As an early birthday present, my mom's boss got me a DIY beer brewing kit. It has everything included, you just follow the directions, be patient and in about one month you have a full case of beer.
The instructions are broken up into Brew Day, Fermentation, and Bottling day. Brew day is what takes the most effort as it requires a lot of attention. You start with 1.2 gallons of water, boil it, and add your malts.
Once this started boiling, you could really smell it. During the 45 minute boiling process, you add a small amount of hops every 15 minutes. When the time is up, you chill the pot in an ice bath to let it cool between 70-80 degrees. That temperature works best for your yeast.
This takes about 30 minutes, but doesn't require any attention, so I took a break.
When it gets cool enough, you pour it into a jug they give you, where it'll ferment for the next two weeks.
The piece of top of the jug is an airlock. It helps the yeast grow by allowing some oxygen out, but not in. The water will create some air bubbles after the first few days. The instructions say it could take 1-2 weeks, but i'll be safe and let it go the full 2 weeks.
Once it's done fermenting and you've collected 12 empty bottles, you get to bottle it. They include caps, a capper, and carbonation pods that you put in each bottle so that you don't have flat beer. Once it's bottled, you wait another 2 weeks and then you're ready to drink.
This was a great gift. Not only can you just buy the ingredients and reuse the equipment, but it also makes your beer special and unique because you brewed it yourself. I'm excited to try it. It should be ready by the first week of February.