Reddit mentions of The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing

I have some knowledge, my old man brews all the time, and I have done my fair share as well.
PissinChicken isnt exactly right. Once your set up, you get 5 gallons of beer for 20 or so bucks. I got all my gear, as well as ingredients at
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/
Got the basic kit for 60 bucks, and off you go. The other thing you will need is bottles. You can get 22 oz bottles in 12 bottle cases at the same site. Also check craigslist frequently. I came up with grolsh style bottles from there, and now I dont use the cap-type anymore(actually, im on to Kegging now, so i dont use any bottles). I would suggest bottling you first handful of brews to make sure you like it before even thinking about kegging. This is where the cost heads up. Also, stick to prepackaged malt for your wort for your first few. Once you get the hang of it, try partial mashing grains. This is where I am now, and Im making very good beer IMO. But the cans or packages of malt work just fine. I still buy them to mix with my wort even after i partial mash.
If you have any specific questions, I may be able to help further. It is a rewarding hobby, I think. Especially if you like 5 gallons of fresh homebrews! Enjoy...

PS-I have lots of bottles Im willing to part with, depending on where you are, just FYI.
PPS- Also, get a book. I like this:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Joy-Home-Brewing/dp/0380763664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265210375&sr=8-1

Equipment, maybe $40 total, but lasts for years. Plus you can start with just a few cheap basics and slowly build your gear. Each batch of beer varies in cost. A beginer's batch from a kit so you can just learn the process, maybe $15. Mid range for good beer, about $25-30 (Malt, hops, yeast), then for bigger flavor beers, higher alcohol, exotic flavors you can spend as much as you want. $50 isn't unusual. But remember, it's making a bit more than 2 cases. $25 a case, that's 4x 6 packs, $6 a 6-pack. Can you buy top end beer for $6 a 6-pack? No you can't. You can barely buy the cheap swill for $6. Craft brew and import will run you $8-$11 a 6-pack. So the up front ingredient cost seems like a lot until you realize the per beer cost is very reasonable. Cheap even.

If your curiosity is piqued, before you jump in get this book.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Joy-Home-Brewing/dp/0380763664

It's one of the very best on the market that holds a wealth of information and starts out assuming you know nothing other than you love beer and think it'd be cool to make your own. It hand holds you all the way through the beginner process to your first beer, then ramps up to intermediate, and even after 17 years I come back to this book just because it's just a rock solid brewing bible. An exceptionally well written and organized "How to" book that is a fascinating read on the making of beer even if you never try doing it.

Edit: Also, look over at r/Homebrewing

The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian was my first book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0380763664/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Get the Midwest deal but I would stick to a partial extract boil for about a year until you get that down, so a 4 gallon pot and boiling 2.5 gallons on the stove then adding to water in the fermenting bucket to equal 5 gallons means no copper chiller is needed.

Also, pick up Charlie's book and read it twice before you start. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0380763664/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

The complete joy of home brewing is a good book.

Start simple. Buy an extract based kit. Tell your friends to collect bottles (preferably pry-offs). I usually give one bottle of beer for every 3 bottles they give me.

Make sure you have a 10 or so liter stainless steel pot (you'd never want to cook with aluminum anyways.)

I think when I first started, I had the advantage of taking biology lab where aseptic and sterile techniques were key. This is very important for brewing beer. You must be careful not to introduce bacteria into your ferment. Also temperature is important. 72 degrees should be fine.

Go pick up The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. I started brewing in college with my roommate, and this was our starting point, along with extended conversations and advice from the local brew-shop.

Some others have suggested those "beer kits" you can get with everything in one box. In my opinion, those kits make shitty beer, give you very little control over the product, and they only make two gallons. With about 10% more investment, you can get a set-up that is totally re-usable, gives you more control over ingredients, and, better yet, yields 5-6 gallons of brew.

Good luck. And remember: "Relax. Don't worry. Have a home-brew."

There are two pretty much bibles of home brewing: The Joy of Home brewing is the first, I have never read it but I hear good things. The author is pretty famous in home brewing circles and this book is credited with jump starting home brewing.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Joy-Home-Brewing/dp/0380763664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259699032&sr=8-1

The second (and the one I own because of the vast amounts of knowledge) is How to Brew. It has information on the ingredients, basic process for beginners and advanced techniques.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259699116&sr=1-1

It's fermenting. Did you check the specific gravity before adding more sugar and sealing it up?

I would encourage you to pick up a copy of The New Complete Joy of Hombrewing by Charlie Papazian and/or a copy of The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm

If you're going to back sweeten your mead you need to add potassium sorbate to prevent the yeast from starting back up.

Huh!

That's really interesting!

A close friend's father introduced me to brewing when I was, like, 16 (after sneaking no small amount of his home brew) and we spent several afternoons brewing together and he told me a lot about how the different ingredients and brewing methods work to create different flavors and styles of beer, so I have an (admittedly basic and ineloquent) understanding of hops and grains and malts.

I also cook a lot, so flavors and ingredients are really important to me and I'm keenly aware of what a big difference something like fresh basil can make over a dried ground powder in a freshly prepared meal. That's not snobbery, it's just a fact. Good quality ingredients are important to crafting excellent food.

I got curious about wine a couple years back and read Drink This, which is an amazingly easy to read and unpretentious guide to learning what exactly the difference between Syrah and Merlot is. (And all the other varietals.) The book recommends a lot of tasting, and I can't drink 5 bottles in one go by myself so I decided to make a game out of it and gave a powerpoint lecture on each chapter to my friends and we did all the tastings together. Super educational and a great experience. Would definitely recommend.

For the record, I didn't know anything about anything regarding wine when I started out on that little adventure. No shame, full curiosity.

Anyway.

I don't know of any great books about beers off the top of my head but this is the book I was given to learn about brewing. It will give you a huge amount of insight into the process and ingredients (and history!) of brewing if you're interested.

I totally understand why you made the analogy you did now. Thanks for clearing that up!

And yeah, while I totally agree that people can use beer knowledge as a way to feel superior to those around them, and that habit is stupid and annoying, there really is a lot to learn about beer (and pretty much everything else in the world, duh) and a whole lot of great stuff out there to taste! So don't let those jerkbags ruin that experience for you. Go check it out!

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing