You spent what?

Ok.  So... fess up.  How much, how much?  Well...  sometimes I go a bit overboard. :-).  Everything I mentioned is around $500.   WHAT!?  Oh boy.  Hold on, hold on.  You don't need all that.  Northern Brewer (and others) have kits which are preassembled for under $200.  It will get you going for a lot less.  I wanted some upgrades, so I purchased everything separately.  For example,  I wanted the Big Mouth Bubbler EVO 2 carboys.  The kit includes plastic.  I'm just not a big fan of plastic.  Glass will not scratch, you can scrub to your hearts content without harming it.  It is heavy, but I plan on using this for a while, so its a good investment.  The other main thing to note, is the BIG MOUTH.  I am not a big fan of cramming a brush through a tiny opening to try and clean these bad boys, so this is an AWESOME feature.

2nd extra item:  Immersion wort chiller.  After you boil the wort, you want to bring the temperature down to below 80 degrees F as quickly as possible.  This prevents extra contamination and limits the protein formation which may cloud the beer.  For this chiller, you attach hoses and run water through it to cool the wort.  More details later...

3rd & Fourth extra items:  Tall Boy Kettle and Burner.  At minimum, you will need a 5 gallon kettle.  If you have a gas stove, you may be happy with that cheaper route.  I don't, and I don't trust this stove to keep 3 gallons of worth happily boiling for an hour.  This kettle is awesome quality:  multi-lay bottom for even heating and it is 8 gallons!  Yes, 8 gallons.  Why so much?  Well, you CAN use only a 5 gallon kettle and boil HALF of the wort... adding clean water to bring the mix up to the full 5 gallons.  A better method is to boil everything.  This increases the overall quality.  So we will start off with approximately 6 gallons of liquid.  To leave some extra wiggle room, we want an 8 gallon kettle.  The burner --  I chose one that is fairly cheap:  $50 separately.  Not the best, but it will get me going.  You may purchase the two together for $120.  That's an awesome deal considering the kettle is normally $100 on its own.  Do it!