I love you gilliam. Unibroue's Maudite is my favorite beer. Let's be friends.

I've actually been thinking about getting into home-brewing for a while now. What's the best way to get started?

For strong beers, I recommend the Exton/Downingtown Pennsylvania area brewer "Victory". Their beers are quite good, most weighing in at about 10% alcohol. They also have a good taste. The Golden Monkey brew especially... It speaks in the dark corners of your mind... makes you do things... There's also a local beer around there somewhere (forget the brand now) that is like a creamsicle, but not quite as sweet, and is VERY good. As always, the Yuengling lager is a smooth cold one on a hot day. I did get to try a Fin Du Monde also last time I was out there. Was pretty tastey. Oh, also, howdy, this is my first post :)

I have to throw in another vote for Pilsner Urquell as maybe the finest Lager (or Pils, as it's called in German, they invented the lager brewing method). Other good ones include Flensburger, the "real" Budweiser Budvar from the Czech Republic as well as Jever, a very bitter lager that's great if you're just having one or two but not very good to get drunk on. I also like Beck's, but that's pretty standard, but a good beer nevertheless.
As for bottled imports, it just doesn't compare to draft beer, there are worlds between the same beer out of a bottle and from a keg.
I'm not a big fan of wheat bear but most of my friends seem to prefer Erdinger or Franziskaner. I usually only drink it mixed with 50% sprite, which is as good as a drink gets on a hot summer day while still leaving you a useful addtion to the evening raid =)

Having been to the Czech Republic multiple times, I have to say that Budvar and Pilsner Urquell are two of my least favorite Czech beers. Krusovice and Velkopopovicky Kozel are both better in all their incarnations, along with a whole host of others.

Pils, or pilsner, is a subtype of lager. It was first brewed in Plzn, a town south of Prague. Plzn is now an industrial town and not a very pretty place to visit.


Tomorrow I'll go see how many of my old haunts are still open and post a few links/advice. In short I'd say under $200 of equipment and a spare afternoon can get you started brewing.

Heres a list of the things you'll need. http://morebeer.com/ is a great place to get started with supplies, although depending on where you live there's likely to be a brew shop in your area. It's a good idea to get to know the local brew shop guy, they'll give you recipes and all sorts of tips when getting started.

Need
Starter Kit
6 Gal. plastic bucket
6.5 Gal. Glass Carboy
air lock
racking cane and hose
shut-off clamp
bottle filler
cleaner
bottle caps
instruction sheet

Must Have
Hot to Brew Reference book, Recommend: The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition, Papazian
Funnel with strainer
Thermometer (floating)
Bottle Capper
Bottles 48 12 oz. or 28 22 oz.

Favorite Style of beer kit Recommend: John Bull English Ale
Favorite style of beer liquid yeast Recommend: White Labs English Ale

Should Have
Hydrometer
24†Plastic spoon
> 12 Qt. Stainless pot
Wort chiller

Nice to Have
10†fine strainer
thermometer, up to 200°

Will Eventually Have
Kegerator

Eventually, you're beer taste buds will climb to a new level, you may alienate your fizzy yellow beer drinking friends and associate with other beer snobs, and you may become so obsessed you might end up with something like this http://fiction5fc.googlepages.com/home

awesome, thanks guys

Eh, I think you're overstating how much is really NEEDED to start. With someone just curious about the basics I generally recommend a much shorter list of supplies.

This advice, however, is really good. Befriend your local brewgeek, and support your local homebrew store. Though the prices might be a bit higher than you'll find online (even after shipping), the free advice and support is priceless.

I'll revise kaijin's list to reflect what I feel you really NEED to start brewing.

What you really need:
6 Gal. plastic bucket with spigot, like this one - either get two of these or get one of these, one bucket without spigot, and a racking cane/hose.
Lid with hole - drilling your own kinda sucks so I really recommend getting one pre-drilled
3-piece air lock - seals out bacteria and lets out CO2
very large pot - as big as you can manage
bottles (protip: save your old beer bottles, well cleaned, for a while and you won't have to buy any special)
bottle caps
Bottle capper
sanitizing solution. (This may be the most important thing you buy from a "make my beer not taste like shit" perspective - nothing sucks like an infected batch.) I like Idophor solution because it doesn't require rinsing and is pretty dang easy to use.
Beer kit/yeast. I recommend an Extract brewing kit for your first few runs. Unless you have a fridge rigged to hold lagering temps, stick with an Ale recipe for the time being (though I've used lager yeasts at ale temps and you can get good results, it's not something you should start out doing). Pick whatever sounds good, all extract kits are fairly simple to use.
Notebook. Seriously, keep notes, or you'll always wonder what it was you did to make that beer so good the last time.

You're looking at probably $50 plus shipping for a ghetto-style brewing setup plus $25ish for the beer kit. No it won't be pretty and you'll expend more effort than you might if you spent more money, but if you're just starting out I wouldn't recommend getting too much specialized equipment.

Basic procedure should be covered in the instructions that come with the extract kit. For racking, use the spigots on your buckets to move from one to the other. Be sure not to allow a lot of air to get into the beer, as this can alter flavor and/or introduce bacteria.

Stuff that makes things easier:
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition, Papazian - Yeah, Charlie's book is one of the best. I also recommend it.
Glass carboy - I generally use glass for everything any more, because it doesn't stain and because I like to look at my beer while it ferments. Some folks say plastic lends off flavors to beer, but I think that's more of a concern with mead and wine, which sit in the fermenter for much longer. Don't get glass carboys unless you decide you seriously want to start brewing semi-regularly, as they're somewhat expensive.
Funnel with strainer - nice for when you have a glass carboy, but as long as you're using wide, open plastic buckets it's not as big a deal.
Thermometer - floating thermometers are overrated in my opinion. Get a good probe thermometer and make sure it doesn't sit on the bottom of the pot during the boil.

Stuff that makes you feel High Tech:
Hydrometer - helps you calculate %alcohol, among other things
pH testing equipment - more useful for wine, but hey, every little bit of data helps, right?
Wort chiller - most people just use chilled water to drop the temp of their wort, though depending on your water supply and how you handle the water this does carry certain risks. Personally, I have a copper wort chiller and I like it a lot, but I don't feel it's truly necessary. Just cool and handy to have.

Remember: aside from basic sanitation protocols, there is no right way to brew, and no right beer to brew. Homebrewing is a hobby first and foremost, and it should always be fun. If you start to get stressed, follow the Papazian three-step method:

1. Relax.
2. Have a beer.
3. Stop worrying.

I'd agree with all of that. Homebrewing is an awesome hobby that will definetly cost you less than some other things like building cars, and you definetly earn extra man points for making the beer. I think it cost me around $150 for everything I needed for my first batch, including the 6 gallon stainless steel pot which was $50 alone.

Cleanliness is everything. You're not performing surgery, but everything needs to be really clean and sanitized.
Patience. Fermentation takes time, and I'll usually give a batch at least a month before having a glass. ~14 days in the carboy, ~14-21 days in the bottle/keg.

bartolimu offers good advice using an extract kit, although my first batch was a partial mash kit made by Brewer's Best (http://www.leeners.com/brewbest.html). I really liked using some grains because it just felt like I was really making the beer, and the instructions that came with the kit were very clear and easy to follow. I would HIGHLY recommend using a liquid yeast (http://www.whitelabs.com/) simply because you can pitch it without making a starter batch and I've always had good luck with it.

I only wish I'd been brewing in college when I got my EE. It'd be pretty simple to use a microcontroller for regulating C02 and calculating remaining keg capacity. I need to up my nerd points and just build it, so far I just lift the keg and used the old "feels about half full" method. Theres nothing more heartbreaking then having a keg run when you need a beer.

Thanks for the info Gilliam and Kaijin, this is a hobby I've been wanting to get into for a while (as if I'm not juggling enough already), so this helps a lot.