The same thing applies here as with all other methods of brewing --- it can be as expensive or complicated as you want it to be, but in the end it's you who has to clean up the gear, wash the bottles, and handle the brewing. Your wife (or husband) is probably not going to volunteer their services to clean up after you. So whatever method you want to use, keep it relatively simple (especially in the clean-up department).

The fundamentals

Beer is basically fermented "tea water", only instead of using spices and herbs, you're steeping malted grains in water within a specific temperature range for 60 minutes, then taking that water (i.e. "wort") and boiling it with hops for another 60 minutes, chilling, then fermenting with yeast (the type will vary and is specific to the recipe you're making), and then bottling up the end result. That's basically the fundamentals of making beer --- grain water that's been boiled, chilled to room temp, fermented for a few weeks, then bottled and served. Simple as you want it to be.

With extract kits, you're essentially saving yourself the process of mashing (or steeping) the grains and moving right on to the boiling process. It's a great way to start out in the awesomeness that is brewing your own beer. I've brewed quite a few extract kits as have some of my friends --- it's relatively easy, painless, and still produces delicious results. And what essentially can make brewing with extract kits better for some, is that there is generally less clean-up involved, it takes less time, requires less equipment, and still produces great results in the end.

But if you are the adventurous type and wish to have more control in the brewing process, all-grain might be for you --- no plastic containers or cans to throw away (reduced waste), good compost for your garden (the spent grains), you can easily customize your own recipes with the types of grains you use, and it also can become an art form...crafting your own unique beers.

Regardless of whatever method you choose, the following considerations are universal:

• Always, always, always clean and sanitize your equipment (this includes your bottles, bottle caps, containers, utensils). At the end of the brewing process, you don't want your yeast to have unwanted competition when it comes to the consumption of your fermentable sugars --- that is, you don't want bacteria and foreign yeast "fermenting" your beer for you.
• Be prepared and relatively organized. Plan out your brew day, including a checklist with your equipment, the process, and have a place for everything. It just helps you in the long run, preventing occasions when you're desperately searching for that one thing you needed like five minutes ago.
• Your beer is only as good as your water. I used to work at Caribou Coffee as a supervisor, and one of the things we were indoctrinated on, was that your coffee is only good as your water. Since both coffee and beer are at least 90% water (for coffee it's about 96%), you will want good-tasting water to brew your beer with. If your tap water is gross, why would you use it in your beer? Go get some big five-gallon jugs of water from your grocery store and use that instead.
• Have fun. It seems trivial or perhaps obvious to put that there, but sometimes brewing beer can become more work than you like and it can reach a point where it's no longer fun. That happened to me, and it directly related to the work involved with bottling beer. So I took a break...a long one. And now that I'll be brewing with my brother and will likely have refrigeration space, we're going to do more kegging and filling growlers instead of bottles. If brewing becomes less like fun and more like work, step back, take a breather, and evaluate what you can do differently to bring the fun back into it.

So keep those things in mind as I start to talk about brewing your first extract kits and the base-level equipment that will be involved.

Extract kits and the base level equipment needed

If both cost and space is an issue, this guide will most certainly be for you, containing only the information you need to know and the equipment that is a must-have for brewing your own beer from extract kits. The instructions that follow assume that you're brewing a five-gallon batch, the normal base level quantity that most kits start at. You can brew with less (and most certainly more), but for the sake of simplicity, I'm assuming you're starting out with your first five-gallon batch.

Must have equipment for brewing day

• An extract beer kit (with extract, hops, and yeast...don't forget the yeast!). Northern Brewer has a ton of great extract kits to choose from.
• A 12-quart stockpot or other pot that is able to safely boil 2.5 to 3 gallons of water
• Large wooden spoon for stirring
• Stove or heating element for heating up water
• Large enough sink that you can fit your boil pot in (cooling) and perhaps a bag of ice
• Five gallon bucket with lid (this will be your fermenter)
• One-way fermentation air lock attached to the lid of the aforementioned bucket
• A boil-safe thermometer
• (Optional) Hydrometer with testing jar. I say optional simply because you generally can get by without one if you follow the kit instructions. That said, you can collect some helpful information to troubleshoot your brew should something not seem right.
• Packet of Priming Sugar used on bottling day at 5 oz. per 5-gallon batch
• Small pot for boiling water
• Enough growlers for a five gallon batch (roughly 9 to 10 growlers depending upon your efficiency). If you wish to use bottles instead of growlers, you will need (and can all be found here):
  • Between 45-55 bottles (depends upon your efficiency)
  • bottle caps
  • a bottle capper
  • a bottle filler
• And lastly, but perhaps most importantly some equipment sanitizer. I recommend One Step powder-based sanitizer, but there are plenty of other sanitizing options available. Refer to the instructions on the packaging for proper usage.

That's about all you need to get started in the brewing process.

Getting started

Well first thing's first...let's open up your kit and see what's inside! Because each recipe will be unique, instructions may slightly vary from recipe to recipe. Some kits have just the extract bottles, some have specialty grains that you will steep like tea at about 160°F, and sometimes special boil additives like coriander and bitter orange peels. For instructions on how to add/use those special ingredients, please do read the instructions that come with the kit or ask someone at the store you're buying from.

As a rule of thumb, specialty grains (with accompanying grain sock) will be steeped like tea for about 20–30 minutes at 160°F before the boil, and other additives like dried orange peels, coriander seeds, and hops will be added during the boil. Some kits even come with extract flavoring or fruit purees. Purees are generally added in your fermenter and extract flavorings are added at bottling time. But again, refer to the instructions.

1. Prepare your yeast pack

By far the easiest yeast to work with (from my experience) has been the Wyeast and White Labs pitchable yeast. A couple hours before you start your brewing, bring your yeast pack up to room temperature and then pop the nutrient bubble pack inside the yeast pack (without opening the yeast pack itself). Refer to the specific instructions on the packaging for best results.

In the photo to the right, the Wyeast pack is the blue bag in the bottom right corner. When you've activated the yeast packet (by popping the nutrient pack), you will start to hear a fizz-like sound inside the bag. That clues you in that the yeast has begun digesting the sweet nutrients and have begun reproducing. While a full, tightly-filled bag (of gas and air) is generally a sign of sufficient yeast production, you will occasionally have a bag that only feels partially blown up. If you hear no activity at all, either you didn't split the nutrient pack or you might have a bad batch of yeast.

Important: when storing your yeast before brewing, keep it refrigerated to prolong the life of the yeast cells. You should not store your yeast pack at room temperature for more than six to twelve hours unless you intend to use it within that next 12 to 24 hour period.

You can activate your yeast up to 24 hours before you are ready to pitch it.

2. Prepare your boil pot

Fill your boil pot with two and a half gallons of good drinking water and begin to heat it up.

If you have specialty grains: bring the temperature up to about 156–160°F and hold that temperature. Once you've reached that temperature, steep the specialty grains in a grain sock for about 20 – 30 minutes. The grain sock is basically cheesecloth with one end sealed up and the other end open for putting your grains in. Make a tight knot on the grain sock so the grains don't spill out.

If you don't have specialty grains, and/or have finished steeping them: bring your water up to a solid boil, then pour in your bottled extract. Make sure that you stir it in well and that you don't let any extract stick to the bottom of your pot. So stir it up good, scrape the bottom of your pot (hence why using a wood spoon is suggested), and make sure your water turns a nice golden-brown (or a dark coffee color if you're using a dark beer kit).

3. The boil

When you've mixed in your extract and finally brought your pot up to a boil, begin a timer or watch for when the boil started (to note when your 60 minutes will be up). I suggest a regular kitchen timer with an alarm on it --- chances are you'll be off doing something like drinking beer, talking with a friend, or off watching tv during the boil. It's nice to be notified when the boiling is done.

During the boil you will be doing a few things, including putting in hops, preparing your boil additives (which also could be done while your water is heating up initially), and of course sanitizing your fermenting bucket and all equipment or items that will come in contact with the wort.

Hop schedules

Hop schedule is basically a term for the time and intervals at which you will add various hops to your boil. Typically you will be adding hops at one or more of the following intervals: at the start of the boil (60 minutes), half way through the boil (30 minutes), and at the end of the boil (0 minutes). Hops introduced at the 60-minute mark (the start of the boil, counting backwards from 60 to zero) are added for flavor. And hops added towards the end of the boil (at the 0 mark, or one minute from the end of the boil), are added for aroma, giving off that wonderful floral aroma that comes only from hops. Hops that are added at the 30 minute mark are generally for both aroma and flavor. Beers like Extra Pale Ales will have hops added throughout the boil, whereas IPA's may have more introduced at the start for the bitter flavor, but perhaps less at the end.

4. Chilling the wort

After your wort has boiled for 60 minutes, pull it off the heating element and prepare to chill it. The objective is to get your wort temperature down to about 90°F within 20 minutes --- how you get to that point is pretty much up to you. My suggestion, give your kettle an ice bath. Pour a little bit of ice at the base of the sink, put the kettle in the sink, and then surround your kettle with ice, and allow it to chill until the ambient kettle temperature reaches about 90°.

But in addition to the ice bath, you will be pouring the last 2.5 gallons of water into your batch. Recall when you added 2.5 gallons of water in for the boil to mix with the extract? You will combine the remaining 2.5 gallons of cold drinking water and your wort into your fermenting bucket. So this also helps dramatically reduce the cool-down time.
If you have a little extra cash to spend, consider an immersion wort chiller. While this is one additional thing to clean, sanitize, and hook up, it does make wort chilling much easier. Shown in the photo to the right, I'm using an immersion chiller placed sideways into my kettle (the only way it would fit in my small kettle). I am running cold water from the sink through the hose and wort chiller, and then out around the kettle.

The reason you want to get that temperature to 90° within 20 minutes is because the longer your wort is between room temperature and under 200°, the greater the risk for your wort becoming infected with foreign yeast or bacteria. If for some reason you just cannot get that temperature down within 20 minutes, keep your kettle sealed shut and immersed in ice and/or cold water until it does reach 90°.

5. Ferment your wort

When you've finally chilled your wort down to 90°, you will want to find a way to aerate your wort before you pitch the yeast (getting oxygen into the mix). Boiling your wort, while purifying itself, it does reduce the amount of oxygen in the liquid and doesn't necessarily give the most optimal environment for your yeast to continue to reproduce and digest the fermentable sugars in your wort.

Aerating simply increases the speed of yeast production in your wort, but you can get by with a minimalist approach --- just splashing your wort around a little bit. I have never used any aeration devices apart from safely splashing the wort a little bit, and most of my batches have fermented just fine.

If you choose to aerate and have done so, now pour your wort into your fermenting bucket and then pitch yeast packet --- and if I need to be obvious about that, it simply involves cutting open a small corner of the yeast packet and emptying the yeast solution into the bucket. Stir it up well and then seal up your bucket.

If you have a hydrometer, you may wish to take a reading before you seal up your bucket [and make sure you've sanitized that hydrometer!]. The hydrometer will measure your Original Gravity (OG) reading. The OG is based upon the density of the wort (ratio between water and malt/grains/extract). Knowing the OG and your Final Gravity (FG) --- which you collect on bottling day --- will give you an approximate Alcohol By Volume (ABV) in the end.

When you've sealed up your fermenting bucket, it's important to allow air to escape the bucket and not get in, hence why the need for a one-way air lock. If you cannot get an air lock but have access to some plastic tubing and can connect it to the bucket lid (with a tight sealed fitting), put the other end of the tube (not connected to the lid) in a small one-gallon bucket half-filled with water. Depending upon the yeast activity and your fermenter size, you could have what's called blow-off --- blow-off is foam, fizz, and particles from the wort that blow up through the tube and into your one-gallon water bucket.

If you've got an eight to ten gallon bucket for a five gallon batch you should be okay. But if you've gone Cadillac on me and went and bought a glass carboy to ferment your beer in, make sure you have a blow-off hose (instead of the one-way air lock). You'll thank me later when you see lots of foam frothing up through your fermenter, down the tube, and into your blow-off bucket.

Make sure you clean up after yourself, so that your significant other will permit you to continue brewing beyond this batch. You've gotta keep enough good will deposited in their bank account to keep brewing in the future.

6. Bottling day

In general, it's pretty safe to say that for most ales you can bottle them up after about four weeks of fermenting. Some darker and higher gravity ales may require more time --- even up to three months. Be sure to refer to your kit's instructions for fermenting time.

Clean and sanitize ALL of your bottles, bottle caps, equipment, and pretty much ANYTHING that will be coming in contact with your beer. Please follow the instructions on your sanitizing product packaging for specific instructions and usage.

Prepare to prime your wort by boiling up about a cup or two of water and adding 5 ounces of priming sugar (per 5 gallon batch), boil for about five to ten minutes, and then cool the priming solution down to room temperature. While the solution is cooling, this would be a good time to take your Final Gravity (FG) measurement. There are a host of FG calculators out there to help you determine the ABV% of your beer.

When the solution has reached room temperature, pitch it into your wort and stir it in good, ensuring that the sugar solution has mixed in well with the wort.

After you've mixed the priming sugar and wort together, it's time to get the beer into your bottles or into your growlers. Now how you do that will vary from setup to setup. Some fermenting buckets will have a shutoff valve that you can hook your bottling hose to, some will require you to pump it out. If you need specific instructions on that, contact either someone at your brewing store or drop your questions as a comment and I'll try to respond.

Make sure that you leave a little breathing room in your bottles, roughly an inch, and then either cap your bottles or seal up your growlers.

Let the bottles and growlers sit in a dark, cool room (roughly 68° is ideal) for two weeks. Then refrigerate your beer and you're ready to enjoy the works of your hands.

If you have questions about the extract brewing process, please post your questions in the comment box and I'll do my best to answer them. If you found this tutorial helpful, be sure to link me up and share it with your friends.

In this entry, I'm going to cover a few options for all-grain mashing and review their relative pro's and con's, including the gear that you may wish to consider and/or need to go that particular route. I'll also share a few links to more information on the widely opinionated discussion on the varying mashing techniques that are out there. And hopefully in the end you will have a better idea of all the options available to you, and I will have worked out in my head which will work for my circumstance.

And for the record, this is not the definitive list of techniques or a complete dissertation covering all that you could possibly need to know about R.I.M.S. or other techniques of maintaining mash temperatures for single-step infusion mashes. Think of this as a primer to get you involved in the discussion and investigating what will work best for you.

Know your environment

When I had been brewing beer before my hiatus, I was brewing in our kitchen on the stove and fermenting/bottling in the basement. Of course, that was before we found out my wife and I were pregnant, and when I still had some space in our home to use for storing my equipment. Well times changed and our circumstances no longer afforded me the ability to brew and store like I had done before. This has me considering what my options are now and whether or not I will have to replace some of my equipment or even adjust my brewing process altogether.

Now that we'll essentially be brewing in my brother's garage that both opens up some possibilities and simultaneously removes some. For example, we no longer have the luxury of a conventional stove (gas or electric) and sink at our disposal as you would find in a kitchen, of course without making serious modifications to his detached garage. But on the flip side, suddenly propane becomes an option for heating. Additionally, we may even have cold storage options for making lagers or for storing kegs, whereas before I had no space to store kegs and keep special bottled beer for certain occasions. So it means that there will be some give and take with regard to options.

The fundamental consideration

By far, the most important factor for deciding how you mash comes down to a single question: how can I maintain a steady mashing temperature of 154–162°F (with a general pH range of 5.3–5.7) for 60 minutes? That temperature range ensures that you're creating an environment for the production of good enzymes and fermentable sugars. Anything below 154°F doesn't quite produce the level of sugars that you will need for effective fermenting. And should you exceed that level, you basically stop the production of the Alpha Amylase enzyme that produces maltose and other sugars.

You've heard in Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail that five is right out — the same can be said for 170°. At that point, the husk tannins become more soluble, which can lead to excessively sour or bitter tasting beer. You want the bitterness to come from the hops and the citrus flavor from the yeast, not from tannins produced in your wort.

The range of 154–162°F is your target, and there are many ways to get there and keep it there. So lets cover some of the different heating methods and your options for for gear.

Conventional single infusion mash

The most basic way of reaching and maintaining your mash temperature is the simple adding of grains to a container of X gallons of water at Y°, and keeping that container both insulated and sealed up so no heat can get out. In addition, it does require a little bit of math or the use of some readily available calculators for determining both the volume of strike water needed and at what temperature. This added math complexity, while not a big deal for some, can be irritating at best to others.

There are a few numbers that you need to know:

• Amount of wort going into the fermenter (gallons)
• Weight of total grains (pounds)
• Grain temperature (usually the ambient room temperature unless they're refrigerated)
• Your target mash temperature
• Total boil time (generally 60 minutes)

Based upon that information, most calculators can give you the total water needed, how much water for mashing is required, how much you will need for sparging, and what your initial strike water temperature should be. So for example, if I was making a 5 gallon batch, was using 14 pounds of grains, had a target mash temperature of 158° and a boil length of 60 minutes, I can expect that I will need 8.38 gallons total --- 4.73 for mashing and 3.66 for sparging, and my initial strike water temperature will be 171°F.

There's a great article that talks about calculating mash water in more detail along with a link to an excel spreadsheet that gives you the ability to plug in some numbers and come up with your totals. It's a decent read and will help take the mystery out of figuring out your mash water needs.

So with that formula and my result of 4.73 gallons (rounded to 4.75) of mash strike water at 171°F, if my grain and room temperature is truly what I set it to, that 171° should cool down to the general ballpark of my desired mash temperature of 158°. And my ability to maintain that steady temperature directly correlates to how well my mash tun is insulated and sealed up. So if you're just using a plain ol' kettle as your mash tun, consider wrapping it up in a sleeping bag or something that will help keep the heat in and keeping your stirring activity to just the initial mix of grains to water. For every time you open that lid and stir, heat escapes and the temperature will likely decrease one or two notches; so resist the temptation to open up your mash tun unless it's absolutely necessary.

Container options

This is probably the most flexible of all mashing options, so therefore you can use a variety of containers for your mash tun --- a picnic cooler, a large stock pot, a used stainless steel keg, or even a big bucket. Whatever you use, ensure that:

• It's sanitary
• You can keep it insulated
• It's a gallon or two larger than your ending volume of wort
• Is easy for you to use and clean

I've used those 10-gallon Rubbermaid coolers from Northern Brewer, outfitted with brass valves --- and provided that I get my strike water volume and temperature right, I can generally hit my target mash temperature. But I've had my moments and ended up adding near-boiling water to my mash to bring the temperature up. I swore that my beer would be screwed up, but I've proven that it's pretty hard to mess up beer brewing with small mistakes.

But even just a plain old kettle will work, too. You just have to make special considerations to keep it insulated and warm.

Heat source options

With single-infusion mashing where you're simply mixing strike water and grains, it basically comes down to how you wish to heat up your strike water --- stove top, propane burners, electric coil heaters, "heatsticks", etc. The only complexity involved is the transferring of your strike water to the mash tun; and frankly if you have two hands and are strong enough, it doesn't have to be that complex --- lift and dump, dough-in your grains. Done.

But what if you're having a more difficult time controlling that mash temperature? If you find yourself continually adding more and more hot water to try and bring the temperature up, perhaps it's time to consider heating options that involve more interaction between your mash tun and a heating element.

Recirculating Infusion Mash System (RIMS)

Not to be confused with Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS), the RIMS system recirculates your wort out of the mash tun, through a direct heating mechanism such as a heat stick, and back into the mash tun. Maintaining a steady temperature in your mash relies not only on your initial strike temperature, but also using the right temperature in your heating element as the wort is pumped out of your mash tun, up through the heating element, and then back into the mash tun.

Right off the bat, you're going to need a pump and the necessary plumbing to take it from mash tun, to pump, to heater, and back to mash tun. So plan on spending at least a hundred bucks there.

Container options

Like the previous heating method, you can pretty much use the same containers for mashing so long as you can recirculate your wort out of the mash tun, down through a pump, back up through a heating element, and back into the mash tun. So there aren't necessarily special container considerations. Where you do have those extra considerations is in the heating element that is required. And that can be pricey.

Heat source options

Let's face it, about your only option is electricity. Because you want full control of your temperature, you will likely want to make a heat stick that uses a digital control system to monitor and adjust your temperature. Heat sticks are usually made from hot water heater replacement parts and will generally require 220 volts to power and have to be jerry-rigged into some plumbing from your pump back up to your mash tun. If you're not comfortable messing with electrical components and know how to make them in such a way that they'll perform well and safely with liquids, then RIMS is definitely not for you. I've seen some RIMS setups that are undoubtedly cool, especially with their digitally controlled heat sticks.

Beyond needing the 220 volts outlet to handle the high electricity demand to heat up large volumes of water, there are some who've demonstrated that it's also very easy to scorch your wort, whereby ruining your beer. Overheated beer...bad. 154-162°...good. So there is that to consider as well: how easily can I screw up my beer? Direct contact of wort to a heating element always has its risks...and burnt beer is one of them. Electrocuted brewer is another. I'm not really partial to either, myself.

Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS)

The HERMS system is similar to the RIMS system in that you are recirculating the wort, sending it out through the false bottom, down through a pump, into the container for heating, and then back into the mash tun. The significant difference is that the wort doesn't come in direct contact with the heating element.

Most HERMS models send the wort through a copper coil positioned in a kettle or container of heated water (to the desired mash temperature) and then out the coil back into the mash tun. The obvious advantage of this system is that your wort is heated by its ambient environment (the copper coil immersed in hot water) and runs less of a risk of scorching.

As with RIMS, you'll need a pump and the necessary plumbing from and back to the mash tun. In addition, you will need coiled copper pipe to connect to your line for immersion. The flow essentially looks like this:

Mash > Pump > Immersion Coil Heater > Mash

Container options

While your mash tun can be pretty much anything in this scenario, your heating tank (often called the hot liquor tank) should be such that it can either support being heated from underneath by propane/gas burner or electric heater coil, or an electric heater coil immersed inside the vessel. Used stainless steel kegs and large stock pots will work best.

And because you're essentially just heating up water, you really don't need anything fancy --- just a container that you can heat up, measure the temperature of the water safely and accurately, and fit a copper coil in for the recirculation and heating of the wort.

Heating options

While you can get by with a simple electric coil heater or even a stove top, this is probably where propane burners excel. You can externally heat the vessel and have a relative even distribution of heat throughout the water.

If there's one thing that's certain, it's that there are a host of opinions on the subject. One quote I came across in someone's forum posting read: "There's never a consensus about ANYTHING in the brewing community. If you ask 10 brewers a question you'll get 12 different answers, and 3/4 of them will be opinions without any actual experience in it."

It's true. Just get out there and try what you think might work for you. If it doesn't work out, move onto something else and share about your experience with others. Heck, post your experiences as comments in this post. I'd love to hear of your experiences.

One other option: steam

I'll be the first to admit that there are probably more mash heating options out there than I know about, but this is one that I came across that took me by surprise --- heating with steam.

The idea is that you heat up water in a pressure cooker with a shut-off valve attached to it. From that valve you run it to whatever you're trying to heat up. While you probably could send it directly to the mash tun, my instincts tell me that you're going to end up with unevenly heated wort and risk scalding your grains as well.

So this might be a case for a heating technique for the HERMS method, still keeping the source of your heat away from the wort and using the ambient temperature to heat it up. In this case, you might send the steam into a bottom shut-off valve in your hot liquor tank.

My summary and assessment

The two perhaps safest options are the baseline single-step infusion method (add the water, stir and leave it), and the HERMS method with an external heating source that works best for you.

For my situation I want it to be flexible, allowing me to use either electric or propane heating methods --- and for me the HERMS method seems both the safest and the easiest to use, while giving me even more control when it comes to temperature regulation. So when I begin the process of planning out my brewing rig, I will probably be using something based on this heating method.

And because other people have unique experiences of their own and brewing/heating methods they prefer, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the matter. Post your comments below!

After taking a brief break from brewing beer (mostly from bottle washing fatigue), I've developed a renewed desire to brew again, partially inspired by my brother's desire to go into the brewing business together. So as an exercise to refresh my memory of the brewing process and to orientate my brother as to what to expect, I put together a document that outlines the general process and covers some of the terminology as well.

You can download the pdf here:

First, as a disclaimer, you really don't need 5 different vessels as the diagram might imply --- it just means that there are five basic steps to consider. In theory, you could probably even brew beer with basically two vessels --- one to handle the mashing (steeping) of grains, and the other to handle adding water and then the boil after grain mashing.

But for the sake of reading online, here's basically the process for brewing all-grain batches of beer:

1. Heat up some strike water to around 165° to be added to the mash tun. The amount of water will vary from recipe to recipe (based on the weight/amount of grains used), so a strike/sparge calculator will be necessary to figure out how much you'll need. When in doubt, ask the folks at your beer supply store.
2. The next step is called mashing, and has a number of different schools of thought and possibilities. But essentially you're just "doughing" in the strike water with the cracked grains, being careful to evenly mix the grains and break up any "dough balls." You want your target mash temperature to be between 154–162°F. That temperature instantiates the production of enzymes and fermentable sugars. Maintain that temperature for 60 minutes and you will have successfully mashed your grains into "wort."
3. After mashing your grains into wort, it's time to sparge them out --- gently showering your grain bed with hotter water (between 170 and 180°F but no more) to stop the mashing process. By raising your grain/wort temperature to about 170°, you are essentially stopping the production of enzymes. At the same time, a temperature beyond 180° encourages the production of crap you don't want in your beer and will produce an off taste. So temperature does matter.
4. After you've started the sparging process, it's time to drain your wort into a boiling pot to prepare for the 60-minute boil. Because liquid expands when you boil, you will want to make sure you're using a pot that is roughly double the size of your starting boil volume. Safety counts, kids. Give that wort plenty of room to boil. Boiling wort is pretty much the same as extract brewing, so I don't need to talk much about that.
5. After the boil, it's time to chill the wort and get it into the fermenter within 20 minutes. Why 20 minutes? It reduces the likelihood of encouraging foreign yeast and bacteria from starting their own version of "home brew." I suggest using a wort chiller to help the process along --- there are even some that can chill ten-gallon batches in five minutes! Well worth the investment.

   When chilled, pitch the yeast in your fermenter, mix/aerate, seal it up with a blow-off tube in a container of water, and you're good to go.

6. Let your beer ferment for about four weeks (or longer depending upon the recipe and beer style), and then bottle/keg it up accordingly.

That's really all there is to it. There will be avid brewers on all ends of the spectrum, advocating this or that --- but the conclusion is that brewing beer is both as complicated and expensive as you want to make it. You can brew beer with two buckets or a complex, single-tier system using pumps and switch valves directing the flow of water and wort. The bottom line, do what matches your desired budget, level of adventure, and comfort levels.

That said, there are distinct advantages to having certain gear versus more simplistic approaches --- control, predictability, etc. And those are things that you can discover and decide for yourself by reading the testimonials from others and hearing their experiences.

Anyway, I hope the information here is helpful to you. If you have questions or comments, drop me a line.