Preparation

Research:

First, I bought Palmer's How to Brew from Amazon.com and read it several times. Great source. I also watch many youtube videos on all stages of the brewing process and ready many forums on the brewing topics. After all the reading and videos, I felt I was very well educated on all steps.

Brewing Supplies (Brew Kit):

I also researched starter kits on many websites and at my local home brew shop, Hop City. I settled on the NorthernBrewer.com Deluxe kit based on completeness of materials and price. It was the best bang for the buck and included primary and secondary glass carboy fermenters. The only additional items I needed were: Boiling Kettle (I bought a 7.5 gallon from Hop City), a wort chiller (which isn't necessary, but is really helpful and I plan on brewing for a long time), a glass carboy handle, and a faucet converter (so I can attach my kitchen sink faucet to my wort chiller.) I ordered the kit on Sunday and it was delivered on Friday. NorthernBrewer is in MN.

Bottles:

Buying brown bottles in a case is an option for $12.99 per case of 24 plus shipping, but I opted to dive into some Recycling containers and pull out what I needed. Luckily, I live in a condo building that has a bar on the first floor and all their bottle recycling containers are in the corner of our parking lot. With this huge selection, I can choose just the brown bottles that have no raised markings and have easy to remove labels. I pulled many varieties and soaked them in hot water and baking soda for 30 minutes. I found some brands that slipped right off and others that were more stubborn. Armed with this knowledge, I am only going to pull those brands from the bins. For Atlantans, the local SweetWater and Terrapin bottles had labels that were easiest to remove.

Beer Ingredients (Extract Kits):

As a noob, I have opted for extract brewing to start off as opposed to all-grain. It is supposedly easier although all-grain offers more control of flavors. With a 7.5 gallon stainless brew pot, I have the option for all-grain in the future if I want to try it. I bought two kits from NorthernBrewer called Chinook IPA and Extra Pale Ale. The former has all Chinook hops for Bittering, aroma, and dry-hopping as well as specialty grains for steeping. The latter is all Cascade with speciality grains as well. Each kit is complete with the grain steeping bag, yeast, DME, LME, hops and priming sugar. The hops are individually bagged for each stage (example: 1 oz for bittering, 1 oz for aroma, 1 oz for dry hopping.)