Just brewed our first batch

I want to announce that my wife and I just finished brewing our first batch of beer. The lid is on the fermenter. The boiling pot isn't even clean (the wife wants you to guess who gets that duty).

Despite having gone through the Joy of Homebrewing a handful of times as well as the pamphlets and instructions from the LHBS and perusing these forums, several times sparks flew, and there was doubt to the future of our marriage. Now we have a homebrew and can even look one another in the eye.

Issues that caused stress:
1. when boiling the wort, do you use a lid on the pot?
2. everyone says don't pour the hydromoter tested brew back into the fermenter. If the hydromoter's flask has been sanitized and the hyrdromoter's been sanitized, what's the danger?
3. The cap on top of the air lock... does it get screwed on the first night of fermenting or left open the first 48 hours?
4. When using malt extract in the can and stuff that all dissolves, do I really need to use a strainer for transfer to fermenter?
Thanks for the help. Hopefully the Rowsdawer Canadian Blonde (for MSY3K fans, you'll understand the name) is yum yum.
Garrett

Congratulations and welcome to the obsession.

I'm not a pro yet, but here's what I think...

1. No. Use the lid to heat your water, and cover your wort while chilling, but leave it open during the boil.
2. Only danger is ruining 5 gallons of beer trying to save a few ounces. Taste it so you can get an idea of what you've created.
3. Put it on now. You might want to think about using a blow off tube in the future. I got lucky on my first few. Fermented in our dining room w/ an airlock and no issues. My next brew was pretty strong, I decided to use a BO tube and it blew about a 1/2 gallon of krausen through it. If I had done that with an airlock in our dining room, I wouldn't be brewing anymore...Or living in my house anymore!
4. Strainer's optional. Helps aerate, helps clarity, is a PIA when the hops clog over and over again. Most of the leftovers will settle out in primary if you don't strain.

As you learned in the Bible..RDWHAHB.

Congrats.

TM pretty much nailed it.

Welcome

Welcome to HBT!

Welcome and those are good points, TM.

Next time will be so much easier!

Today we bottled our first batch of beer, Coopers Canadian Blonde kit. Honestly, the hardest part was the most enjoyable... draining enough bottles of beer to later will with homebrew.
Garrett