Brewing recap...

After driving myself crazy for a week on which beer kit to get, I finally decided to go local.  www.stompthemgrapes.com

They were great! The reason I recommend going local is because you can easily mix and match what you need in the kit.

I picked up a Brewers Best kit for my first beer, I figure baby steps is the way to go.  The Kolsch was the flavor I went with, one it was rated "easy" and two I think I like kolsch?

Brew day: Oddly enough the beer kit I bought didn't have much in the way of instructions.  But hey this isn't Rocket Surgery…right?

I think the biggest hurdle is laying everything out and trying to figure how and when to get the process started. I can make soup, I think I should be able to make beer!

The brew process went along fine.  The only issue was cooling the wort, it was below zero out, so I couldn't use my wort chiller to bring it down to temp. I ended up dragging the pot through the snow for about 20 mins, it worked great but was a pain!

I had nice bubbles going in the airlock within in a few hours.

Just an FYI, the brew process can be quite aromatic, so warn your wife. She came in right after I added hops and said "Eww what is that smell". Your kitchen will smell like Coors, be warned.

I let the beer sit in primary for a week and transferred to secondary. I will say that transferring to secondary really cleared up the beer.

If you research online, you will read all sorts of info about whether transferring to secondary is needed or not, the instructions say to, so I did. Your results may vary.

That is all I have for now.  Beer seems to happy in secondary and will stay there for two weeks before kegging.