The wine is settling nicely, and a young man’s thoughts turn to bottling … and to total vs. recurring costs of this hobby. I’m about to order about $200 worth of supplies from Northern Brewer, including:
* 4 cases of awesome, blue bottles (two cases slope shouldered, two of the more sturdy looking bordeaux style). I plan to start saving bottles for re-use now … in case I need more than 48 bottles. technolope and capital_l, you’re welcome to help.
* a corker
* corks
* inkjet labels
Combined with the two buckets of juice I already bought, this brings the total cost of this particular batch to around $300 for 10 gallons. That’s 50 bottles (give or take), for a cost of something like $6 a bottle. If I remove all the reusable components from that cost. The recurring cost per bottle (which assumes that I get most of my bottles back, and I can replace from store bought empties) is around $2.50.
Interestingly, beer costs between $0.6 and $1.10 a bottle (recurring) when I make it. Undoubtedly, this is because of all the processed ingredients. Beer is relatively expensive compared with the cost of going to the store, but wine appears to be dirt cheap if I make it myself. Of course, it’s actually all about the joy of serving homebrew, not the cost, but it’s an interesting bit of math.
Leave a Reply