Have not made any for about two years, but when i do, it is with the full mash, where you do not use extracts or sugar, it is instead done only using grain and hops, to do a full mash making 5 gallons of top quality real ale takes me about 7 hours, so you want a wet day for this job, after that it takes about 4/5 weeks of fermentation and clearing, then a couple of weeks of maturation in bottle or keg. The ingredients to make 5 gallons costs me around £10, so the equivilent of 4 pints in the pub, leaving me with the other 36 pints for nothing other than my time.
The only thing i will say th