I second the sterilization statement. Though, unless you have a home autoclave, what we're really talking about is sanitization, and not sterilization. the iodine solution is preferable to bleach. get yourself a 5 gallon pickle bucket, and have it full of the iodine solution when you are working. you can keep tubing and such in there until you need it, and if you drop anything, just dip it back in the solution. small amounts of the solution won't mess up your beer, but you don't want to put a lot of it in there. cash and carry and home deopt sell the buckets. I have a spare one, but it's been sitting outside for a year and would need some elbow grease to clean it.

I disagree with using water to start the siphon. use the iodine solution, but start the flow into a small bucket, so that the iodine won't go into the carbouy. once beer starts coming out, aim the flow at the carbouy.

The specialized bottle filling attachment really makes your life easy. If you don't already have one, it's worth a few bucks. I may have one, and a press capping machine that you can also have, since we do corny kegs now.

homebrew.com is a pretty good resource for stuff that may not be in the book.

Bob's homebrew is a good resource, too. Bob Beattie is nice and knowledgable, and was very patient with me when I was getting started back during prohibition. His shop is between U-village and ravenna on 55th and about 28th.

After being really, really anal about sanitization, there are two other things that you want to keep your eye on. The first is fermentation temp. you can put a thermometer in a glass of water and make sure that the area where you are going to store your carbouys is the temperature you think it is. the fermentation gives off heat, so it's best to be a few degrees cooler than optimal. you can wrap towels around the carbouy to keep in the fermentation heat (and it helps if the fermentation blow out spews foam). if it's a little too cool, the fermentation just goes more slowly. being too hot can produce strange flavors. get one of the thermometers that you can stick on the outside of the carbouy.

the second item is one of the easiest things you can do to ensure that things go well. Make sure that the yeast culture is healthy and big. No matter what you may read, do not use powdered yeast. Buy the liquid yeast, and note that these have to be activated a couple of days before you are ready to pitch the yeast. If there is a schedule conflict, the homebrew store is usually fine with activating the packet and then letting you pick it up on the day before brewing or the day of. After you've done it a bunch of times and have a routine, you should consider goign to a yeast starter. There are instructions on homebrew.com.

Good luck, and have fun. If you do want the bottle filler or the bucket or the capper, send me a private message. I can go through my closet tomorrow, put all the stuf in a bucket, and you can drop by and pick it up from in front of my home at your leisure. It's in fremont.

Shamus