The Papazian Book is a necessity, Floof. Do not bother without. I think it's called "The Homebrewer's Bible" or "The Joy of Homebrew".

Anyway, he lists a lot of obscure commercial beers, and what you can to do replicate them. I think you'll have to start with the extracts or you'll get discouraged, but you'll soon be mixing your own malts and hops and whatever else you do beyond Papazian, avoid adding sugars if at all possible. Get them all from your ingredients.

Edit: and beyond the first time, when you wash out bottles you were given or bought from the local beer distributor, cleaning the bottles is not that bad. You can only use genuine longnecks or bottles made for the purpose. It's the first time when you don't know what bar they came back from or if they had cigs dropped in them that it's critical to get them clean, and it's time consuming. Once you've soaked labels off bottles in your tub overnight you will appreciate a clean bottle, and you will have your guests rinsing bottles as they finish enjoying your homebrew in no time.