We did Terrines at school, and you're write, they're incredibly daunting, and you need the write kind of dish and all to make it in. Plus, I was severely disappointed with the taste: they weren't really terrible, but they're fairly bland considering the quality and flavor of the ingredients in them. I'd love to make beer sometime too, the closest I've come is putting yeast in some Welch's grape juice when I was a teenager and letting it sit for a week. I chef (I guess?) for a little bistro/martini bar in Louisville, not the fanciest place I've been, but a good friend of mine runs it.
My roommates made beer in our college dorm way back when (who didn't). It tasted terrible, but I don't think we cared. My landlord's husband makes beer every few months, but his methods for making anything at all are incredibly dubious, so I haven't worked up the steel to try any. Here's the conversation we had last time I stopped by their place: ME: "Hey Sean, I, uh, brought the rent, uh, the rent check..." SEAN (sees me staring at the giant open bowl of ground meat on dirty kitchen table): "Thanks. Oh, that? We're making sausage. Lots of sausage. ME: "...Huh." SEAN (sees me staring at the black cat that's jumped up on the table and is now eating directly from the giant open bowl of ground meat): "That Felix. He loves his sausage."
And I think that's what they mean when they say "you don't want to know how the sausage is made."