I've been brewing my own beer and mead since 1997 and while
it sounds like it'd be very difficult to do, as long as you
can boil water and keep your kitchen clean, you can do it
too.
No matter what style of beer, wine, or mead you're making
you follow the same steps. First you prepare the sugar
solution that the yeast will convert to alcohol, then you
put it in a closed container to ferment for a while, and
when it's done you transfer it to bottles or kegs.
Now, I'm concentrating on a few styles of beer that I
really like, including a dark wheat beer and stouts.
I also make meads, a type of honey wine, which take a lot
more time to ferment, but the end results are quite
delicious.
The next step in my evolving madness I've built a chiller
based on the plans found on the
Internet. I had to make a few modifications
because two inch thick foam board is not readily
available in the metroplex. Other than that it's
pretty much built according to plans and functions
perfectly. I've managed to keep a fermentation at 67
degrees for three weeks, having to replace the pair of
one gallon ice jugs every other day.
I've also built a kegerator out of a used fridge and now
have two taps available for kegs of brew. Kegging is
definitely the way to go, it beats bottling hands down and
means that any time I want I've got beer on tap.
Check out the What's Fermenting page
to see what I've currently got bubbling away.