I always wondered why home brewers went to all that trouble when anyone can pull in to the liquor store and come out with 'beer' in a matter of minutes.
Then I bought a kit and tried to brew my own.
I probably made every mistake a rookie can make and I still came up with a pretty good Dark Winter ale. All these years I was drinking that canned swill.
Suddenly, two seven gallon stainless conical fermenters, a stainless brew pot and a jet boiler have magically appeared in the man cave (no, I don't use one room for a man cave. My HOUSE is my man cave).
Now I have a red ale in fermenter #1. I made more rookie mistakes and still get a nice hoppy scent from the airlock, had good fermenting action for the first five days and it has five more days on its two weeks in the primary. Having read some of the posts here, I found I can save a few bucks skipping the secondary fermenter. Thanks for that!
I've been baking my own bread for years, just started making my own cheese last fall and make my own sausage when I can. Zymurgy is a worthwhile skill to add to the skill set. There may be an all-grain brew in my future but I'll work with extracts for now.