OK so I was looking at that Midwest kit that was brought up in a previous thread...the one that was like 64 dollars and also had a 25 dollar gift certificate. I finally broke down today and decided to order the kit, which was...no longer available...just my luck.

So, I decided "OK, I still want to buy a 5 gallon kit...but which one?" I am using a Mr.B setup right now, and although it is fun, I want more of a challenge, and bigger batches than what the Mr. B kits give me. This was the start of my confusion. I looked at the midwest website, the austin homebrew website, and frankly I have no idea what I really "need." So, I am at the suggestion of The Professor, opening a thread for input.
Obviously, I am looking for the most bang for my buck, but I don't want to spend 200 bucks on a system. Everyone's input is welcome.
-Thanks!

The kits are nice but personally I think it is better to pick and choose the parts you want and are going to use, you can always add the other parts at another time..

and what you should get will depend on what your goals our and your budget.

DO you want to use carboys, Better bottles, Plastic buckets? DO you want to do all grain, BIAB, Extract with steeping grains, just straight extract?

Do you want to do full boils? partial boils? 3 gallons 5 gallons 10 gallons, 20 gallons....

you get my point...you need to decide what you want and how much you want to spend and then work from there...I will say this...you will end spending more than you think you are going too.....it is a very slippery slope...

If you liked that kit, it comes up every couple of months. I got one about a year ago, although I think it might have been $2 cheaper then.

so you want a 5 gallon system? personally, i like that small batch-size brewing keeps more variety on hand... instead of being saddled with two full cases, you get one case of beer, and you can brew another batch and new recipe next time. they make 3 gallon Better Bottle fermenters... basically plastic carboys.

but, if you want to go five gallon, i would look for a turkey fryer with a pot... the pots are usually 7 or 8 gallons, and fit the 6(ish) gallons of pre boil wort. you can use the pot and burner for extract batch or BIAB... then you can DIY build a mash tun our of a picnic chest cooler (if you want). that'll get you close to a full five gallon all grain setup.

haha, my point precisely! I think for the time being I am leaning more towards either better bottles or plastic buckets. I am trying to avoid the glass, although I do understand that glass although a heck of a lot more dangerous if you drop it, does not scratch as easy; thus less of a chance of contamination (stuff I learned from everyone here).
For the time being I am looking at extracts (I guess for the time being because they are quick and easy), but eventally would like to move up from there.

That is something that I have thought about and discussed in other threads; I do have the turkey fryer setup sitting in the basement right now. I would probably need to buy a new pot (i actually use the pot for frying turkey) but it's nice to already have the burner on hand.

http://www.homebrewing.org/ONE-WELD-9-Gallon-Stainless-Steel-pot_p_1683.html
you can pre-order a 9 gallon SS brewpot... $63. unbeatable price.

and fwiw, i have a three gallon better bottle and love it.

To quickly move to 5 gallons get a 6.5 gallon bucket w/lid and airlock as well as enough bottling capacity. After that, just add piece by piece, like a chiller...

Brew day is pretty much the same for a smaller or larger batch. You'll need a good fermentation area for the larger fermenter and bottling day is a bit longer. Otherwise, yes, it is great to have twice as much beer per batch.

I'll admit that I thoroughly enjoyed brewing different styles of beer from extract kits.

I just bought a 6.5 bucket fermenter and a 6.5 bottling bucket and whatever stuff I thought I needed to start. I didn't want a kit that included anything I already had or anything I did not immediately want.

There are def some differences between brewing a mr beer batch and going to 5 gallon full boils the major one is chilling of the wort, 5 gallons of wort is a lot harder to chill then 2.5 gallons of wort.

You will probably need a wort chiller of some sort