Newbie brewer in North Central Ohio!

Hello, my name's Andrew and I'm excited to start my brewing journey! I've been lurking the forums for a bit and I've been scouring the web for all kinds of information about brewing; I've nearly finished The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, and hope to make my first batch of beer this week!

My top three favorite breweries have got to be the Great Lakes, Troegs, and Stone! My favorite beer styles are Bock and Irish Red.

I picked up a kit and all sorts of extra goodies from a small store in Toledo while visiting family and got a Brewers Best kit for a European Bock(hopefully a good choice!).

I'm a bit concerned that I let myself leave with getting plastic buckets for fermenting instead of spending some extra cash on glass carboys but the guy at the store assured me that I'll be fine with plastic.

Hoo boy, I'm starting to ramble a bit; I'm sure I'll see everyone around on the board as I run into questions or issues during my brewing; I just have to remember to relax and enjoy a homebrew!

Welcome, Ohio!

Plastic is good, glass is heavy. You ought not second-guess the LHBS guy on this one. I went into the shop with my pre-conceived notion that glass carboys were what I wanted, and ended up spending well more than I ought to. Had I bought the pre-packaged starter kit, I would've saved $40 over building it myself, just because I thought glass was inherently better.

Guess who now ferments primarily in plastic? THIS GUY!

I guess I was getting all worked up from the stuff in the Complete Joy of Homebrewing saying that open fermentation systems have a higher chance of unwanted stuff getting in. I wanted the peace of mind of glass. Is it even possible to rack into a second plastic bucket or do you need glass?

Hell, at this point since I haven't even done my first brew yet I guess I'm putting the cart before the horse worrying about secondary fermentation haha

Welcome to HBT!