L0ngp1nk

IIRC, you summarize your argument quite well; throwing away a perfectly good gas-burning car in favour of a brand new electric car is not a good idea. However, if you need a new car anyway, why not get an electric one?

Brewing can be as expensive and complicated or as cheap and simple as you want it to be.

If your goal is to save some bucks and make your own stuff, you can go as cheap as a bucket, some plastic bottles and a kit and kilo pack.

If you want to learn the process of how commercial brewers make beer and make something a little more exotic, you will probably need a large pot for boiling your wort, some glass carboys for fermenting, and the malt/extract, yeast and hops needed.

The best bet on prices is to find a local homebrew shop and get some prices on what the equipment will cost you. I don't know where you live and prices may vary by location.

As far as brewing in Asia vs North America, there are two issues I can think of:

• Temperature
• Space

You will want to ferment in a cool dark place, and from what I've heard this can be hard in certain places in Asia because of small (by north american standards) living spaces. One solution to this would be to brew smaller batches as it is easier to store.

Why is there a trend for online recipes to also include the author's life story? I don't care about how much your kids love this recipe, or how much fun you had at the last party you brought this dish to. I just want to know the ingredients for the mac and cheese sauce!

Try and find a place that can be cool and dark, like a basement. Ideally you want to ferment your beer at around 16-18°C. If it's too warm you could produce off flavours.

but as you've seen, the topic is controversial, and some people just go straight from primary fermenter to bottles or keg, since the yeast should settle out anyways.

As other people mentioned, using a secondary for dry hopping, adding things like fruit or just wanting to let the beer age in the fermenter for a long time can also be good reasons to rack to a secondary.

Racking to a secondary is an option, not a rule. In general don't use a secondary unless you have a reason to.