I've just started brewing beer here in Australia. It's fun, easy, cheap, and a good swallow too. While typical American beer is just absolute um.. water, at least for a few extra bucks you can get the good microbrewery stuff. In Australia, the typical beer is better than American beer, but not by much. The big problem is that a few extra bucks gets you no extra variety, just more of the same boring stuff. With this in mind, and the fact that aussie brew is so expensive, I've taken to home brewing. For less than half as much you can produce a really classy beer. From typical draughts, to lagers, to stouts, to double bocks- they are all easy to make and tasty!
Here's the recipe for my Wheat Beer, which I think tastes as good or better than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale:

Coburg Wheat Beer

Links to look at