Actually, I just assisted my bro-in-law in brewing a couple of batches last Thursday night. It was my first experience in the craft. He has all the necessary equipment, though it seemed like I was making soup moreso than beer. The fun parts will be later on when we bottle.
We brewed a batch of Irish Red Ale and ESB (Extra Special Bitter). Since the pizza delivery guy was Muslim, we named our Irish Red Ale "Taliban Red" and the ESB was a no-brainer "Eric Steve Beer" (for our first names).
I can see how with a little experience you can whip up some personal blends by changing the types & portions of hops & yeast. However, that would only be after a lot of trial & error.
Schro
I've been doing it for 10 years now and still don't deviate too much from recipes. I'm afraid of ruining 5 gallons of beer. For me Red Ales seem to turn out the best for some reason.

I think Sam Adams is having a home brew competition....I think an SBG Beer would be a coool win!!
Yes they are. I grabbed a 6 pack of last year's winners called Sam Adams Longshot. There were 3 different kinds in it. All were very interesting. The cool part is that the winners get to have their brews mass produced and distributed by Sam Adams Brewery. Now if I only had the time to perfect a recipe and submit one...maybe one day.