So you want to be a Brewer

So you want to be a brewer huh? Great! First and most important question is do you like beer? I don't mean Bud or Coors cause it will most likely be a long time before you can brew them and even longer before you can brew it well. 2nd question is are you wanting to brew to save money off the beer you buy like bud and Coors? You won't, you can save money brewing your own over buying some of the more expensive craft beers though. 3rd and final Are you looking for a fun and rewarding hobby that's been done for almost 10,000 years?

Lets start with the basics of what you will need to start brewing.
1.) a fermentor (glass, better bottle, or bucket with lid)
2.) A bottling bucket (bucket with a spigot)
3.) racking cane (auto siphon is best) and tubing
4.) a kettle (at least a 20qt for 1/2 boils)
5.) Capper
6.) Triple scale hydrometer and test tube
7.) a large stainless steel spoon or high heat plastic
8.) copy of John Palmers How to brew (no really get one!)
9.) Air lock & bung (get a couple they're cheap)
10.) Sanitizer (star san is my favorite)
11.) Cleaning agent (PBW)
12.) 10" funnel (i love the one with the back splash)
13.) carboy brush and bottle brush
14.) Bottles and caps (takes 48-52 for a 5 gallon batch)
15.) Thermometer (i like the ones that clamp on the side of the kettle)
16.) bottling wand
17) Ingredients!

Here are some extras that will make you life easier....
1.) Beer thief
2.) Auto siphon (no more sucking and more sanitary)
3.) Refractometer (instant brix/SG reading no test jar)
4.) A secondary fermentor for a cleaner clearer beer(5 gallon glass or better bottle)
5.) 2000mL flask and foam stopper for starters (much better beer)
6.) a wort chiller (i like immersions)

Now that you have the basic equipment lets begin on what to do.

Step one

Organize! Find a spot for all of your equipment and lay everything out to be prepared, good preparation will make everything way easier later on!
Grab your kettle, spoon, and all your ingredients and lay them out.

Step two

Take your bottling bucket and attach the spigot. Make sure it is in the off position. Now fill about 1.5 gallons cool water into bucket, pour 1 oz of star san into the water and top off to 5 gallons.
Place your spoon, airlock, bungs, funnel, and anything else you are planning on putting in your beer in the bucket of sanitizer.

Step three

Rinse out and make sure your kettle is clean (no soap or anything like that and NEVER use bleach, i don't care what your friends think!)
Fill the kettle with 2.5 gallons of cold water. (cold water from the faucet is normally cleaner and cold water heats up faster then warm)
place your kettle on the stove and turn the fire on high.

Step four

Keep an eye on your temperature, once it gets to be about 150-152 degrees turn off the flame, take your specialty grains that came with the kit(if the kit calls for them) and make sure they have been crushed. If they have not been crushed take them out of the bag and put them in a one gallon zip bag and lightly crack them with a rolling pin. Now take those grains and place them in the included muslin sock, tie off the end and place the grains in the hot water.
let these grains sit for about 30 mins stirring occasionally, just like a tea bag. After the 30 minutes is up remove the bag and throw away, do not squeeze the bag or you can cause off flavors.

Step five

Turn the fire back on and bring the water to a boil. There will most likely be instructions with the ingredients that will give intervals to add you hop additions, they will be in the form of 60 min ,30 min ,20 min etc... think of this as a count down to beer, 60 min addition means you add them right at the start of boil because you have 60 minutes left to boil. Just like a 10 min addition means that you have been boiling for 50 min and have 10 mins left. Once the water starts to boil add 1/2 of your malt extract (stir thoroughly so that nothing sticks to the bottom), and add your first hop addition (watch the temperature and your boil, hops can cause the water to jump). Continue adding your hops as to your schedule. when you have 15 min left in your boil add the remainder of malt extract as well as any nutrients you might want to add or wort clarifiers. (wyeast beer nutrients are great as well as a little Irish moss never hurt anyone)

Step six

Now that you have only 10 min or so before the wort is done boiling its time to get your carboy or bucket out and start sanitizing it. take the funnel and place it in your carboy, now carefully pour some of the sanitizer from the bucket (about a gallon) into the carboy. pick it up and swish it all around so that everything comes in contact with it and pour the sanitizer out. (don't rinse!) keep everything else in the bucket and make sure you sanitize the spoon again before stirring.

Once you hit your zero mark turn off the fire and let the boil come to a cease. Take you spoon out of the sanitizer. At this point anything that comes in contact with the beer needs to be sanitized! Take a bag of Ice and empty it into the sick and fill with cold water, place the hot kettle into the sink and start stirring vigorously. the trick to making better beer is to cool down the beer as fast as possible to minimize a substance called DMS which is dimythelsulfide which causes a gross cooked corn flavor in your beer. Keep the thermometer in the kettle and watch it.

Step 7

As soon as you get to 90 degrees, place the funnel back into the carboy and dump the wort into the carboy, careful not to spill that is precious beer. Leave about 10 oz left in the bottom to use for a gravity reading. Takes notes on everything for repeatability and to know if you made a mistake later. Now top off the carboy to the 5 gallon mark with cool water. shake the carboy back and fourth to get as much oxygen and foaming as you can, the yeast need this oxygen in the beginning to help them replicate. now take your yeast and pour it into the carboy full of beer. take the sanitized stopper and airlock out of the sanitizing bucket and fit them on the carboy. take the beer down where it is going to be fermented and let sit for at least 2 weeks.

Step 8

After the two weeks you have 2 options, take your auto siphon and siphon off the yeast into a cleaned, sanitized 5 gallon carboy and let sit for another two weeks to clear, or let it stay in the primary for another two weeks.

Step 9

after 4 weeks (depending on kit) of frermenting and aging, now its time to start the bottle process. First of all you need to clean and sanitize your bottling bucket, auto siphon, spoon, bottles and caps. Now take the auto siphon and place it into your primary fermenter and begin siphoning into your clean and sanitary bucket. Take 5 oz of corn sugar with 8 oz of water and boil for 5 mins, and pour it into the bucket of beer. Once that is done stir SLOWLY trying not to splash at all (oxygen not your friend at this point) for about 2 minutes. Once this is done attach your bottling wand and tubing to your bottling spigot. Lift the bottling bucket onto a counter and set all of your bottles up on the floor. Open up the spigot, and place the wand into the first bottle, as soon as the beer reaches the top place the wand into the next bottle and so on and so on. Once all the bottle are full start capping with your sanitized caps. Place your bottles at you room temperature for two weeks.

Step 10

Place a beer in the fridge and wait 24 hrs. Now open and enjoy your first beer!

Cheers!