Beer on a budget

I live on a apartment and could not afford home brewing equipment so far. A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a bunch of cans of really bad commercial beer my father left around from his last visit.
It´s the cheapest beer one can buy in Brazil and I hate the way it smells but it´s still beer so this is what i´ve tried:
Got one half liter can of this worst quality pale lager, added about 30 grams of brown sugar, one "star" of anise and a pinch of yest into a clean sealed bottle . Left it "re-priming" on my fridge for 2 weeks.
I got a pretty spicy, golden, refreshing and more important DRINKABLE beer.
As defects I could point it was a bit too sweet and could use some extra hops.
It took about $0,50 in some poor quality commercial beer to get me this "close to beer but tastier" drink.
Anyone have tried anything close to this with good results?
I started considering buying some hop to add to my next recipe. Am I loosing my time in this (as in I could make better beer from scratch without much equipment)?

Can't say I've ever tried this method...

I imagine the ceiling for how good you're going to get it to taste will be rather low (if still higher than the base beer you're working from) for quite a number of reasons. If you are planning to get some hops to add it's worth noting that unless it is boiled, you won't get very much bitterness at all. If you're just going for aroma then that's another story though.

Honestly though, if you can get your hands on a fermentation bucket, an airlock of some sort, a big pot, and a capper then you'll come out with some much much tastier brew.

It is not beer but you should check out the rice wine thread. yeast balls, five cups of rice, a gallon glass jar and four weeks and you have some really good rice wine. It is really cheap and takes almost no space

TheCroc said:

It is not beer but you should check out the rice wine thread. yeast balls, five cups of rice, a gallon glass jar and four weeks and you have some really good rice wine. It is really cheap and takes almost no space

Click to expand...

Or edwort apfelwein is a good option