First-Timer

Okay everyone, I am just getting into this hobby and I've tried reading up as much as I can and within the next week I'm going to attempt my first brew. So I'm just going to run by what I think are the general steps, now please give me some tips, critique, anything that has been forgotten in what I've read.
So, first things first, make sure everything is clean, and sanitized.
Next, boil 2 gallons of water, and put it into the fermentation bucket, and than boil 3 more for the wort. Next you kill the heat and stir in the DME, turn the heat back on and add the hops and boil for an hour. After the hot break remove the heat and cool the wort.
Now you add the yeast into the fermentation bucket, followed by the cooled wort. Now you seal the fermentation bucket and let it sit for around two weeks. After this you mix your priming solution and the beer into a bottling bucket. Bottle the beer, and leave it to sit for about another two weeks. After this it's about ready to serve.

Now I'm sure I'm missing stuff, I'm sure there are many variations, and I would like as much advice as possible. I didn't really read anything about secondary, which I've heard a lot about here, so if anyone could tell me about that, I would appreciate it. Any tips to avoid disaster, or anything else you feel I should know would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds like the basic routine. I'd add having an extra gallon or two of preboiled, cooled water; after you boil your 3 gallons for an hour, you'll come up short. Also having a bucket of sanitizer sitting around is always helpful.

Sounds good to me. catfish's advice is very good as well.
When you say seal the bucket, I take it you mean to put the lid on and add an airlock. A completely sealed bucket could be rather messy.
Secondary fermenters are not essential, but are useful for the following reasons:
They provide a safe resting place for the beer in situations when you need to store it for a long period (> 3 or 4 weeks) before bottling.
They free up the primary fermenter for another batch.
They allow the beer to clear more before bottling, resulting in a clearer brew.

Hope this helps,

-a.

As a fellow newbie, who has only brewed one batch, but learned a lot from it, I can only recommend the following to someone about to do the same(I am no expert, I know this and happily embrace it! But this are the notes I jotted to myself after my first batch, so I hope they help!)):

1- Have a backup thermometer handy- on my first batch, the glass tip of my floating thermometer broke midway through, so I was trying to use a candy thermometer the rest of the way, and it was a struggle- since tempature is very important to monitor, I immediately ordered two more, so I have a second one handy in case the first one breaks
2- Checklists, make lots of checklists
3- I made several mistakes while brewing my first batch, my biggest was that once I made one mistake, I got flustered and continued compounding them. If you make a mistake, step away, count to 10, watch an infomercial, read a magazine article, whatever it takes to relax and refocus
4- I think creativity in the brewing process is what anyone starting strives for, you will create your own recipe, name it after something you enjoy, have the boys over to drink some of your "Elvisali" brew , but really try and use the first batch to learn mechanics of brewing, without the mechanics, everything else wont fall into place, or as my old high school football coach once said "when you learn to block, pass and catch, I will teach you a play, so we aint learning any plays today"
5- I created a little chart that I tape to the wall above my fermenter that tracks the # of days in the fermenter, the # of bubbles per minute I am seeing in the airlock(I try and measure it at the same time each day during the initial fermentation), the # of days in the secondary,etc. It is very easy to lose track of time, etc, and I find this really helps
5- Ask lots of questions here, the people are great, never make you feel stupid and are a great source of knowledge

Enjoy from one newb to another

Everyone does things slightly differently, thats why I read these forums, even though I've been at it for a few years now, theres always someone who has a slightly better method worth stealing.

I pre-boil all my water the night before around 6-7 US gallons (depends how much your fermentor will hold). Put it in a fermentor bucket with a tap and allow the sediment that has precipitated out to settle to the bottom. Dont be put off if you see some on the surface its caught in the surface tension of the water and wont hurt. Let it cool over night and you have a source of clean sterile and reasonably pure water.

With the bucket with tap on the counter top you can use it just like you would a water faucet. Fill your pan with around 3 gallons, bring to boil, add DME, when boiling again add first batch of hops and watch out for the hot break, keep stiring it back as much as you can but be ready to remove from heat, a boil over is sticky and messy and wastes good potential beer.

After an hour (and any other hop additions mentioned in recipe) crash cool the wort in a sink or bath of water/ice. It will take a while.

Strain this through a seive into a fermentor and top up from your clean water source until you hit the required SG. The drop the water makes from fermentor on counter top to fermentor on floor aerates the wort and helps the yeast to get a good start.

(Seives are notorious for harbouring bacteria, give it a good long soak in sanitizer/cleaner)

Check wort is below 25/26 deg c Add yeast and stir in well.

You havent mentioned a secondary fermentor vessel, and thats ok, many people dont use one but I wouldnt leave your beer in the primary fermentor for as long as 2 weeks. Either leave it in the fermentor for 10 days with a loose fitting lid, then rack it to your bottle bucket off the sediment which can cause off flavours if left too long.

Or leave with a loose fitting lid and then check the SG after fermentation subsides, when it remains stable for at least 12 hrs, transfer it to a secondary fermentor bucket with airlock and leave for 2 weeks before racking to your bottling bucket.

Leave the bottles for a week to condition at around 20 deg c, then transfer them to a cool enviroment for at least two weeks.

Having old towels around for spillages would be useful too at a stages.

Old towels, Yes. I typically brew with two bath towels, and half a dozen tea towels. NOT the nice ones your wife likes, the ones you like that she wants you to throw away.

TEND said:

Now you add the yeast into the fermentation bucket, followed by the cooled wort.

Click to expand...

You want to pour the cooled wort into the bucket, top off to 5 gallons, mix well, take a sample for your OG reading (if you're doing that), then pitch the yeast.

Here's a good read that goes through all the steps: How-to-Brew.

Lots of good suggestions. I'm still kind of confused about the secondary. Basically from what I understand you can put it in a bucket just like your fermentation bucket, but I don't understand what this changes. Could someone please explain this to me.

Putting it into another bucket after fermentation is complete gets the wort off of the trub, which will prevent off flavors from developing, and gives the beer a chance to clear and "condition". Here is a good read on the benefits of secondary fermentation.

Dont feel compelled to use a secondary vessel, many many homebrewers make great beer without that step. As a new brewer its probably advisable to skip it until your happy with the whole process, get a couple of brews under your belt and you may be so happy with them you will end up thinking, why bother. By cutting out that step you are also cutting out another source of infection.

You will be fine using just the one vessel as long as you dont leave it in there (on the trub) much more 10 days.

I would add only one thing... make sure you take a lot of notes. Write everything that you are doing or seeing. This will help you make better beer as you will know what you did and what you want to change.

Here is a great brewing worksheet if you dont have one...

http://www.radicalbrewing.com/rbdown.html

What ever you do do not boil with the lid on( boil over). Don't ask how I know.

You'll understand more about secondary fermenters after you've bottled your fist batch.

When you bottle, you should rack into a bottling bucket, and mix with priming sugar. When you do this, you will find an amazing amount of sediment in the bottle of your primary fermenter. The main purpose of a secondary fermenter is to get rid of most of this sediment, so less of it finds it's way into the bottle. Very little fermentation actually happens in the secondary, and for a first brew, I don't think it is necessary.

-a.

Alright, thanks I think I get it now. Are there any websites or books you guys can recommend with recipes. I've been checking out some of the cool recipes on this forum and would like to try some neat recipes like that. Or should I just sort of experiment and find things I like?

TEND, if you have a favorite beer now, you can always try to find either a kit or a recipe to match it. There are books like "Beer Captured" that give clone recipes for most popular beers. Lately, I've been buying extracts and hopped extracts, and adding adjunct grains or rice or whatever, and hops and stuff, aiming loosely in certain directions, and seeing what different things do to my beers. Ideally, a guy would make the same beer over and over again, and make small adjustments each time, and learn exactly what each ingredient is responsible for. But that's boring and impracticle... so brew whatever grabs your attention. Most homebrewing books have lots of recipes from kit to all grain, and everything in between.

Welcome to the good life.

My friends and I exchange a lot of beers, and that way we've learned what various kits/extracts/adjuncts do. It's sped things up a lot.