At it’s more basic levels, you’ll boil water, add malt extract in liquid or dry form, add hops at a couple of different points in a one hour boil, put it in a bucket with an airlock, add yeast, leave it alone for a couple of weeks, and bottle it up.
The equipment cost can be kept pretty low – I think I did my first kit with about $40 worth of equipment, and a $25 ingredient kit. At $25 for five gallons (about fifty bottles) of beer, it doesn’t take long to cover the cost of equipment.
I’m up to about $150 worth of equipment for all-grain brewing now, but I can make five gallons of good, strong, flavorful beer for about $12… Or less than two six packs of decent beer from the liquor store.