These are the kits I've brewed, along with my experiences.

So far, I've only used EZbrew kits. They've been relatively easy and have tasted good. Because they're prepackaged with ingredients in the right portions, they allow a beginner to focus on getting his or her technique down.

So far I've only bottled, I haven't yet tried to use any kind of kegging system. The bottling is also relatively easy, but it does take about a half hour for two people to bottle five gallons of homebrew beer (it usually makes just shy of 48 bottles).

There's two challenges I've found in brewing so far.

1. Keeping everything clean
2. Quickly cooling the wort from boiling to 70ºF

For keeping everything clean, it's just a question of discovering the technique that works best and what utensils will be needed through the process. It's a very individual thing from what I've found through my own efforts and talking with friends who also brew.

For cooling, I found an ice-bath works just fine. I fill up the kitchen sink less than half full with water, and add as much ice as is needed. Stirring both the ice bath and the wort when it's cooling helps immensely. Typically I find that I need to empty the ice bin in the freezer, as well as have a few small Gladware containers pre-frozen. It's better to do smaller ice cubes, as the greater surface area helps them melt faster and keep the ice-bath absorbing the heat more. However, a few large blocks floating around do help.

I got my homebrew kit this past Christmas, and have brewed three different beers since then.

• Wheat Ale
• Red Ale
• English Brown Ale

It's been several months since I brewed the three above, but they all came out very well. Friends and family that tasted them enjoyed the product. As of this writing, I'm still finishing up the last brew, which I think was the English Brown Ale.

Brewed: August 5, 2007
Yield: 5 gallons
Starting Gravity: 1.040 - 1.055 (1.046 measured)
Final Gravity: 1.008 - 1.012 (1.018 measured)
Alc by Volume: 4.0% - 5.0%
Hop IBUs: 18 - 22

This is a very straightforward brew. No grains to steep in the wort before the sugars are added. The only different thing about it is the 5oz. of lactose that get added when bottled.

A log of my observations & actions in brewing.

Brewed per instructions today. No major issues, nothing exciting, just followed the recipe.

The brew is now fermenting in my pantry, we'll see how it does in a few weeks after I bottle it and it settles long enough.

Average ambient temperature 74°F, strong bubbling in the morning, but tapering off towards evening.

The brew stopped bubbling some time early on the 7th. Allowed it to sit for the past 20 days, trying to let the sediment settle. I decided to forgo the second sitting in the carboy, as I'd done with prior batches (to eliminate more sediment). There was considerable sediment after siphoning the fermented beer into the bottling bucket.

How much made its way into the bottles has yet to be seen. Three of the fourty-two bottles done (the last three) definitely have more sediment than the rest (and have been earmarked).