essence, super-concentrated hop pills.

One thing to consider when using hop pellets instead of whole hops is that you will, on average, see about 10-15% more bitterness from pellets, so you will want to adjust your recipe accordingly. This is because the lupulin glands of the hops have been broken open in the pellets, and the lupulin is the chemical in hops that act on the beer.

Hop pellets also work very well if you are dry hopping the beer.

Use dried malt extract instead of malt extract syrup

The best results I’ve had in extract-brewed beer (getting desired color, for instance, and flavors) come from using dried malt extract (DME) in place of syrups. There are several reasons:

• The heating and concentrating process of making the syrup often darkens the malt, so even pale malt syrup will be darker than it should be.
• Syrup scorches much more easily in the brew kettle, lending darker colors (and burnt flavors) to the beer.
• There’s more control over the final outcome of the beer (see my next tip below).

Also, DME is generally easier to handle than syrup, and, properly stored, will last longer.

Use pale DME as a base malt

Even though DME is available in "grades" or types ranging from extra pale through dark, stick with pale as a base when you’re formulating extract recipes. The reason? You’ll have better control over the color, flavor and mouthfeel through the use of grains and adjuncts, and ultimately more flexibility in your brewing.

For instance, a recipe for a stout may look something like seven pounds of pale DME, a pound of Crystal 80L, a half pound of chocolate malt, and a half pound of roasted barley and a quarter pound of black patent. An amber ale, on the other hand, may look something like six pounds of pale DME, a half pound of Crystal 40L, two ounces of chocolate malt and maybe just a hint of black patent for a reddish tint.

You see what’s happening? You’re controlling the color and style of the beer with the adjunct grains, and not relying on a particular color of malt extract for it. You’ll also end up with a beer that it more flavorful and has better mouthfeel as a result.

When starting from a neutral, pale base malt you can build any beer you want.

For the uninitiated, the Beer Mapping Project is a great resource that combines the power of Google Maps with one of the most complete listings of breweries, brewpubs, beer bars and even beer stores that I’ve ever seen. They have larger-scale US Brewery Maps, organized by region, that show brewpubs and breweries; and a growing selection of city beer maps that include the beer bars and stores, focusing on much more detail for that particular city.

Combined with the power of Google Maps and a clean interface and legend for displaying beer location information, this site is simply one of the best beer-related resources out there. For instance, I recently pulled up the Portland Beer Map to locate breweries for friends who were visiting Portland; knowing where they would be, we could find places in the immediate vicinity to check out.

Okay, enough fawning. Let’s look under the hood a bit, and get geeky and technical. (Feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs.)

Each map page pulls its relevant data from an XML file stored on the server (check out the Pacific region file for reference). The data in this file includes name, full address, latitude and longitude, phone number, URL (if it has a website), and location type (e.g., brewpub). The program script cycles through each of these items, adding the location to the Google map on the page.

Where the data came from initially, I’m not sure; there’s a monstrous amount of information there. My guess is an automated script that pulled all the listings from BeerAdvocate and maybe Beer Me! and then did an automatic address lookup on Google Maps (the site mentions a geocoder service) to get the appropriate lat/lon coordinates.

These coordinates are often accurate but are still not perfect; you’ll notice in the images below, which I pulled from the Portland City Map zooming in on one of my favorite Portland brewpubs, the Tugboat, the location marker is slightly east of where I know the brewpub to actually be (which I marked in both images with a red "x"):

These images also highlight one of the powerful aspects of Google Maps: you can switch from a regular map view to a satellite (and in this case, hybrid of map and satellite) view for an aerial view of the region.

By far the handiest aspect of the Beer Mapping site is alphabetized list of beer places that link to the spot on the map. Just pulling up the map of Portland won’t do you any good by itself—sure, you can click around the locations on the map to see what each is, butif you’re looking for someplace specific, without a reference you’ll be at it for an hour or more trying to guess the needle in a haystack. An item from the list, when clicked, jumps to the location on the map and pulls up the info balloon for it. Nifty!

Besides the overall US maps (divided up into six regions), the site has 18 finer-detail city maps (one of which is actually for the entire state of North Carolina, and two others are in beta), and has several more on the to-do list.

What more would I like to see here? For starters, include a link to the brewery’s BeerAdvocate profile (if it has one), so we could do a quick scan of reviews for it. Perhaps allow user comments that could be "sticky notes" that could attach to the info balloon, on another tab (with the option to toggle this feature on and off).

Really, though, it’s simply an amazing site right now, and should be in the bookmarks as a "must visit" for anyone interested in beer, or even involved in a lot of travel. It’s definitely near the top of my list of online beer references.

I thought this would be an amusing topic to write about for my first "Beer Hacker" column, though I kind of wish I’d written it to be timely with the Super Bowl. Ah, well, better late than never.

The beers I selected are what you’d typically find at your local grocery/convenience store/bodega: Miller (Genuine Draft, Lite and High Life), Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Keystone Light, Rolling Rock, and Corona. To get at the best of the bunch I’m tapping the collective resource of the web—namely, the BeerAdvocate and RateBeer websites.

I’ll be utilizing these two sites quite a lot for my Beer Hacker columns, I think. Between them, you can find nearly any brewery and beer out there, and their rating systems give you a fantastic overall view of a particular beer—which I’ve usually found to be quite accurate. In a word, they rock.

Unsurprisingly, none of these beers has high scores on either site, so obviously they have to be judged on their relative merits: what turns out to be the "best" beer of this group will still be an order of magnitude lower in the rating scale than a decent microbrew.

Let’s examine the scores, in alphabetical order:

We can see from these scores that BeerAdvocate’s top three are PBR, Miller High Life and Rolling Rock; RateBeer’s are Rolling Rock, PBR and Corona. The two sites dovetail pretty well; both Bud Light and Coors Light are in the bottom of the list.

My own subjective experience backs this up. (Don’t you just love subjectivity?) Regular readers probably know PBR is my preferred macro lager, and Coors Light is just nasty. And Miller High Life is "the champagne of beers," so it’s no surprise that it rated highly.

Let’s translate these scores into something more friendly. Using the highest-rated beer for each site, I "graded" each one on a curve, and sorted in order from high score to low score (I used the 5-point scale BeerAdvocate also uses on the back-end of their scoring system, which skews their original numbers a bit):

That seems pretty clear to me. The main variance I notice between the two datasets is the higher ranking of Corona on the RateBeer side. Corona is easily one of those beers that can go either way—it tends to get skunked easily due to being bottled in clear glass—so it’s no real surprise. Personally, I can drink Corona without complaint, as long as it’s not skunked.

So, when presented with the American macrobrewed light lager (and no other choices!), you should choose something from (arbitrarily) the top three whenever possible: Pabst, High Life, Rolling Rock, and maybe Corona. The numbers don’t lie!

Why am I doing this? I think it’ll be a fun addition to the site; it forces me into a more regular writing schedule (I keep telling myself I want to be a writer); I’m inspired in part by sites like Lifehacker and it would be fun to do a beer version.

And yes, "The Beer Hacker" is a riff on "The Beer Hunter", which is the nom-de-plume of beer writer Michael Jackson. You can’t take yourself too seriously.

So keep an eye out. First one should be up today or tomorrow.