Beer again

So I wont go through the whole process but Ill at least explain the progression of pictures as I go.

This first step is to boil water (most anybody can do that).  Once you reach 150-165 degrees cut the heat and add a mesh bag that contains the crushed grains (in this case 1 lb. Vienna and 8 oz. Caramel) and steep them for 20 minutes, remove them and then return steeped water to a boil (now called wort, pronounced wert).  That is the stage pictured above.  Once boiling add Dried Malt Extract, Liquid Malt Extract, and corn sugar and return to boil (My kit had 3.3 lb. Munich LME, 1 lb. Amber DME, and 1 lb. Corn Sugar).  Return it to a boil and then add the Hops (which is actually the flower of the hop plant, part of the hemp family --- hop and hemp, I guess that makes sense).  The first hops are boiled for 60 minutes and are designed to add bitterness offsetting the sweetness from the grains.  After 55 minutes a second hops is added for a more aromatic brew.  That is the stage captured below.

You can see the green foam, this kit used hop pellets (which are processed hops compressed into pea sized tablets and are more commonly used in brewing then whole hops or hop leaves).  The next step is the most challenging, after 60 minutes you need to reduce the temperature from a boil to 60 degrees as quickly as possible.

I made an ice bath by filling the sink with cubes and cold water, with this I was able to reduce the temperature to about 80 degrees within 5-10 minutes, 60 degrees however was over an hour away.  I can see the value of having a wort cooler here.  At this point I transferred the wort to the fermenting bucket and added clean water to raise the volume back to 5 gallons.

Pitch the yeast on top and seal with cover and airlock (the airlock allows gasses to escape but prevents any bacteria from entering).

Find a place to stash it and wait.  Fermentation should be evident by bubbling through the airlock in about 48 hours.  This should ferment for about 2 weeks with a third week to allow for settling.  So in about 3 weeks we will look to be bottling.

I did check the OG- Original Gravity and it was 1.044 while the range given was 1.045-1.049, I don't know what that will effect at this point.