How Much Does Being a Beer Reviewer Cost? -- YouTube Economics

How Much Does Being a Beer Review Cost? -- KZbin Economics
I don't do a lot of beer reviews, in part because I've always been a little afraid of the cost. But how much does it actually cost to be a beer reviewer? And is it possible to make your money back here on KZbin. Ryan digs into a huge data set to try and find out.
If you like (or don't like) this video let me know down in the comment section below.

[@DrunkPolkaroo]

A fantastic look at the community. With over 530 videos last year I may have become the outlier's outlier. Keep up the great work! Cheers!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Great videos! Cheers!

[@Tastingnitch]

at least you got approved for that sweet, sweet monetization money! congrats!

[@distlledbrewedreviewed]

I watched this on my other channel, here for some extra support. Have no idea what I spend but it's worth it for my wonderful hobby.

[@JerryForttheBeerReviewGuy]

Great Video and content, Ryan, I enjoyed all your findings, Thanks for my Picture showing on the vid, that was cool, Cheers Buddy

[@averagejoe716]

First, you did an absolutely amazing job with the video, Ryan. Loving the new format and the sheer amount of research and work you did on this is clearly evident. Great job, buddy! Second, the way I look at it, from my perspective, is that almost all the beers I'm reviewing I would be drinking anyway, it just so happens that I'm doing it in front of a camera. I don't look at it as spending money FOR my KZbin channel, as much as I'm spending money on a hobby I enjoy. The main reason I'm a BeerTuber now is because of the community. So many good people and I love sharing my beer experiences while simultaneously watching and hearing about others'. It's all about the love of the hobby for me. Cheers, dude!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks for the great insights. Cheers!

[@bumpy-isms]

A lot of time and effort into this video...... greatly appreciated. I consider my monetization as being the great group of youtubers I've had the privilege of meeting and or socializing with over the tubes Cheers Ryan

[@TilBeerDoUsPart]

Congrats on the monetization! We're glad that the community is small, but tightknit

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Too right. Love the Beertube community. Cheers!

[@AndrewBaumanAZ]

Ryan, your videos are always something I look forward to and this one was the uber-nerd-out I hoped for. Thanks for taking all the time to collate the data. Great video- thank you

[@ABeerinReview]

Thanks for the kind words Ryan! Another great video! Cheers!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

You definitely deserve them. Cheers!

[@EclipseBrewing]

Haha something I have thought often 😂 Great to see my little channel and more excited to see tasting videos of my beer 🍻 I’m trying to get Reviewers to try some home brews at no cost to them, I was amazed at your in-depth study I would have to believe it’s pretty accurate especially the weight gain ..... cheers 🍻

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks so much! Cheers!

[@DeansBeerReviews]

Big thank-you for the mention much appreciated Ryan

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

You earned it. Cheers!

[@Tastingnitch]

GO DEAN!

[@tubedinoz]

Great video Ryan. Very interesting. While not commercial beers, I'm lucky enough to be sent many of the home-brew beers I do a tasting video for. At the end of the day I make videos because I enjoy it. Any money I make is a nice bonus. Cheers Dino

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Love your videos, keep it up! Cheers!

[@Blueeastcoast]

Fantastic video..it’s something we don’t really think about when viewing channels like yours, hopefully the costs are within reason..have a good one!👍

[@kevinbrown915]

you went above and beyond to create this video. It was interesting. Thanks

[@NoHypeBeerReviews]

Awesome topic and execution! You are a hero doing all of that work! I am going to bury my head in the sand about how much I spend...but it is beer I was going to drink anyway. As Mat from Massive said, might as well film it and talk about it. Cheers!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks so much! Cheers!

[@OffThe10th]

Great video, Ryan. I'm very glad you put a lot of research and dedication to produce this video. Good job. Cheers, bud! 🍻

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks so much! Cheers!

[@lancethelush]

Great job on this subject! I may have really slowed down(due to work), but I don't do it for the fame, but the passion.

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Glad to hear it. Love the passion. Cheers!

[@imperia1999]

Surprised how much work went into getting all the info needed, hope the money starts rolling in soon

[@bringyourempties]

Come by Canada anytime, we’ll make it worth your trip. Thanks for the quick shout out too haha! Cheers friend!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

One of these days I'm going to do a Canadian Beer Tubers Road Trip haha

[@nickkwatussi7080]

Incredible work man!

[@blackiowa]

Interesting video. I've been reviewing for a while now. Wild to see it from this perspective

[@humblebeerreviews9623]

Man this is good content...good stuff to know. Cheers!

[@marvi855]

Interesting video Ryan. Cheers 🍻

[@RodJBeerVentures]

Nice video Ryan, good stuff for sure. Costs do play in it all but then again, nit everyone can get the “Rod J” deals 😉! Cheers Brother!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

I need to learn the ways of the Rod J Deal. Cheers!

[@RodJBeerVentures]

Beer By The Numbers I definitely could be an outlier at times.

[@WhiskeyQuests]

That is a crazy amount of work you did. Great job. Now imagine how much it is to review whiskey 😶. But to be fair I’m one of those that do it for the passion of experiencing different bottles. So I would’ve spent the money either way. I just wanted to share my opinions with everyone. Cheers bud live your videos! 🍺🥃

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Love your passion for Whiskey! Cheers!

[@Tastingnitch]

You rule. that databaaaase!!!

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

Thanks for the shout out! Equipment hugely helps. A small investment in audio and lightning is essential if you want the content to be enjoyable and repeatable. I regret not doing it myself earlier. This is with no effort in editing and effects for me. I'm surprised I wasn't included as an outlier. I've on average done more than 1 review per day for last couple of years. Very little of my purchasing is based on doing reviews. I bartend and don't have much time to go out and drink. Therefore, almost all my drinking is on the channel. I don't count that as a "cost" as I would be drinking beer anyway. It would not be a "cost" for a channel if you ate regular meals and reviewed them... It's also a hobby, education, and training my palate as a plus. You also don't mention what reviewers make, which is quite minimal. Then again, I am lucky and it actually hits a decent dent into my purchases for what I purposefully review on the channel. DDB made a great comment about this content. I almost never spend what he does, but he frequently spends/drinks hundreds (highlighting secondary) per episode on his podcast. Thanks for the effort! Sweet video!

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Hi Darwin, love all your great reviews. I know you're probably one of the big outliers but I could only log a sample of random channels haha. Probably would have been another 2 hours just for you! Cheers!

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

@@BeerByTheNumbers Haha, doubt there's much to say about me for 2 hours. Thank you so much for your support. This definitely was a cool video and I really enjoy your geeky beer content. I look forward to doing more myself.

[@thebeerstreetboys]

Great video. We're just starting so that's really useful.

[@BrewReview]

Man, cool video dude! Enjoyed watching this one. I’d foresee we would spend about $500 to $600 a year between traveling to breweries for productions and can buying. More if we have out of state ones to hit. I should really do the math now that I think about it..🤔

[@brendawest2979]

it's good to finally see the product of the life - absorbing spreadsheet, haha! Looking forward to more in-depth discussion of the tertiary topics your "basic beer video research" experiment brought up!

[@FrenchHawesBeerReviews]

What an interesting video. Our channel averages about 160 videos a year. I'd say our average beer costs between $2 and $4 per review. So probably hovering right around the $500 a year in just beer costs. Cheers 🍻Scott FHBR

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

[@massivebeers]

Fun video dude, a lot of fun angles and numbers but I’m pretty sure you summed up the soul of the argument, you’re not going to make a living, even to break even, from beertuning … but I’ve never once thought about it like that. Brass Tacks is I’m going to partake, might as well film/talk about it … done and done. As for some of my thoughts on the numbers: Producing Content: For me to produce a review a day, let alone one a week, was never an issue so I sound it odd for you to make a point that it’s a tall order. I generally film 2-3 times a week, 3-4 beers a session … that produces more than enough videos to go around. * Dislaimer: Being a shut in hermit who lives on a farm I the middle of nowhere helps. Outside of a year end video that was on a personal deadline I’ve never felt the pressure to post anything or had lack of content, but that’s just me. Cost: Echo’ing the previous “I’m going to partake, might as well film/talk about it” portion of the show. As a beer lover first, I’m inherently curious to try new beers so the cost of a new beer is almost like personal write off on my beer purchasing taxes. Combine that with, and this is very channel/producer specific, I’m very lucky to receive beer I the mail from both viewers and breweries to the tune of about 70% of my uploads (50% viewer mails/20% brewery mails) and this offsets the costs dramatically. So I’m probably coming in under half the average cost per review per your formula. Production: What is production? Ha!. Seriously, I just point my iPhone at myself and hit record, then stop … clip the beginning and end and I’m done. I know a lot of people shoot for more production value but it’s just not my speed. Add that I’m surround by $85 of Amazon lighting and dropped about $110 on microphones my initial overhead is bare bones as it gets minus the webcam and a dashboard light crowd. In the end you either have fun with this or go the way of the Dodo … someone might claw themselves out of the world of KZbin into something more one day, but it’s a labor love for most. Kind of the reason I like this world.

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Great summation of the life of a reviewer. Thanks for sharing, Cheers!

[@MrThirtyFour]

Massive Beer Reviews I appreciate your reviews quick easy and to the point...and your end views always fun to watch

[@BeerReview]

Awesome video sir. I was thinking that excel file would get big fast. At first, I didn't want to watch it as I don't know how much I spend on beer per year :) I would say I put out 300+ beer reviews in 2018. Like you said the cost can be all over the place but I took an avg of $4 a beer so I would be at $1200 a year. Keep up the good work Cheers.

[@dontdrinkbeersofficial]

I run a beer website www.dontdrinkbeer.com and dont use KZbin a platform that often so i would say that DDB is an outlier to this sample and analysis. One thing I would note is that there is a highly diverse swath of "costs" attendant to reviews. Even the entry level KZbin reviewers likely incur substantial shipping costs if they are trading for hot new beers or out of market items as reviewing mass marketing, heavily distributed beers tends to have less of a draw. Second, once you enter the realm of trading or secondary valuations, the idea of "costs" goes upwards immeasurably or completely out the window. Many KZbin channels will not review any of the most touted hypewhales due to gating, finances, inaccessibility, lack of trade fodder, internal connections or whatever the reason may be. For many channels it may be that their userbase doesn't care about what a Derivation is, or that the KZbinr themselves arent aware of these bottles. So if you start servicing this terrible tiny segment of the hardest to find, craziest bottles, the costs shoot upwards in a dizzying way. I run a podcast, Malt Couture, and we will review 5-6 beers on each episode and some on the secondary market are valued anywhere from $300 up to $900, and we pretty consistently have beers like this on every single episode. For our review of 2007 Falling Rock I spent $250. If you start considering these secondary markets, then the "numbers" of the other beer reviewers skyrocket. TL:DR there's expensive ass beers out there and most people dont care or have the time/money to pursue them

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Cool site, a ton of great looking things I've never heard of. Thanks for sharing!

[@Tastingnitch]

wait. you have a podcast!?!

[@dontdrinkbeersofficial]

Tasting Nitch haha yes. Are you being srs

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

DDB and Malt Couture 4 Lyfe.

[@bringyourempties]

DDB for Life, agreed here haha.

[@realpolicetalk]

You have to do this out of fun and love.

[@talkingwhiskey1507]

I wish I could make back half of what I have spent on the channel. I have spent thousands! But we do this for the love.

[@ThePartySourceReviews]

Okay that is kinda scary, but you do a fantastic job. Thank you for your dedication in this and to your videos. Cheers, -J.O.

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Thanks so much JO. Cheers!

[@T6767676767676767]

CHEERS........................

[@realpolicetalk]

The time you spent is worth something as well.

[@squiremuldoon5462]

The best advice i would give to anyone who wants to pursue their hobby full time is to have rich parents.

[@boiler3285]

Have you considered reviewing beers while playing Fortnite or PubG?

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Maybe... But that would require me to be decent at those games haha

[@BackWoodsBillyCraftBeerReviews]

IMO You TUBE use to be videos you watched to learn something. Not 📺 TV Quality videos. You forgot TVM Time Value Of Money 💰.. There is no way it's worth trying to be monitized on KZbin you $ 1! Is all you get per 1,000 views. If viewers watched the commercial... YOITUBE RED VIEWERS DO NOT WATCH VIDEOS. Personally I believe do it because you like it. You 's stuff for FREE to Review which is better. Way TMI on Beer channels 🍻 LOL. Cheers Buddy 🍻🍷🍷