How do you get started? What shops offer homebrewing supplies? If you've homebrewed lately, list your top three styles.
Careful, its a disease! A mate and I started at Brewcraft, then quickly moved to Keg King for ingredients. Brewing all grain, used to do kit and kilo but stepped up (the difference in quality is out of this world). Grain and Grape are a great shop, nice blokes, and very knowledgeable. Only started as a side track to make equipment in the garage and drink while doing so, and now keg most, but bottle a bit (for transporting). Top three styles? IPA, DIPA, and Hefeweizen. Lager next. Seriously, if done properly, can make a great beer. And it is addictive.
In Melbourne you have a bunch of good options. Grain and Grape is probably the most well known supplier down there and they have been around for ages. I would suggest finding your local homebrewing club - there are several in Melbourne - as members will be able to provide all sorts of great advice. Myself, I got started with a couple of extract brews before realising that All-Grain is the only way to brew and not that much more complicated. In terms of style, I've brewed nice IPA, American Amber and Robust Porter. One last thing. The best piece of advice I received in terms of buying equipment was "Buy once, Cry once". If you think this is something you really want to do, go all out and get the proper equipment to do it up front instead of upgrading later. It saves so much pain down the track.
