Top tips for new home brewers

As I dusted off my home brew gear this past weekend to make a couple of batches (pale ale and stout), I was thinking about the things I wish more seasoned brewers had told me before I really got into brewing. These tips aren't meant for the person who hasn't started yet -- more for the home brewer who feels a bit of excitement after the first batch. . .that feeling that "hey, I might be doing this for a while." Here are a few tips from my experience:

• Buy a wort chiller. You can try to cool your wort in a tub of ice, but it's a pain. A wort chiller turns a longer and messier process into a ten-minute cinch.
  
• Save all-grain brewing for later. Your beer will be better than anything you've had before anyway, and doing it all-grain just adds unnecessary overhead.
  
• Start kegging. Bottle washing is the most dispiriting activity in the world of home brewing, and it might crush your enthusiasm before you've had a chance to really get going. It's going to cost a couple hundred dollars, but trust me -- it's worth it (and you can use your equipment later when you decide to build a kegerator).
  
• Get an auto-siphon. Some people might not need this, but I've always have trouble siphoning for some reason.
  
• If you can afford it and you're pretty sure you're going to stick with it, I would strongly recommending getting a kettle with a spigot (see the "Italian kettles" on this page). Just get the wort chiller going in a kettle like this, and as soon as the wort cools down, you can transfer it to your primary fermenter without moving anything. No lifting, no splashing, no clumsy pouring into a funnel. A "false bottom" is nice as well. The false bottom is basically a sieve that sits on top of the tube that feeds the spigot. If you brew with whole hops, you don't even need a hop bag because the false bottom will catch it.