I was brewing quite a bit about 10 years ago, but family demands along with the fact that I put on about 20 pounds during the two years I was brewing kind of brought a halt to it.

My two cents:
1) Whole grains. Yes it takes longer but it is much more interesting and gives you much more freedom to explore. Also, extracts are messy and obnoxious to work with.
2) Brew in a bag (BIAB) where mashing is done in a paint strainer bag in your brew pot makes working with grains a lot easier and less expensive.
3) Don't waste your time on IPA's. There are too many good commercial ones and I've yet to taste a home brew IPA that compared.
4) I hate bottling. If you can afford it, get a kegging setup.
5) Most of the work in brewing is cleaning and sanitizing. It's also the least fun part, but don't skimp on it.
6) Patience. Fermentation takes up to a month. Get a new batch started as soon as you bottle or keg the previous one.
7) Forums are full of people talking about their expensive equipment. You don't need it. A turkey fryer setup, a 5 gallon paint bucket with a lid, thermometer, strainer bags, a siphon, a cooking scale, and cleaning equipment will get you started. I never even used an airlock on my fermenter, just sit the lid on loosely and keep it away from rooms with kids and pets and you'll be fine.

Back when I tried it before I only did extract brewing, and at least for the initial run here I am going to go down that route as well.  Whole grain does seem like fun but I want to make sure that I still want to do this before opening that can of worms.

I really don't have a desire to get into the whole IPA thing.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good IPA, but the wife isn't as big of a fan.  We both do love stouts and porters though, and with a couple notable exceptions, there aren't a lot of really good ones made here in the PNW.

Back when I tried it before I only did extract brewing, and at least for the initial run here I am going to go down that route as well.  Whole grain does seem like fun but I want to make sure that I still want to do this before opening that can of worms.

I really don't have a desire to get into the whole IPA thing.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good IPA, but the wife isn't as big of a fan.  We both do love stouts and porters though, and with a couple notable exceptions, there aren't a lot of really good ones made here in the PNW.

I agree that stouts and porters are a great way to go for exactly those reasons. I also did a lot of pales and reds with late hopping and some first wort hopping so that you got a lot of hop smell and flavor with light or moderate bitterness. Hops like East Kent Goldings give you flavors that are hard to find in commercial ales. Malts like Maris Otter instead of basic pale can help brew beers with lower alcohol that still have full flavor. For me, it was mainly about brewing beers that I couldn't just go out and buy.

Back when I tried it before I only did extract brewing, and at least for the initial run here I am going to go down that route as well.  Whole grain does seem like fun but I want to make sure that I still want to do this before opening that can of worms.

I really don't have a desire to get into the whole IPA thing.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good IPA, but the wife isn't as big of a fan.  We both do love stouts and porters though, and with a couple notable exceptions, there aren't a lot of really good ones made here in the PNW.

I agree that stouts and porters are a great way to go for exactly those reasons. I also did a lot of pales and reds with late hopping and some first wort hopping so that you got a lot of hop smell and flavor with light or moderate bitterness. Hops like East Kent Goldings give you flavors that are hard to find in commercial ales. Malts like Maris Otter instead of basic pale can help brew beers with lower alcohol that still have full flavor. For me, it was mainly about brewing beers that I couldn't just go out and buy.

Some great info here.  I have a brewery less than 2 miles from my house that makes some of the best IPAs I have ever had and there is absolutely no way I could even come close to those.

Hearing all this make me so glad I don't drink.    The way I drank, if I were to try and brew enough for myself, I'd be working at making beer every waking moment of the day.  Of course I'd also be too drunk to make it...  LOL, maybe I should have been making it myself instead of finding the cheapest stuff to buy.

At the end, regular beer just did not do it, took way to many, so I had to opt in for the Malt Liquor...Loved me some Ole English, the always delightful Colt 45, at the time a new one King Cobra or the cool Steel Reserve.   I did love my Forties!

So, can a person brew Malt Liquor at home?

Don't know if they brew 'malt' liquor, but I know some of these craft breweries are making stuff that's like 11% alcohol... Such as New Holland's Dragon's Milk ( bourbon barrel aged stout ).

  I suspect that when your doing it yourself, you can manage to get darn near any percentage you want.

>maybe I should have been making it myself instead of finding the cheapest stuff to buy.

You can make it pretty cheap if doing all-grain. I'm sure ingredient prices have gone up, but 5-10 years ago my total cost was around $5/case. That was buying grain and hops in bulk and culturing and reusing yeast.

>Don't know if they brew 'malt' liquor

Malt Liquor is just strong beer. Many states have laws that prohibit labeling something as beer if it has alcohol higher than a certain percentage. So they call it malt liquor or something else. I've seen some strong German lagers labelled as Ale because they can't call it beer - dumb.