So here are the basics:
Equipment kit
brewers kit (grains yeast caps etc)
bottles
A high level overview of the process (for beer, wine and mead are similar just very in ingredients and time).
1) Sterilize everything
2) boil the grains or fruit
3) cool down and put into the ferment pot
4) add yeast and put in vapor lock
5) wait (week or more) - sterilize 2nd pot before transfer
6) after most (first) ferment is done, transfer to another ferment pot for 2nd ferment
7) sterilize bottles, caps and transfer equipment
8) desolive bottling sugar and add to wort (the mix in the fermenting pot
9) let settle for a min or two and then transfer to bottles and cap
10) wait a week or more for beer, 6 months or more for wine/mead
Now, my vote for best equipment is http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment and the kit runs about $100 not counting taxes and shipping. The advantage of this equipment is that first and 2nd ferment is all done in the same pot. For beer, this is a good thing. For wines ... not so much as it ties up your fermentor for a while.
Other traditional beer kits are 6 gallon ABS plastic can for 1st ferment and 6 gallon glass carboy for 2nd ferment. The advantage of this system is that you can have several glass carboys going at the same time. Because of the length of time involved, this is a better option for vintners.
I forgot to add the summary:
$100 for the equipment kit
$45 for a brew kit
$36 for bottles (3 cases)
First brew works out to call it $180 for 30 bottles of beer (roughly) so about $6 per bottle. But the first brew pays for all your equipment so 2nd brew works out to $1 to $1.5 per beer .... and that is MUCH higher quality beer. By the time you get to using kegs or getting your own grains instead of buying a kit, you can push the price down to sub $1 per beer. Considering that most decent beers in my area are running $10 per six pack .... well it is really a no brainer. And if you get into wines which can run $20 a bottle or more, it is a very viable proposition.
Lastly, it is a great prepper skill to have.