Waste is good

[DaYooper]

I have to both agree and disagree. If I would have stuck with simply using the turkey fryer and pot, the investment would have been minimal. Oh, and a spoon and some sort of carboy. When making the jump to HMEs (which I had pots for) to D/LMEs, that saved a ton. I do like a quick HME recipe from time to time but I like that for another 2-3 hours in time I can cut costs drastically. I do get a lot of hops for free so that helps, but even taking that out doing extract I can brew a very good beer for probably less than $100 worth of equipment which quickly gets amortized over time. It is making the jump to AG that brought the equipment bill up as well as the time investment. I look at it that I have a 40 hour a week job, so unless I get another job my time is free to use as leisure, chores, or brewing so the fact I spend time doesnt add any cost since I would not be getting paid anyway. Plus, we are losing time by brewing relatively small batches, as it does not take much more time to brew an AG of 2 gallons vs 20 gallons other than getting the water to temperature. But, sitting out in the garage watching a boiling cauldron for an hour is more relaxing to me than chanting Ommm Ommm and smelling scented candles. Plus, once the boiling gets rolling, I can fiddle fart in the garage if I want, but usually choose to sit there and do nothing or read the latest BYO.

I look at it this way. When I first decided to do my first serious backwoods camping, did a lot of research and spent a lot on serious equipment. That first trip cost a LOT. The second was about half as much. And so on. It will never get to the point that I am getting paid to take the trip, but over time those sunk costs arent as large. That is, unless you are Vince and get that super duper rig he now has!!!

[Rebel_B]

On this topic of having a bit more than enough... I throw away old hops at times. I always keep enough in the freezer so I can do batch of 'whatever'; but at some point, they lose their aroma. I was brewing up a batch last night, looking through my frozen hops. I ended up throwing away some 4-5 oz. Why take a chance that the beer wouldn't be as good as it could be.

Do you vacuum seal it? I have hops in my freezer sealed up that from what I can tell are almost as aromatic as when I put them in. I recently had some tested and even the alpha degradation was not as bad as I would have expected. Although another toy (as the wife would call it), that FoodSaver has saved me countless dollars in both brew supplies and buying food in bulk. FYI my freezer is also not a frost free so I dont get the temperature cycling so that may have something to do with it as well.

These are whole leaf hops given to me by a co-worker who has stopped brewing that I threw away. Vacuum sealed, he had them for some time before I received them. Once opened, I didn't vacuum seal again, just in ziplocs in the freezer. I haven't thrown away any of the neutral bittering type hops, just ones that I would typically use for aroma; ie: Amarillo or Willamette, cause they don't have an aroma any more.