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How to Brew Beer In Your Dorm Room What Do I Do? Glad you asked. First, find yourself a basic starter kit. These beauties cost about $60 bucks and can be found at Heartland Homebrew Supply  in Des Moines. . A good system should include most everything you'll need. You will need two 5+ gallon containers, one for fermenting and one for bottling; a capper and bottle caps; either a bottling wand and tubing or a spigot on one of the buckets. One of the buckets should seal air tight with a small hole for the fermentation lock. Some kits are better than others. Avoid at all cost the "beer bag" kits or anything like that. These are bad and evil and should be mocked at every opportunity. In addition to the basic kit you will also need something to produce heat. For dorm rooms, the illegal hot plate works relatively well. Try to get a powerfull one. The goal here is to be able to bring two and a half gallons of water to a boil for an hour. Bleach is perhaps the most important ingredient. Everything that touches the beer needs to be sterilized in bleach beforehand. This is crucial. There are whole university departments that study organisms which grow in bad beer, they are very nasty things (the organisms, not the departments). You will also need water. Some like to brew with spring water. It's always fun to go to a grocery store and buy five gallons of water. Everyone wants to know what you are doing -- makes for great checkout conversation. It's also fun to "borrow" bottled water from water coolers around campus. Never brew with distilled water as the little yeasties need some of the nutrients found in water to flourish (and we want them to flourish). You will need a place to clean and wash the carboy and drain the nasty yeast cake when you are done. I've found showers are nearly ideal for this. You can also buy a hose that fits over the faucet in the sink and use that to fill the carboy. One of the most important items is a fresh bottle of Glade or some other air freshener. If you haven't told your roommates that you are brewing beer, they will walk into the room hours after you've finished and say insightful things like, "Man, it smells like a brewery in here." They will be right. Glade the place when you are done and when any building inspectors come in to investigate the odor noticed from six blocks away. While boiling, the wort, tends to overflow leaving a sticky mess which is almost impossible to clean. Be prepared for this possibility, have several towels or some of your roommate's sweatshirts on hand. A wooden spoon is crucial to brewing, I have no idea why, but that's what I've been told. I find it useful to stir the wort. A large pot is good too. The final item that you will need is a good beer. Always be drinking beer that is of a better quality than what you expect to be making. Studies have shown that the quality of the final product is directly related to the quality (and quantity) of beer drunk while brewing. Drinking homebrew while brewing has produced exceptional results. There are rumors of wild parties in Germany every time a new batch is started. Other Ingredients to start with, buy a can of pre-hopped malt. You are then almost guaranteed to make something drinkable, it will even come with the yeast that you need. Any kit should be supplemented with some extra malt, I like to add an extra three pounds. That's all the ingredients you need to make 2 1/2 cases (60 beers). The Basics Here are some basic instructions. Your kits should come with more detailed instruction, so I just want to give you an idea on what to expect. Sanitize everything. Only cleansed things may touch the wort. Be anal about this, it is very important. The 16 step plan: 1. Open a beer, drink it. Open another one. Repeat as necessary. Do not omit this step. 2. Bleach everything. 3. Melt the malt. You can simply place the can in a pot and let the malt heat up. This works pretty well, then once it's pourable, just mix it with your five gallons water in the carboy. 4. Pitch the yeast. Just dump the yeast into the carboy with the five gallons of water and all the malt. Make sure that the malt is not too hot, or it will kill the yeast. 5. Seal the carboy with a one-way valve (fermentation lock). 6. Store in a cool dry place for about a week. Make sure your system allots for potential run-off. After about 24 hours, the beer will begin to blurb furiously, as the carbon dioxide is expelled. Sometimes, it will burp and froth. Have a plan for the reception of the froth. 7. Take your beer's pulse. Take it often, compare it to your own. Try to get your heart beat in sync with the beer. Bond with the beer. 8. When the beer ceases bubbling, you are ready for the second stage. 9. Syphon out a bit of beer and dissolve 3/4 cup of corn sugar in it. Dissolve only 3/4 cups of corn sugar, any more will cause your bottles to explode. 10. Mix the beer with the dissolved sugar with the remainder of the beer in a clean bucket, leaving the nasty yeast cake in the bottom of the original bucket. 11. Fill the bottles with beer. 12. Cap the bottles. 13. Store the beer in a cool dry place. 14. Start a new batch of beer. 15. Wait two weeks, then sample. If you can drink it, then it's good. The longer you wait, the better the beer gets. 16. Have a party, invite the boys that think Bud is King