This is basically what you will be seeing when making beer.

This is not technical. Just a pictorial. Read all you can about making beer and wine and talk to people who are already doing it.

<-I start with about 3 gallons of filtered water. I heat it up to just under 200°, then turn the fire off.

<- I then add my grains to the cheesecloth sack and steep it for 30 minutes-> Then remove the grain bag and bring it up to a rolling boil.

<-Once boiling, shut off the fire or remove the pot from the cooker and add your sugars and hops while stirring. It will boil for a total of 60 minutes.  Now keep your eyes on the pot.

 <-It will quickly go from nothing, to a rising boil->

It will come over the top in a couple of seconds if you are not careful->

<-Once it finally "breaks", the foam will not rise so fast.

<-Sanitize everything that will touch the beer after it has cooled from cooking.

<-Chill the wort and strain it->   It should be cooled quickly before it goes into the fermenter bucket and has water and yeast added. To chill the wort quickly, I use a frozen commercial bottle that was made for this and I also use a heavy clear juice container. Milk cartons will leak after the first freezing sometimes. If your frozen containers leak, you will probably ruin a batch of beer due to contamination..

<-Chilled, strained, and filtered water added.

When it is below 80°, pitch your yeast->

<-Then seal it up, put an airlock on it, and place it in a dark place. After it has nearly stopped bubbling the water in the airlock (between 2 and 5 days), it will be ready for racking into the secondary fermemter.

<-Primary fermenter will look pretty gross after the beer has worked a few days, but it smells great.

Lots of heavy residue.->   <-Even the sides will have a cake buildup.

<-This is known as "racking" using sanitized racking cane and vinyl hose to transfer beer/wine from one container to another during the fermenting process..

<-Beer after being racked into sanitized secondary fermemter with airlock. Most of the sludge was left behind, but don't worry about transferring a substantial amount of sludge to the new carboy.

<-There is a lot of yeast in the sludge and will be helpful until the batch finishes, and you can rack as many times as necessary to leave all sludge behind before bottling or kegging it.  I always let plenty of sludge get drawn into the secondary carboy.              

<-Then keep it in a dark place and let it finish fermenting. Even when the beer/wine clears, you can rack it to another sanitized carboy to allow more settling if needed.