Any audiophiles brewing beer?

Dave,
Glad to hear the appreciation you have for good beers!
I would just go for it, you'll need to start with the less complicated beers any way so get a kit or have a brew shop set you up with a bunch of ingredients and a set of instructions. The sooner you start the sooner you'll realize you will have to catch up for all the lost time seriously.
As for me I brewed 14 gallons in two weekends which is alot for a returning brewer.
My beginnings in homebrewing began with a pumpkin ale that couldn't be found that easily 16 years ago, so I had to brew. And pumpkin ale is what I brewed, I had a blast!
This time around I started with an IPA, then Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Barley Wine and up next will be a Brown Nut Ale.
Home brew beats commercial ale most of the time.
As for my favorites:
#1 best beer best anything I ever put in my mouth is Duchesse de Bourgogne. You'll never look at beer the same way again.
#2 Jolly Pumpkin Ale Rojo. A beer made with wild yeast.
#3 Dog Fish Head Ale IPA 60 MInute
#4 Stone IPA Ruinition-- this will make you drunf oops I still can't spell correctly.
#5 Corsendonk Pale Ale
There are so many more but I haven't explored lately.

Hi. I strongly favor American beers. Here's my list of the five best breweries in the country, though I could have easily added 10 more.

1. Sierra Nevada (CA)
2. Bell's (MI)
3. DuckRabbit (NC)
4. Rouge (OR)
5. Stone (CA)

Favorite brews I've done:

Dogfishhead 120 clone (18%abv!)
Chocolate Chilli Imperial Stout
Sierra Nevada Pale clone

Remember: if you've never had to mop the ceiling, you're not a homebrewer!

Happy Holidays! John

John,
18% !!!!!!!!! That's an achievement. What yeast did you use?
Peter,
Merry X-mas everyone!

Pedrillo:

It's a complicated recipee for the Dog 120, which is from an old issue of Zymurgy. The short of it: first pitch with a High Gravity Ale Yeast, followed in a few days by a second pitch of Champagne or Eau de Vie (sp?) yeast, followed by ten days of "feeding" with highly fermentable sugar, like dextrose, and very high IBU hops. Beer reminded me a bit of Sherry, tho it was surprisingly light in body, and had a bit of whiskey burn. Not the first thing I'd try, but if you're brewing regularly, a memorable challenge. John

Got a couple of friends who have been doing all grain in NYC apartments for a year or so -- which strikes me as an unnecessarily high degree of difficulty -- and I've just started into it myself. Have a batch of dark, belgian-style strong ale about to move to a secondary, and heading out to get supplies for #2 this afternoon. Think partial grain is as far as I may be willing to take this in a fourth-floor walkup, but we'll see....