Thanks for posting. Have never home brewed, but it is interesting to read.
You ought to try it. If you can cook, you can brew. You can do a 5 gallon batch for as little as $20-$25 and the beer that comes out is going to be as good as $8 - $9 a six-pack commercial beer (so that's $64 - $72 of beer for $20-$25)
(This batch cost about $30 - $31 for the ingredients)