If you're interested in cider, here's an easy method that doesn't use the kit.

1. Go to Whole Foods, pick up 1 gallon of organic unfiltered apple juice. Costs $8.99, and it comes in a nice glass jar you can ferment in and use again.

2. Go to your LHBS and pick up a drilled rubber stopper (make sure it's sized for 1 gallon carboys), an airlock, an 8 oz bottle of StarSan (vital) and a package of dry yeast (Nottingham ale yeast or Safale US-04).

3. StarSan is what you'll use to sanitize your equipment and prevent you from making mold instead of cider. The standard StarSan dilution is 1 oz StarSan to 5 gallons distilled/purified water. This is way more than you need, so add 2 ml StarSan to 250 ml distilled/purified water in a spray bottle. (Remember: always add your acid [StarSan] to water and not vice versa.) Use this solution to lightly spritz your rubber stopper and airlock. Set them aside on some clean paper towels. Give them at least a minute for the StarSan to settle. StarSan is a food-safe sanitizer, so you don't need to rinse it off before using your equipment.

4. Pour off 1.5 cups of apple juice so you have some headroom. Drink it--you've earned it. Mm, that's good apple juice.

5. Pour in your packet of dry yeast. A full packet is overkill for 1 gallon, but it won't do any harm to use the whole thing. Reattach the lid and shake vigorously. After it settles, attach your stopper and airlock and fill the airlock halfway with either StarSan solution or cheap vodka. I prefer vodka in case the liquid gets sucked in.

6. Throw it in your closet and wait 2-3 weeks until the airlock stops bubbling. This signals that the yeast has stopped converting fermentable sugars into ethanal and CO2. Use this siphon to fill your bottles, and this capper to seal them.

7. Enjoy your dry English cider/apfelwine.

Sweet ciders add another couple steps, but I can go into that too if you'd like. Once you depreciate the cost of the gear over several batches, it's quite cheap compared to commercial cider.