Equipment: It does not need to be expensive

To get yourself set up as an all-grain outdoor brewer requires a little bit of patience, but not much money.
You will need a stove and likely at your local flea market you can guy a propane stove for about $20-25.

Although, I highly recommend purchasing a "high pressure" stove because it can produce a boil very quickly and save you possibly an hour or more of time waiting for boils during the brewing process.
Many people own a propane tank for their BBQs, but if you don't garage sales and the flea market will possibly score you a tank. You can then refill at our local fill station or exchange it for a full one from Home Depot, Walmat, or alike. Amazing I have even seen one abandoned on the highway -- heck that is where I found my MLT (Mash Lauder Tun) -- a 5 gallon Igloo on the side of interstate.

I recommend purchasing a 10 gallon mash ton, because my 5 gallon only holds 13 lbs of grain, which limits the beers I can make. You can purchase an Igloo or alike at your flea market for $1 per gallon usually. Expect to pay near $10. It does not matter if it is stained by Kool-Aide or anything. Give one good clean and you're done. After all, you will boil your mash afterwards any ways.

To make it, purchase a Bazooka Kettle Screen, to filter out the grain and you can make a run to Home Depot for the copper fittings to make the rest. You can follow this guide to make it. Get the Bazooka screen. It has great reviews and is priced about the same as other products. You do NOT want the filter to get clogged. When all is said and done you will have spent about $50 -- considerably less than buying a pre-made one.
I purchased a spare lid for $5 and drilled it and installed my sparge and it works perfectly. Technically, you can use one lid and put a seal/grommet/cork in the drilled hole and make out just fine.
I purchased a metal spoon for $2.50 at a restaurant distributor store.
My 7.5 gallon stainless steel pot was also bought at a flea market for $50 -- significantly less than what a shop would charge you.

You may also be able to score some items for free from your local Freecycle. I scored three 5 gallon carboys from Freecycle. Just be patient and always looking. You will find a good deal.

Recipe: Beard Papa Ale

An Irish Red that went array and morphed into a dark rich Barley Wine.

Recipe (from Bob at Oak Barrel in Berkeley, CA):

3/4 lbs Special B

1/4 lbs Chocolate Wheat

1/4 lbs Roasted Barley

11 lbs British Pale Ale Malt

1 oz Nugget -- 60 minutes (to bitter)

3/4 oz Armiallo -- 5 minutes

Danstar Windsor Yeast (dry).

OG -- 1.072 (December 12, 2010)

Gravity check: 1.031 (January 31, 2011)

PROBLEM: I was unable to identify why the yeast died. Maybe my garage got too cold or maybe the conversion to fermentable sugars was compromised. I tried agitation. I moved to secondary and pitched WhiteLabs Dry English Ale Yeast WLP007, but no change in gravity.

My next step was to add WhiteLabs enzyme capsules (tested it at the home brew shop first) and it worked.

Gravity reading afterwards: 0.999

Unbelievable! I accidently produced a zero calorie barley wine and it tastes great.

Follow up on July 22, 2011: I racked to bottles today. What a complex and bold taste this wonderful beer has. The body is full and rich to match the dark dark color with tinges of red. When you sip it there are three phases: at first it is smooth & sweet and then a smokey taste catches your attention and the body builds into a bite. Afterwards there is a nice dryness you are left with making you want another sip.

Plan to let the beer mature until next summer, when the beer will be 1.5 years old. Will post a follow-up and photo then.

Label Maker

I am a firm believer that presentation matters and a label on a bottle dresses up your beer and furthermore honors it.

Labels are so easy to make with any document application, such as MicroSoft Word or Apple's Pages, that has the "business card function". I use personal photos and add my own touch to the labels. I print one sheet and then I run the sheets on a xerox machine so the ink won't run.

After I cut them and have cleaned the bottles I dip the labels in a bowl of milk and adhere them to the bottles. The starches in the milk cause the labels to adhere. The best part is they come off so easy for reuse. Run the bottles through the dishwasher and all labels will be removed. Glue is too hard to work with.

Recipe: Black's Bitter Pale Ale

Black's Bitter Pale Ale

Ingredients:

10.5 lbs American 2 Row

1/2 lbs Crystal 80

1/2 lbs Honey Malt

1/2 lbs Corn Sugar

1 tsp Gypsum

1 oz Magnum (pellets)

1/2 oz Centennial (pellets)

1/2 oz Cascade (flowers)

White Labs California Ale Yeast (re-used from Honey Hopburst Pale Ale)

“Infusion Mash”

Heat 2.75 gallons water to 158 degrees. Add grains, malt, corn sugar, gypsum to 5-gallon igloo. Close, shake-up and mix. Mash should be between 148-152 degrees for 60 minutes.

(Lesson learned: mistakes made. (1) Heated water to 168 degrees. It did not come down and was way to high at 164 degrees. Tried ice cubes. Removed from cooler and put into pot outside to cool down quickly. Took 20 minutes of 60 minutes to do so. (2) Landed the Albany High School job and focused on calling family and not on the heat of sparge water. It got over 200 degrees. Had to wait an additional 25 minutes to cool.)

“Sparge”

15 minutes into the Mash heat 5.5 gallons to 170 degrees to sparge.

“Wort”

Wort is over 6 gallons. Heat to hard boil. Add 1 oz Magnum hops for 60 minutes hard boil. Add Centennial and Cascade hops at last 5 minutes of boil.

While wort boils sanitize wort chiller and funnel for transfer to carboy.

If wort boils down to far only add the necessary water during last 5 minutes of boil.

“Wort Chiller”

Took about 60 minutes to chill wort to 66 degrees.

“Ferment”

Pitch beer a 66 degrees into previous beer carboy with developed yeast. Ferment in garage. Liquids at approximately 60 degrees in garage.

“Secondary”

Note: ended up with more beer than could fit in a 5-gallon carboy. Filled carboy and put air lock on. Possible cause could be the amount of yeast?

“Alcohol Content”

Original gravity is 1.058 taken at 66 degrees (false reading due to the fact that I used the sludge of the beer to take the reading).

Secondary Gravity: 1.009 at 70 degrees F.

* Process / Equipment: Mash in 5-Gallon Igloo with lid on. Did NOT stir mash. Pour out into bucket with false bottom (no grain bag used). Sparge with sprinkler. Water 1/2 inch above grain. Drain. Refill sparge water. Repeat. Squeeze excess sugars out of grain in grain bag. Yeast starter from Black Bitter Bite Ale.

** Follow-up **

A bit hop-y at first, but aged well and rounded out into a nice robust beer.

Recipe: Wee Strong

Wee-Strong Ale

(from Bob at Oak Barrel in Berkeley, Ca)

Grains

1.5 lbs British Munich

.5 lbs Cara Munich

.5 Special B

2 oz Peat Smoke

1 lbs Aromatic

8.5 lbs Golden Promise

Hops:

1.5 oz Cacade (60 min)

1 oz Willamette (7 min)

Yeast:

Edinburg Ale Yeast (WLP028)

White Labs Amino Quick

Brewed: 2/23/2011

Efficiency: 85% (4.25 gallons)

OG: 1.082

Gravity check March 26, 2011: 1.021

Gravity checked May 22, 2011: 1.021 (very smooth and quite drinkable)

Final Gravity:

Infusion at 153-ish degrees

Pitched yeast at 60 degrees

Yeast was left out for 1.5 hours prior to fridge storing. Used left over from sparge to give the yeast a 3 hour start.

Issues:

Mash locked at 145 degrees. Boiled 1 gallon and added to raise temperature. Note: heat water 20 degrees above desired degree and pull and re-pore back into the cooler to cool if needed.

Spilled some sparge water so heated 1 gallon and sparged with it.

Once the 5 gallon line is almost noticeable stop boiling to maintain 5 gallons.

Follow-up July 22, 2011: Racked it in bottles today. Gravity read the same. Hints of caramel color, but darker than I expected. Smells sweet. Quite sweet to the taste. Could use some maturing for several months. Bitter bite at the end.

Bottled and maturing. Will follow-up when the beer is drank with notes and photo of beer.

Recipe: Double IPA

Single step infusion.

1 oz Warrior hops (60 minutes)

1 oz Warrior hops (30 minutes)

* .5 oz Fuggles and 1 oz Willamette (dry hop in primary after fermentation bubbles die down for a cleaner transfer to secondary)

9 lbs Canadian Pale Ale

1 lbs Honey Malt (to give golden color & warmth)

1 lbs Aromatic (hint of malty subtle malty smell)

1 lbs British Munich Malt (adds a little body)

* White Labs Edingburg yeast

OG: 1.082 taken May 22, 2011 (suspect this to be inaccurate and high due to taking reading 1/2 way through the beer during transfer to primary. There was a lot of matter in the beer when I took the reading. I forgot to take the reading from skimming the top and cleanest part of the beer/wort. I am not sure what a real would be, but if it is well above 1.070 that's good). Taste: It has an almost spicy after bite due to the bitterness of the hops.

May 22, 2011: Brewed.

May 30, 2011: added 1 oz Willamette and 1/2 oz Cascade hops to dry hop.

* Notes leftover from previous batch. Yeast was used once a few months ago for a Wee Strong and is still in the primary. Reusing helps me keep the budget tighter.

Keep your fingers crossed. I accidently pushed the airlock rubber through the carboy and into the beer because it kept popping out even tough I dried everything. Luckily, I had just soaked it in bleach so hopefully it is NOT infected. That would suck bad!

Follow-up August 4, 2010:
Gravity: 1.017. Great warm color. Big bite with hops, but not overwhelming. Has a sweet after bite and sweet suggestion through the aroma.