TOPIC:

Hi everybody. I've been doing a little market research on the price of dry malt extract across a number of sites commonly used by us homebrewers. Here's a sample (I converted all prices to euro using an online currency converter):

Australian Craft Brewer - 2.10 for 500g
Hop and Grape - 3.95 for 500g
Art of Brewing - 3.86 for 500g
The HomeBrew Shop - 3.50 for 500g
HomeBrew Company - 5.00 for 500g

Why is DME so expensive in this part of the world (compared, for example, to the listed Australian supplier)?
Why are Irish prices still so high given the drastic change in currency valuations between the pound and euro? Couldn't Irish suppliers pass some of those currency related savings on to their customers?

I only recently returned to Ireland from a stint abroad so maybe I'm missing something obvious. Maybe the current prices already reflect some of the savings I mentioned. If so, apologies to all Irish suppliers! It's just that when you plan to use a recipe that calls for over 10 pounds of DME (as I plan to in the near future) the price of DME starts to seem really prohibitive. Any thoughts?

Ps. is it possible to buy DME in bulk?

Actually, Cuilán offered to throw some extract (dunno if it'd be dry though) in with his shipments from Germany if homebrewers wanted it. I can't seem to find an e-mail address for him though. But he'll be at the Franciscan Well festival if any extracteers want to collar him there about it.

Whatever about the Aussie price, the Irish prices are not bad compared to UK prices, considering the size of the UK market.

The homebrew company have 3KG bags, which work out at €4 for 500g.

"noby":1kaet1cl wrote: the Irish prices are not bad compared to UK prices, considering the size of the UK market.[/quote:1kaet1cl]

Good point, though that doesn't explain why the Irish prices have remained constant even as the exchange rate changed dramtically. One year ago DME was 4.99 for 500g at a time when the exchange rate was much less favourable and the homebrewer market was smaller (at least if the recent Irish Times article is to be believed).

I can only comment on the English shops. They all receive free delivery for orders over a certain amount so there is no transport factored in. The VAT is also higher over here.

Yea i can see where Bugno is coming from here, all you got to do is go shopping over the border and compare prices on anything. Ripoffireland.com