Carne had some good suggestions. My biggest piece of advice is that you have no idea what you want need, until your parameters are set.
1. What are you goals with brewing? (Sounds like you are a make awesome beer kind of guy as opposed to MAKE BOOZE kind of guy)
2. How much time do you have for brewing? (All grain takes about 5-6 hours realistically, extract can be done about 2- hours quicker)
3. What is your family situation and how will your brewing practices affect them?
4. What volume do you want to brew?
5. Do you need/want to brew inside? Or are you fine with brewing outside?
6. What level of construction and design are you willing to undertake?
7. How serious do you project you will be about this hobby in future years?
That is a pretty good list.
While a ton of people will tell you this is a super affordable hobby and saves money and you only need a bucket and a kitchen stove with a stock pot (hyperbole), I am strongly in the other camp. While skill is involved in brewing, the equipment you use greatly affects your ability to consistently perform the skills you intend to exhibit. Further, good equipment makes brew day more enjoyable.
Your budget of $800 is a great idea. This will allow you to purchase components and tools you can use from day one and will still be useful to you many years down the line.
When I started brewing I didn't have an idea of where the hobby would take me, knew no one who brewed, and had no idea what I was doing. I turned over my whole brewery 4 times before I arrived at my first real system. That turn over incurs a huge amount of wasted time, energy, and money.
My main point is identify what your goals and wants are, then use your capitol to purchase a brewery that you can grow with and will make your happy.
Here are more concrete tips:
1. Determine your desired batch size and purchase a kettle with 25% headroom. You can go smaller, but you will have to use some form of foam control.
2. Determine how you will bring this volume to a boil. Propane, electric, etc.
3. Determine how you want to get your sugars. Extract, grains?
4. Plan a system for getting those sugars into the wort (mash tun if you want to go all grain right away). I might suggest doing extract first for a time then investing in a mash tun later, just buy a grain bag for extract batches)
5. Choose a fermenter type. I have used everything and so far every one has pluses and minuses. I have recently gone back to buckets.
6. Figure a way to control fermentation temperatures. This is a big one. I suggest a mini fridge fitted with a TSS2-2100 Love controller and a ceramic heater fan (check around there are a bunch of threads).
7. Decide how big a priority kegging is to you. Personally, I just sold all my corny kegging stuff because I have become to frustrated with dealing with those silly kegs. If you must keg to start, I would recommend kegging in commercial sanke kegs.
Then, make sure you have all the little stuff in between.
Here is a blog I wrote a few years ago discussing this topic and my feelings about it. I do not have temp control on there, but really it should be. I would set aside $200 for temeprature control and try to leave yourself $100 left over to spend after your second brew day. By then, you will know better what things you really want.
Boerderij Kabouter's Start Kit Suggestions - Home Brew Forums
. Here are a few I just pulled.
