Everything needs to be cleaned and sanitized.
This kit uses dry yeast, I had to start a little bit of it with warm water and dextrose. To the untrained eye it looks a bit like a mug of water left sitting too long. Since this was my first brewing experience I didn't know what to expect, more about that later.
I have added the malt extract for what the kit maker calls a "light pilsner" (never mind that pilsner is a lager and this is an ale)
The kit included a collapsable "cubitainer" - a 1-gallon container that will be the fermenter
The wort is chilled to pitching temperature, topped off to full volume, yeast has been pitched, and the airlock is in place to allow CO2 out, but not let outside air in.
The kit instructions were to let the beer ferment for about a week, then add dextrose and give it another week. Most of this time it didn't seem to be fermenting as enthusiastically as I expected ... more about that later
Nothing very sophisticated about this bottling setup
I filled all of the bottles, added priming sugar for carbonation, and screwed those plastic caps on. Now its a few more weeks of waiting.
The beer has had a couple of weeks to bottle condition and carbonate. As you can see in this picture, it didn't develop much head. Upon tasting it was flat and had a kind of cidery taste. I'm pretty sure the reason is that the yeast was old. There's no telling how long the kit sat around in various warehouses before being purchased. When I finally got around to brewing with it most of the yeast was probably dead, but there was just enough live yeast for me to think things were okay.