The reality of things as I see it
Based on the reading that I've done, there are alot of home brewers who will strongly disagree with my perspective, but due to certain realities, this is the way that I do things. Those realities are, in a nutshell, that I brew as a hobby. I brew because I like beer. I have other requirements for my time and money. So, where do I start? In the kitchen, I guess, with clean equipment. To read books and articles, one might get the impression that beer cannot successfully be brewed without an operating room level of sanitation. My reality is that is simply not true. Does one have to be clean, certainly. Does one have to make sure equipment is sanitized, certainly, but don't let fears of bad beer keep you from brewing. Clean your equipment before and after brewing, then sanitize, but there's no magic to that part. I've used bleach, iodophor, and some acid based no-rinse sanitizer that they sell in the brew supply store (by far the easiest to use). My basic process for sani