These are some of the biggest concerns of new Brewers

How much sugar can I put in my beer?

Most brewers recommend limiting the use of dextrose to the priming stage of the procedure, as it tends to produce cidery flavors when used in large quantities that are generally undesirable. Some online shops sell dextrose as a 1% alcohol booster kit. No more than perhaps a single pound should be used.

Can I boil my grains?

• You do NOT want to boil grains, as such high temperatures will extract unpleasant-tasting tannins from the grain, which lend an astringent, puckering quality to the beer, a definite off-flavor that should be avoided.
• Steep the grains in a muslin bag or piece of cheesecloth at 150-170ºF (66-77ºC) for half an hour, then remove them, giving the bag a gentle squeezing to remove some of the absorbed water. Again, too vigorous a squeezing will put tannins into the beer.

Do I have to wait?

Patience is one of the hardest things to learn as a brewer, but the sooner it is learned, the better. You should not plan on really drinking a beer until a month after you initially brew it, at the very earliest. Usually, you'll have to wait at least six weeks for the beer to start tasting pretty good, and the longer you let the beer age, the better it gets. So the short answer is, YES!

Can I bottle yet?

You want to make sure the beer has stopped fermenting, as an incomplete fermentation and early bottling can lead to the dread bottle bombs, which are absolutely no fun at all. Make sure you see basically no activity in the fermenter, then check the gravity to see if you've reached your target. Some advise checking the gravity three days in a row to make sure it hasn't changed, but that has been debated.

Do I need an hydrometer?

• When All grain brewing an hydrometer is vital, it tells you that you have extracted enough sugars from the grain, that you are not extracting tannins ,when your primary fermentation is done and how much alcohol is in the beer.
• With Extract brewing if you follow the recipe you will always have enough sugar in the wort and will know the original gravity. If your beer finishes fermenting you will be able to work out the alcohol content.
• BUT The only way you will know if the beer has finished fermenting or sometimes even started is to check the gravity with an Hydrometer. Just because the bubble have finished in an airlock have finished does not mean the the fermentation is always finished and complete.
• Many people do brew without an Hydrometer but it is not "best practice"

I have bits floating on my beer

Good! Odds are, it's either proteins from the cold break, or pieces of hops, or globs of yeast working hard to make beer for you. However, sometimes you have a real problem, such as infection or other contamination.

• List of potential infections needed

My beer is flat

Bottle carbonation can usually take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. The bottles need to be kept in warm place. If you are desperate to start drinking the beer then test one a week until it is done. A good tip is to bottle at least one plastic PET bootle so you can squeeze test. If they fail to carbonate then you may have leaky caps or used too little priming agent. To test the caps you can fit a balloon over a couple of bottles to see if they inflate. If there is not enough priming agent and they have failed after several weeks, you can open and pour back into a bottling bucket, then bottle again. Once the beer is carbonated you can then move to a cooler storage place. Carbonation requires very little suspended yeast so as long as you've not had a extremely long fermentation or allowed you wort to be heated then there will be enough yeast for carbonation.

External Links

How To Brew 

By John Palmer, a must read for all those serious about Home Brewing.