For example, I’m sure the average joe doesn’t know just how expensive calligraphy pens can be, or how deep the rabbit hole goes on video game speedruns.
For example, I’m sure the average joe doesn’t know just how expensive calligraphy pens can be, or how deep the rabbit hole goes on video game speedruns.
At least with brewing beer, it’s offset by the price of beer. It costs about half the cost of a commercial corny keg to brew 5 gallons.
If you’re disciplined and brew frequently (and drink unhealthy amounts of beer,) you can pretty easily break even or save money. I calculated something like 10 brews to break even on my set up and didn’t buy anything extra until after 10 brews. You can get great deals on used stuff too since people frequently get sober and drop out of the hobby and liquidate all their equipment. This is the dark side of the hobby.
Kinda dorky but I have a spread sheet tracking all of my brewing expenses. I also calculate how much that beer would have cost of I bought it and subtract my brewing expenses from it. The goal is to keep that number from being negative. Right now I’m pretty close to 0 because I upgraded my temperature control abilities to brew lagers.
You sound like you were far more restrained than I. I still went out to sessions at the assorted local craft places to see what was new (this was in the early 00s) while brewing an ever increasing amount. I has massive crates of bottles I was giving out and eventually keykegs. Finally I gave up and got a job at an actual brewery. No regrets, but also, so many regrets.