Okay... home brewing. There are a number of routes you can take....depending on what you want to do for initial outlay, and then ongoing cost.
The cheapest initial outlay will undoubtedly have the highest ongoing costs, and vice versa.
Only you can decide what is right for you.
So here are the basic options....
1. Brew from kits using basic home brewing equipment.
It will probably cost about £40 for enough kit to get you going. But kits range between £10 and £20 for a 40 pint kit.
Back in the dark ages, these kits were generally tasteless yellow junk that made a slightly beery yeasty flat liquid. Things have moved on and there are some very good kits available from the likes of Wilkinson, EDME, Coopers, BrewFerm etc.
2. Brew from extract on slightly better and more complicated gear, using real hops.
Not a route I've gone down. The malt comes as extract, the hops are real. It's a half and half measure.
3. (The way I, and real breweries do it). All grain.
This is the pinnacle of home brewing, often avoided by many because it is "too difficult". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The set up is basically a micro version of a normal brewery, with home made versions of the Hot Liquor tank, Mash Tun and Copper.
Lets go through those...
HLT. This is where you will boil your water. You will need to be boiling over 5 gallons at a time, so kettles and saucepans aren't really practicable.
I use a plastic 30 litre fermenting bucket with 3 holes cut into the bottom. One hole houses a tap (with a simple hop filter). the other 2 house 2 2KW Electric kettle elements from a Sainsburys/Argos/Tesco value kettle. Just demolish the kettle. Remove the element and seal. Disable auto-shut off and away to go. I'll try and post some links to a youtube video later.
Mash Tun. This is where we mash our malted barley. Where the sugars and flavours are extracted from the barley into the "wort".
For 5 gallon batches up to about 6.5% ABV a 21 litre cheap cool-box is perfect. I bought mine from Wilkinsons. You'll need a ball valve tap and some sort of plumbing fitting which can act as a flange/seal for the hole you will be cutting in the botton. (again, youtube videos abound).
Inside the cool box, you'll need a manifold. Mine is a square affair made of copper pipe pieced together loosely wityh 90 degree bends and T pieces. You can just use a straight pipe...or even the outside of a braided hose. Youtube is your friend.
The
Copper is also your HLT. So no need to build another one.
So what about the process?
Here's what I do to make a 5 gallon batch of batch of bitter at about 4%ABV.
First of all, the No.1 rule of home brewing is sanitation. Everything MUST be spotlessly clean and sanitised. I use a food safe "instant kill" sanitiser like Star San or Diversey Lever D10. You can use Milton or similar, or even bleach, but you'll need a lot of rinsing after bleach lest it taints.
Put about 4 gallons of water in the HLT boiler and switch on both elements.
Put 3 kg of Maris Otter Malt (about £25 for 25KG) in the Mash Tun.
Add 500g of medium Crystal Malt (about a quid)to the M<aris Otter. You may wish to add other adjuct malts at this point depending on the style of the beer...but lets keep it simple.
Add 100g of Torrified Wheat to the grains. (not necessary, but helps with head retention in the finished pint.
When the temperature of the water in the HLT is 75 degrees C switch off the elements and using a sanitised 1 litre jug, start putting water into the mash tun (ensuring the tap is closed). Stir with a large brewers spoon (£1.50 Wilkies)until you have a porridge like consistency. Ensure all the grain is wet.
Put the lid on the cool box and leave for 10 mins.
Bring your water in the HLT back up to temp (75) and fill the mash tun up (if it is a 21 litre) or add a further 15 litres or so. Give this a real good stir. Replace lid. Leave for 50 minutes.
Re-fill HLT and place back on boil. Again, up to 75c.
After your 50 mins, you'll be ready for the first runnings of "sweet wort". When you open the tap, collect the first litre or so in a jug and return it to the mash tun. This is known as the "vorlauf" and it removes any grains which have fallen into the manifold. Drain the rest of the liquid into a 5 gallon fermenter bucket. You should end up with about 2.5 gallons.
Repeat the process, but with only about 3 gallons. This ensures all the sugars are washed out of your grain.
Your second runnings should fill your fermenter bucket up.
Transfer this sweet wort back into your (now empty) HLT (which you can now call the "Copper" if you like)
Bring it to the boil. when it reaches the violent boiling stage, turn off 1 of the elements and allow it to get a "rolling boil". Switch on a fan and open a window...trust me.
Add 40g of (let's say) East Kent Goldings hops (About a quid's worth)These are your "bittering hops".
Leave boiling for 40 minutes.
Add your "aroma hops". In this case, let's say 25g First Gold Hops.
At this point, you can add a "whirlfloc" or "Protafloc" tablet. It isn't necessary, but it helps with clarity issues later. They are totally natural products (no chemicals) though I cannot guarantee they are strictly vegetarian. They cost about 20p each.
After 20 minutes switch off your element and start draining the liquid into your final fermentation vessel. Do not attempt to ferment in a bucket with lid. They are just rubbish. Spend an extra £4 on one with a screw cap and O-ring. Use the tap to do this if your filter isn't bunged up with hops. I invariably use a funnel, a flour sifter and a jug because I have no patience. Ensure all this equipment is thoroughly sanitised.
You should now have about 5 gallons of wort which will become beer after we add yeast and let it ferment. But we cannot "pitch" the yeast until it has cooled down, or the heat will kill the yeast. At this point, I have a modified barrel that I place the fermenter in immersed in constantly running cold water. Takes about an hour and a half to get down to about 20 C.
When your wort is cooled give it a good shake and take a sample in a sample jar, remembering at this stage that sanitation is even more important than before. Place your clean hydrometer in the sample jar. You should get a reading of about 1040 on this amount of grain.
Chuck in some yeast. For this, I'm going to use a fresh pack of Gervin English ale yeast (£1.75). Sprinke it in dry.
Put a bit of petroleum jelly around the screw and O ring of your fermenter, place a bung and U-Bend fermentation lock with a little water in it and stick it in a room where the temperature doesn't exceed 18 C or fall below 15 C. Some variance is permissible, but these temps are ideal.
Your beer should start to ferment by the following morning, and it may look like it has finished about 3 days later. Don't be tempted. Leave it for 3 weeks at least. This allows the yeast plenty of time to clean up any fusel alcohols produced by the first rapid fermentation, and will save you hangovers when drinking it.
After 3 weeks you are ready to bottle. Test first with a hydrometer (ensuring sanitation standards) It should be down to about 1010, which from 1040 gives us about 4%ABV
Clean and thoroughly sanitise 40 500ml bottles.
Using a bottling wand and tube (£1.50 Wilkies)carefully rack off the (now crystal clear) beer from the lumpy cake of yeast at the bottom of the fermenter. Rack off into another bucket...preferably one with a tap.
In a small saucepan, bring a mug of water to the boil. Add 100g of Brewing sugar (dextrose or corn sugar) (£2 for 1kg - Wilkies), let it dissolve and bring back to a simmering boil.
Add this to your beer and stir with a sanitised spoon.
This ensures that each bottle is primed equally and will save messing about with individual amounts of sugar in each bottle. Plus you should NEVER use table sugar in brewing. It will give your beer a horrible taste.
Pour it into your 40 bottles and cap with a crown capper or screw tops, depending on what you have.
Leave for at least a week before drinking. What we have set up is a secondary fermentation in the bottle using the dissolved yeast in the beer and additional sugar. With the CO2 produced being unable to go anywhere, it is absorbed into the beer to give you bubbles and condition in your ale. It will however leave a small sediment in the bottom of each bottle so it is vitally important to not pour that into your glass, and to store your bottles upright.
And that is it.
Happy drinking.
I buy a lot of my gear from here, including most of my malt and hops....
www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk www.barleybottom.com All of these are excellent suppliers and all do mail order.
And if you are interested in my home brewing exploits, just ask me a question....here or on the facebook page of
The Little Brewery on London Road 
