About three years ago I brewed three batches from kits. Just got out my brewing equipment and dusted it off. Last Saturday I brewed a Mexican Cerveza from a Brewers Best kit and it has been bubbling away ever since. It’s great to be brewing again. I hope to learn how to brew without using a kit.
Welcome!
You've got a good start--if you can brew from kits, you've got half the process covered, from the boil forward.
A good way to learn how to brew without a kit is to brew a simple recipe to start, to get that part down. Don't know if "without using a kit" means going all-grain or simply building your own recipes from malt extract. If it's the former, a good simple established recipe to start is a good idea, from which you can learn the process.
And we can help here. There's even a very simple yet effective way to brew all-grain, called brew-in-a-bag. I've done it, and it's simple, it works, and it's faster than other all-grain approaches.
It also cuts down on equipment needs--about all you need is a bag ('prox $30-35 with pulley), a heat source, a 10-gallon kettle, and a place to suspend the pulley from. I've attached a couple pics below showing what that's about.
Anyway, enjoy the Mexican Cerveza!