Usually I brew lagers, pilsner types, light bock etc with lager yeast in winter. Some crisp, some a little more malt forward. The cellar is a good temperature for fermenting lager about half the year.
When the cellar starts getting to 60F in summer, I switch to an ale yeast and brew ales. Mostly light to medium in color and body.
I like hops, but find some of the trending IPA and craft beers a little too much. Hop level I shoot for depends on ABV of particular brew. Lately have been working in some late hopping with whole leaf hops to get some flavor without too much bitter.
My brew rig was cheap and fairly easy to make. I'm sure you could get or make similar with low $ investment. Let me know if you want some pointers.
All my brew goes into 5 gallon corny kegs. Started out with bottles of course, but dealing with them on any scale takes as much time as the brewing. Forced carbonation once the brew is aged and cooled in kegs is more exact and sterile than dextrose or krausen priming. Ever have a batch of bottles explode?
