I know what beers I like and I was looking at a book at the homebrew store that had "clone beer" recipes. The proprietor told me the one for the Maharajah was incredibly good. Considering that stuff goes for about $20/tallboy, this might be the way to go.

I do understand that it is more about the hobby than it is about the cheap beer.

I saw that book there and paged through it. It looks good.

I'm a little concerned that my dear wife wouldn't want it in the house. I'm told it only takes about 5 hours/month to make beer. 3 hours for the whole wort building and primary fermenting and 2 hours on bottling day. After that, the yeast does all the work.

I think I might have to ask my mom and dad if I can stash my gear in their basement.

Silly. It's for when I want to "licker' up" and become bulletproof.

Interesting topic. I've been toying with the idea myself. What sort of equipment is required in home brewing?

In graduate school, I got into home brewing big time.

I will give you the secret to making consistently great beer....

(1) buy a cheap freezer (lid on top)
(2) buy a temperature controller
(3) set the temperature controller to the correct temperature for the yeast that you are using.

Bingo! Controlling temperature during fermentation is the single most important thing that I found.

My beer was hit or miss until I got this under control. Before the freezer, I was using ice baths and running the AC on high...just a few hours out of temperature range and nasty flavors come out.

If your wort tastes and smells good before going into the fermentation chamber and it taste bad on the other side, either you got (1) bum yeast, (2) bad sanitary practices or mostly likely (3) improper fermentation temperatures.

I brewed with kits and advanced to mashing my own grain. I was making 5 gallons of extremely good German beer (Munich Dunkel style) for the cost of 2 six packs.

And to make it completely enjoyable, buy a keg system. There is nothing like emptying a carboy into a single keg and putting the keg under pressure to carbonate it. No muss, no fuss. No 48 bottles to fill and hope the yeast properly carbonates the beer. Perfectly carbonated beer in under 24 hours.

My freezer doubled as a fermentation chamber and a keg cooler. I made some of the best beers...Then gained 20 lbs, started a family and literally cried the day I got rid of the home brewing stuff.

Now that I actually have money, I dream of the kick ass system that I could build.

Everyone should make mead once in their life. It takes a year to finish it, but it truly nectar of the gods.

And so why would Mrs. Paleo be opposed...?

I've never used any temperature controlling and my beer always comes out well. Of course I stick mostly to ale yeasts which don't require very cold temperatures.

The very minimum you will need is a large pot (for boiling the wort), a glass carboy (basically a large glass jug) for fermenting, a fermentation lock, 50-60 bottles and bottle caps, a bottle capper, a funnel, a bucket (or some other means of container for holding the beer prior to bottling), a cleaner for sanitizing, and all the ingredients. Most homebrewing stores will sell kits with all the necessary parts. I'm also probably forgetting something but those are the basic parts.

The actual process of homebrewing is quite simple, it just requires a lot of time.

I've been in a small brewing group for 2 years now. I think that some of our beers rival boutique beer, but usually they're a half step below. We can't seem to get the carbonation (using bottle fermentation) exactly right, which seems to affect the flavor. Generally we clock in at $0.75-1 per bottle, so we're well below boutique prices. It's a simple process, you just need room to brew and store, and be rigorous in cleaning/sanitizing your gear. You can buy everything you need and brew your first batch for $200 or less, then around $40 per batch after that (5 gallons/50 bottles).

As a recent new homebrewer who is hopelessly addicted (I've brewed 30 gallons since staring in August), it is a great hobby. I make better beer than I can buy at a store at a fraction of the price. Now that I've gone all-grain with minimal investment, and buying bulk grains and hops, and reusing yeast.. I can do a 5 gallon batch of a hoppy IPA for about 10 bucks!

My real epiphany came when I tasted my first AG batch, a Dogfish Head 60 min clone, which I continously hopped for the whole 60 min. boil, and then dry hopped. It is one of the best beers I have ever tasted.. and I MADE IT!

If learned tons in the process, mostly from the fine folks over at www.homebrewtalk.com. I'm really enjoying the DIY aspect of it. Since starting I've made my own: Immersion Chiller, Mash/Lauter Tun, and Temperature Controller/Fermentation chamber.

Some little things I've found helpful in my short time:

StarSan is your friend. Don't fear the foam, it's the greatest, easiest to use sanitizer.

Soak empty bottles in oxyclean for a few days. takes the labels right off, and cleans them up
nice. Don't forget to rinse well after.

Spend 30 bucks and make yourself an immersion chiller from coopper tubing. I'm no handyman, and I whipped one together in an hour.. no soldering needed. Takes my 5 gallons of 170 degree wort, down to pitching temp 70degrees in about 10 min!

Don't mess around with carboys, just get a food grade bucket with a lid that you can put an
airlock into. I went and bought 3 glass carboys, and barely use them. I just use the bucket as a primary now.. cheap and easy to use.

Don't buy into the liquid yeast propoganda when just getting started. Unless you are brewing some rare sour belgian beer.. stick with Dry yeast. Safale US-05 is my workhorse. I've used it in 5 out of 6 of my brews, and I'm reusing the original 3 dollar package by washing yeast. As long as I do a starter, this stuff ferments like mad!

John Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale was my first recipe, and you can get complete instructions on his site for free. It is a delicious beer!

If you have any specific questions, let me know.. I've probably asked them at one point or another.

PS, I looked at the grain bill for the Arrogant Bastard clone, and with my bulk grains, buying the specialty grains and hops that I don't have, and reusing my S-04 dry english ale yeast, I could do 5 gallons for about $14! Extract would be much more expensive however.

I moved into kegging rather quickly actually. It's a lot easier than bottling. The problem with your idea though is that a kegerator is set to around 44 degrees while a fermentation chiller is set to about 65 for ales.

Hackaday.com had a guy who used an audrino to turn power on and off to the compressor, allowing for a better fermentation chiller that can be adjusted.

On a side note, bought an old fridge for 10 bucks. Beer fridge once I pick it up, then...kegerator?

Expect to suck at the get-go. Ideally, find a friend who home-brews and help him out with a couple batches to get the hang of it.

Also, sterilize everything. And then sterilize it again. Possibly a third time.

I say this while openly admitting I've been meaning to start homebrewing for about a decade but am just too damn lazy.

Would you actually really save much money over just buying a keg to begin with?

Holy Moley! That sounds great.

I looked at the carboys and couldn't figure out why folks felt they were better than simply using a plastic bucket. Also, I'm told the buckets with bottom taps are even more convenient.

While I was at the store, the proprietor told me that the Avery Maharajah was not exactly a "beginner" beer. He showed me the recipe in his Clone Beer book and it looked pretty involved. He said he just made a batch and it clocked in at 10+% and had every bit of the 105 IBU's it advertises. It made my mouth water just thinking about it.

He recommended that I get the base model kit (~$70 + ingredients) because, as he put it, "homebrewing isn't for everybody". He said he has people come in all the time that drop $300 on a high end set up, make a bad batch, and never touch it again. I wanted to know where I could pick up their used equipment for cheap.

I looked at some of the videos online and it looks like the primary part of the wort (the part you boil) is only about one gallon. The rest is water you add from the tap, which you can do in your fermenting bucket. If that is the case, why bother purchasing a 5 gallon brew pot? It would seem to me that using a high quality 8 quart stock pot like the one I have on my stove right now would be both more effective and cheaper. Am I missing something?

Easier sanitation and being able to view your wort. Make sure you get a 7 gal bucket if you're going to use for primary as you'll need the headroom.

Craigslist. I bought the majority of my main equipment used. I got it from the Austin.ForSale newsgroup prior to the existance of Craigslist and then from CL later. I got a ton of used equipment on the cheap. When I moved from Austin and decided to dump my equipment I broke even, even though I had dumped good money on kegerator fittings, a refractometer, counterflow chiller, and the likes of that.

Ideally you want to boil all your water. You'll get a much better hot break and just general inclusion, plus it gets rid of the chlorine in tap water. To make really high quality beer all these little detail variables add up and make the big changes. I did 15 gal boils.