But along those lines- how does one crack a grain?
The recommended method is a grain mill. The Barley Crusher is a favorite:
http://www.barleycrusher.com/
If you're doing all-grain GF, I'd say a mill is an absolute must. Many non-GF all grain brewers simply have their homebrew supply store mill their grain for them, but obviously this is not an option for GF brewers, given the contamination risk.
However, if you only need a small amount of grain for an extract recipe (say half a pound to 2 pounds), or you're willing to put in the time to grind the 8 or more pounds of grain necessary for an all grain batch, you can also use a rolling pin, or a blender on low speed in quick pulses (you want to crack your grain, not grind it into flour).
And is that grain to be malted first? Perhaps the site you referenced will tell me, and that will be my next stop, but if you can explain= I'd be most grateful.
If you're not doing an all-grain brew, the grain can simply be roasted/toasted for flavor, since you'll be getting all your sugars from the syrup. For all-grain, malting is important for releasing the enzymes that convert the starches in the grain to the sugars that the yeast convert to alcohol.
We're putting in a veggie garden this week- once that's planted, the next stop is the local homebrew store to look for ingredients.
You won't find much in the way of gluten free grains for malting. Those will have to come from a health food store or online supplier. Quinoa is not great as a home-grown GF grain because it has a bitter coating that has to be removed (
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Quinoa). However, you will find hops and yeast, and you'll probably find sorghum syrup and rice syrup/rice syrup solids at the very least.
Be aware that liquid yeasts do contain gluten so you will want to use dry yeast to start out. Diluting liquid yeast to remove the gluten is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.
I have brew equipment given to me by someone who doesn't do it anymore so I'm set in that department. Thanks again.
What specific brew equipment do you have? If it's your basic kit setup (boil kettle, buckets, racking cane, tube, and bottles) then you're probably set for extract brewing, but at a minimum you will also need a mash tun (
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a_mash_tun) to properly do all grain brews.