JS, it's like any other hobby: It takes a bit of money to get it going. I would say a minimal brew kit would be a 6 gallon bucket with a drilled, grommeted lid, a 6 or 6.5 gallon carboy with either a one hole stopper or a carboy cap (and spring for the extra $5 for a carboy handle. Beats the shit out of cleaning up shattered glass.) A racking cane and button, 4' of food grade vinyl tubing, an Emily Capper, a long wooden spoon, a food scale, a 3 to 5 gallon kettle, a carboy brush, couple of airlocks, a gross of bottle caps, and a copy of "The new Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian. All in all it comes to between $120 and $300 depending on how fancy you want to get.
Bottles are free. Save domestic brown glass pop top (not twist off) and rinse them after you drink them. Have your friends save 'em too. My buddy and I once had four batches to bottle and only four cases of bottles, so we went late night dumpster diving in the bar district (got permission from the bars who's dumpsters we were digging through.) Cleaned out the bottles and bleached them, and didn't have a single problem with infection.
Now, for a first beer, sweet stout might be a tad tricky. Or not. Hit <a href="http://hbd.org/recipator/">the Recipator </a> or google sweet stout recipes.
Or, I just hit the recipator and came up with this:<table border=1><tr><td><b>Style:</b></td><td colspan=5>Sweet Stout</td></tr><tr><td><b>Type:</b></td><td colspan=2>Extract w/grain</td><td><b>Size:</b></td><td colspan=2>5.5 gallons</td></tr><tr><td><b>Color:</b></td><td colspan=2>92 HCU (~33 SRM)</td><td><b>Bitterness:</b></td><td colspan=2>20 IBU</td></tr><tr><td><b>OG:</b></td><td width=50 colspan=2>1.050</td><td><b>FG:</b></td><td width=50 colspan=2>1.016</td></tr><tr><td><b>Alcohol:</b></td><td colspan=5>4.4% v/v (3.4% w/w)</td></tr><tr><td><b>Grain:</b></td><td colspan=5>1 lb. American victory
8 oz. British crystal 50-60L
6 oz. British crystal 95-115L
12 oz. Roasted barley</td></tr><tr><td rowspan=2><b>Boil:</b></td><td>60 minutes</td><td>SG 1.110</td><td colspan=3>2.5 gallons</td></tr><tr><td colspan=5>5 lb. Light dry malt extract
1 lb. Lactose</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hops:</b></td><td colspan=5>2 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.)</td></tr></table>
Crack the grains. Put them in a cheesecloth bag in 2 1/2 gallons cold water in your kettle and heat to 155 degrees. Hold for 30 minutes then pull the grains, leting them drip out but not squeezing. Bring that up to a boil then remove from heat and add your extract and your lactose. Stir well. Bring back to a boil and add your hops. Boil for 60 minutes. Strain through a sparging bag into your fermenter and add another 3 gallons of cold water. Wait until the teimperature is below 80 degrees, shake vigorously for 5 minutes (or hit with an immersion blender for 2) and pitch one vial of White Labs Ale Yeast (London Ale or Irish or Calfornia would work well). Ferment for a week, then rack to glass for another week. Boil 4 oz of corn sugar in a pint of water, cool to below 90 degrees add to a clean bucket (with a bottling tap or with a racking cane handy). Rack the beer onto the priming sugar and bottle in aboutr 2 cases of 12 oz bottles.