[scrap iron]

1....   When you first start brewing chose an Ale, a Brown Ale or something simple. Don't begin with Lagers or something exotic. 2.....  Get a good thermometer and pay attention to Mash and Ferment temps.3.... Don't use straight tap water, treat it with Campden tabs or use RO or DI water and check profiles on a good spreadsheet like Bru'n water to match your beer. 4.... Keep good records,now I include water adjustments, temps of mash,ferment,ph reading,bottling sugar amounts.  5...A calendar just for brewing.Brew dates, bottling,kegs on co2, dryhop and notes on comps coming up 2 months in advance.  6... Use starters or use larger amounts of fresh yeast.  7...Get a good sprayer from a farm & home store and keep Star San in it. 8....1.5 milliliters to 1 quart of RO water is good for #7.   Great thread!
       

[Alewyfe]

Wooden clothes pins marked with 60, 30, 15 etc. can be clipped on to bowls, plastic cups or hop bags and whirlflock bag to keep you from missing an addition or forgeting which bag was which.

Empty paper grain sacks make great carboy covers to keep out light.

Wallpaper tray filled with sanitizer is great for racking canes, auto syphons and hoses than need sanitizing.

[kmccaf]

For those who brew outside in the cold winter: get all the water out of your hoses, and store them inside. I like to measure everything out the night before, but have to remember to keep buckets of water inside. It is always a good idea to have a couple gallons of distiller water around. I often use it to top off at the end of a boil, or add at the beginning of a boil when volumes aren't quite what they should be.

[narvin]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

[tommymorris]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

That perfectly describes my home brewery.  I step out of the RV in my tidy whities from time to time just to keep things interesting.

[Steve Ruch]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

That perfectly describes my home brewery.  I step out of the RV in my tidy whities from time to time just to keep things interesting.

Interesting to who?

[tommymorris]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

That perfectly describes my home brewery.  I step out of the RV in my tidy whities from time to time just to keep things interesting.

Interesting to who?

To Breaking Bad fans.

PS. My bad Walter White cooked in tighty whities not tidy whities.

[kgs]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

That perfectly describes my home brewery.  I step out of the RV in my tidy whities from time to time just to keep things interesting.

Interesting to who?

To Breaking Bad fans.

PS. My bad Walter White cooked in tighty whities not tidy whities.

"I am not homebrewing, Skyler. I *AM* the homebrew."

[dannyjed]

Always wear a yellow hazmat suit and gas mask when brewing in the driveway.

Shout "Jesse, we have to cook!" as loud as possible at the beginning of every brewday.

A vintage RV in the driveway makes a great equipment storage shed.

That perfectly describes my home brewery.  I step out of the RV in my tidy whities from time to time just to keep things interesting.

Interesting to who?

To Breaking Bad fans.

PS. My bad Walter White cooked in tighty whities not tidy whities.

"I am not homebrewing, Skyler. I *AM* the homebrew."

Ha Ha, a little TPB reference.

[narvin]

There are so many good suggestions in this thread.  The only thing I can think of is "Be patient".  And since patience isn't easy, "Make another brew so you don't rush the last one".

[coolman26]

#1 thing I wish I had known, get your water tested first thing.  Then brew your first all grain batch to match your water.  I tried a yellow fizzy when I needed a stout or porter.

#2 If your water is hard, mix your sanitizer with distilled water and buy you a spray bottle.  Clean and Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize

#3 Now you know the style to brew, pitch enough dry yeast.

#4 Swamp cooler, time of year ambient temp, wet towel and fan to cover your fermenter,  keep the ferment somewhat under control.

[VictorBrew]

Condition your malt before milling ... 10 minutes well spent

[denny]

Condition your malt before milling ... 10 minutes well spent

Since conditioning makes no difference for me, it's 10 minutes wasted.

[klickitat jim]

Condition your malt before milling ... 10 minutes well spent

Does this aid in lautering? Or is there more to it than that?

[Phil_M]

I don't see this mentioned anywhere else, but wear appropriate clothing. I used to brew barefoot, but thankfully the one time I've spilled 155^oish wort I was wearing jeans and boots. Thankfully I didn't get burned, and about a gallon and a half loss was the worst damage. I no longer brew without jeans and decent shoes, even in the summer.