Stirring

I know this question is naive, but I can't find an answer one way or another in my books, kit instructions or the internet and I need an answer before I feel good about starting my first batch.
Am I or am I not to stir during the boiling/creating of the wort? I know I need to get my extracts fully dissolved and so they should be able to boil without burning, but what about the hops? Won't they sink and burn over the course of the boil if I am not stirring regularly?

you can but don't need to. a nice rolling boil keeps everything churning.

So there are a couple of distinct phases during brewing, but in general you never boil your grains. If you are doing an extract + specialty grains then they are steeped, but not boiled. When the boil happens there are indeed hops in your wort, but the boil is rapid enough it doesn't burn.

Does that make sense? If not, please give us an idea of the exact steps you plan to take. Brewing isn't very hard, there are just some gotchas that can, well, getcha

Stirring is good, but you don't have to obsess over it. Especially with extract recipes and a partial boil, you want to occasionally scrape the bottom so you can avoid getting and scorched bits of sugar on the bottom of the pot. That doesn't mean you need to stand over your pot for the whole hour boil or anything, but every five or ten minutes go give it a good stir.

Thanks. That's what I expected to hear, I just needed to hear it. I have no beer experience, but lots of food experience and so the idea of leaving something on the stove, boiling on its own for an hour seems wrong.

Think about making a demi-glace from a thin stock, and that's the amount of stirring you should do--just disregard the clarity problems boiling a stock would cause Make sense?

You should certainly stir at first, just to get everything dissolved. After things start boiling I leave it alone.

You do want to stir when you first add your DME and hops... after everything is mixed in, you can leave it and come stir every once in a while... I personally do stir often...