Brew five gallons of ale in less than a month by following directions at the Beer Basics, compliments of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). It will send you packing to a homebrewers supply shop for malt extract syrup, hops, ale yeast, and corn sugar. Most of the equipment you'll need for brewing, however, is probably already in your kitchen or basement. The brewing process itself can be as simple as boiling together malt extract and water (wort) with hop pellets, letting the mixture cool, sprinkling yeast into the wort (pitching yeast) to facilitate fermentation, and letting the mixture ferment for two weeks. It's a snap.

The Online Guide to Belgian Beer is a beautiful site sure to have your mouth watering with its Old Tudor recipes. Learn how to flavor your brew with candy, sugar, coriander, orange peel, and fruits such as raspberries, peaches, and black currants. The sections Grain, Yeast, and Hops taps kegfulls of history, specifications, and practical advice for the each ingredient. Under Yeast, find nearly a score of contrasts and comparisons and atrention to detail that carries over into the rest of the site. A comprehensive pronunciation guide, pages about Belgian beer glasses, a directory of importers, maps, and general info on Belgium round out this intoxicating collection.

If you stop at only one site, make it The Brewery. If it's about beer, it's here. Dive into the Library, an amazing collection of links to articles on brewing. Topics include beginner's guides, advanced brewing discussions, ingredients, equipment, processes, and styles. The software section is the brewer's best friend, with logs, calculators, spreadsheets, and more for Mac, Windows, Unix, and DOS operating systems. Tasting has several essays on evaluating and judging brews. Don't miss Home Brew Digest (HBD), a daily, archived collection of reader Q&As that covers every technical aspect of brewing for every expertise level. Information on brewer supplies and clubs, and even beer clipart round out the site. End your excursion in the Cat's Meow and Gambrinus's Mug (under Recipes on the home page). Between them, these sections contain more than 1,000 recipes.

Beertown! - Home of the Association of Brewers is another great resource. On the home page, click on Home Brewing. Scroll down the resulting page to Beertown University, an innocuous portal to a world of useful information. In the University, The Beer Basics lists ingredients, equipment, and the steps of brewing. Beer Style Guidelines leads to technical specs for several kinds of beer. The Brew on Premise Index is a guide to businesses that, for a fee, provide ingredients and equipment for creating your own concoctions. Other resources include links to The New Brewer and Zymurgy (two Association magazines with articles, reader feedback, and more), as well as brew shop and club directories.

The Beer Recipator - Almost 500 recipes for bitters, all manner of ales, wheat beers, lagers, and more.

Eric's Beer and Homehrewing Recipe Exchange - Dozens of ales, bocks, lagers, pilsners, and more submitted by readers.

Brew Your Own: 20 Extract Recipes - Unique suggestions from Frosty Toad British Ale to Reggae Red.

Brewer's Hoppy Beer Place Recipes - Ten recipes including Watermelon Wheat and the award-winning Abbey Normal.

The Decadent Beer Page - A dozen offerings including Nut Brown Ale, Commoner's Rye, and more.