I'm new and planning to cook my first batch of beer tomorrow, and I hope/believe I have everything I need. (The kit came with an O2-based cleanser but no sanitizer, so my hubby's supposed to bring some Star-San on his way home, since he has a local homebrew shop near his apartment and my nearest is an hour away.) Batch 1 is an extract-based Old Speckled Hen clone with some crystal malts that I'll need to boil and un-hopped syrup.
1) I'm planning on using Wally-world "drinking water" for brewing, since the local water is chloraminated and tastes a bit weird. I see conflicting information -- Do I want to boil the first few gallons that go into my fermenter, or am I safe to dump them in cold and trust that they're sufficiently clean to just pour in before adding my boiled wort?
2) What's the best way to sanitize? How much can I rely on a spray bottle of Star-San solution and how much do I really need to soak?
Working ahead...
3) I have 2 cases of 22 oz bottles which I plan to supplement with some used 12 oz ones. Do I have to worry about amounts of priming sugar given the different bottle sizes, or should that be OK?
4) What's this I've read about bottling into a few pop bottles to assess carbonation?
5) What's the best procedure to sanitize all those bottles? Due to funky water, the dishwasher has a rinse agent in it, so that's out. Do I fill the bathtub with sanitizer solution? Am I better off just capping them all with foil and borrowing my lab's autoclave?