In this month's Zymurgy, a brewer did a cost analysis of brewing including equipment, consumables (such as propane) and incidentals (hoses, etc.) and it still came in below the cost of purchasing craft beer in the bottle.
Of course, if you're going out for a pint, yeah, it's going to cost you $6 a pint.
So as long as you don't have to have the latest, newest, shiniest toys, you can still make beer cheaper than you can buy it.