Hey mate,
I started out with kits. Then pimped out kits with better yeast. Then kits with some better yeast and steeped grain and hops.
Then bought the 20 litre pot from Big W and a grain bag and started brewing Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) beers, 10 litres at a time on the kitchen stove.
Then used the same pot and a bucket to brew full volume (23 litres) partial mashes (so grain plus some extract).
Then upgraded the pot to 40 litres and bought a 3-ring burner to move out of the kitchen and into the shed. Now it's fully all grain but actually simpler. Made friends with Pete at the local brew shop and now I pretty much just come up with a recipe with him when I walk in on the spot. It is usually a 5kg bag of base malt (pilsner, pale ale, etc) and a 0.5kg bag of specialty malt (crystal, dark malt, caramalt etc) because that's the size of the bags he sells. Pete mills it for me so it's ready to be mashed.
Heat 30 litres of water up to temp. Depending on style, this is usually around 68-70 degrees because I'll lose a degree or two while it's mashing. In goes the grain bag with some bulldog clips to hold it above the bottom of the kettle. In goes the grain. Give it a stir. Pop the lid on and I wrap it in a mover's blanket for an hour. Maybe a stir halfway through. Blanket off, flame back on full to get it boiling. In go the hops. Usually some bittering hops straightaway, then some further along the boil. 45 minutes in, I put in half a whirfloc tablet and some yeast nutrients and usually the last of the hops.
After an hour of boil. Turn off the flame. Give it a stir, pop the lid on, and I sit it on the floor of the shed to cool. Plenty of people will tell you this is bad and you need to chill it as quickly as possible but honestly, I just use a bit less hops to account for the longer time it takes to cool. I used to sit it on a bed of ice in an esky but have noticed no difference in quality.
Once it's cooled a bit, i just stand it back up on the table and drain it into the sanitised fermenter. This aerates it without me needing to touch it. Once it has cooled to the recommended temperature for the yeast (usually low-mid 20s), I pitch the yeast, put the lid on and the airlock in.
Fermenter into the old fridge I scored from work that had blown up. I have a $20 temperature controller on it and a simple heat belt that hangs in the fridge. This means the fridge is actually acting as a heater, really (I'm in Tassie). Keeps it at 18 degrees (or whatever temp you want) for the duration of the fermentation. This one step is the thing that improves your homebrewing, whether it is extract or whatever, the most I reckon; temperature control.
2 weeks later, into the fridge it goes to 'cold crash'. This settles the yeast cake on the bottom so when you transfer it, it is easier to leave behind the solid stuff at the bottom. You can skip this step if you like, but I find it really does help with things like not clogging up your keg and clearer beer, quicker.
A few days later, take it out pull off a sample to test the specific gravity and get your alcohol percentage. You could skip this step though.
I fill 4 or 5 long necks for storing in the cupboard for a rainy day before I transfer the rest into a keg. Gas on. Leave for a week or so and start getting into it.
There are clearly things you could do to improve the method above, but it really is pretty simple and I've not spent all that much. Probably a few hundred bucks all up in equipment and I love the beer that comes out. Way better than the vast majority of what you get commercially!
Hope this helps!
