The latest toy craze is here, making waves in households across the country, and it's basically glorified bubble wrap. Featured recently in The New York Times, Pop Its have enthralled kids everywhere with their satisfying poppable blisters. Here's what you need to know about these flexible silicone toys and how they might benefit kids.

Where Pop It Fidget Toys Originated
The story of Pop It Fidget Toy begins with Theo and Ora Coster, a married couple from Israel. Over the years, they invented more than 190 games—including the face recognition game Guess Who?—and founded a company called Theora Design, according to the BBC. (Amazing fact: Theo was actually a classmate of Anne Frank.)
When Ora's sister died from breast cancer in the mid-1970s, she had a dream about a field of breasts. "Imagine a field of breasts, that you can press from one side, and then press from the other side," Boaz Coster, her son and co-C.E.O. of Theora Design, said when describing his mother's vision. Theo created a prototype, and it sat around for many years until the couple's sons sold it to Montreal-based games company FoxMind.
FoxMind manufactured the product in silicone, and it was marketed as a game called Last One Lost, a puzzle in which two players press the bubbles together, and the player who presses the last one loses. It debuted in 2013 and was not exactly a smash, but in 2019, it relaunched under the name Pop It! and hit Target shelves.

How Pop It Fidget Toys Took Off
The big moment of Pop It Fidget Toy has been linked to its appearance in a viral TikTok video. In the clip, a capuchin monkey-turned-influencer with almost 8 million followers named Gaitlyn Rae can be seen playing with a Pop It. The monkey's owner, Jessica Lacher, told the BBC: "Somebody sent her a pop-it for her birthday. … That was the first we had ever seen of them."
Gaitlyn's video launched a craze. You can now get Pop It-style knockoff toys—not licensed by FoxMind—in a variety of shapes and colors. You can find versions inspired by Peppa Pig, dinosaurs, unicorns, pineapples, and more.
Kids have been loving Pop Its during the pandemic and while learning remotely, according to The New York Times. "Especially in these times, they can be calming, they can be soothing," Adrienne Appell, a senior vice president at The Toy Association, told the outlet. "Even adults are enjoying them."

The Benefits of Fidget Toys
Experts say that Pop It Fidget Toy Animal might help kids focus, particularly if they struggle with ADHD. That's because the act of fidgeting allows the mind to be still and focus.
"I often tell parents that for their child, as for me, if the feet or fingers are still, it's a safe bet that the mind isn't," Thomas Beck, M.D., co-founder of the Winston Center for Attention, Language, & Learning tells Parents.com. "There will be more problems with focus, not less!"
But every child is different, as Yamalis Diaz, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and a clinical assistant professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, explained to The New York Times. She has treated two children with the same diagnosis, both of whom chose a Rubik's Cube as a fidget toy, and although one child could keep answering questions while he played with the toy, the other was entirely consumed by it and couldn't multitask.

The squid game is a story of 456 players risking their lives to become the last winner in a survival game with a prize of 45.6 billion won.
Netizens from Korea and China are arguing over the green gym uniform in Netflix’s original ‘Squid Game’.
On the 5th, Chinese media observers and others responded with the news that “China is claiming that the costumes in the ‘Squid Game’ were copied in Korea.”
In particular, Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyung-duk took issue with an article posted on his Instagram the day before.
Observer Network criticized “Professor Seo has stimulated China many times over this agenda,” and said, “This time, he chose the wrong target.”
Previously, Professor Seo mentioned various cases of copyright infringement in China and argued that the green sportswear of Lee Jung-jae in ‘Squid Game Mask’ was sold in Chinese shopping malls with the word ‘China’ written on it.
Professor Seo analyzed in this article, “China seems to feel a great sense of crisis as Korean content such as Squid Game and Kingdom continues to attract attention from people around the world.” He also criticized China, saying, “China should learn respect for other countries’ cultures first.”
Chinese media claimed that the picture of the training clothes that China copied was a scene from the movie ‘Teacher, Like’ released in 2019, and that actor Wu Jing wore it as a gym teacher. The words ‘China’ are engraved on the tracksuit he is wearing.

Stanford professor Robert Sutton notes that the Pixar movie Cars was chosen from about 500 pitches, and at Skyline, the Originality Toys design studio that generates ideas for Fisher-Price and Mattel, employees submitted 4,000 new toy concepts in one year. That set was winnowed down to 230 to be drawn or prototyped, and just 12 were finally developed. The more darts you throw, the better your odds of hitting a bulls eye.
Though it makes perfect sense, many managers fail to embrace this principle, fearing that time spent conjuring lots of ideas will prevent employees from being focused and efficient. The good news is that there are ways to help employees generate quantity and variety without sacrificing day-to-day productivity or causing burnout.

Single-use plastic cups have always been criticized by organizations that want to tackle the plastic waste in the country. The reason for this criticism is that these cups cannot be recycled and they end up contaminating waste streams. As a result, more waste ends up in landfill. Recognizing the environmental footprint of single-use plastic cups, paper cups manufacturers have begun to switch away from them. They are helping to minimize the environmental footprint by encouraging the use of Paper Cups.

Paper Cups Can be Recycled
Paper cups are sourced from forests and are a more friendly option than plastics. These cups can be collected separately and trucked to facilities that can recycle them. Some lawmakers and companies argue that paper cups are hard to recycle because they contain a plastic lining that must be separated before the cup can be recycled. This is a totally ridiculous argument.
Paper cups be recycled properly if they are collected in special bins and then sent for recycling to the right facility. It is true that cups can end up in landfills if they are thrown into regular bins. However, if consumers properly put them into special recycling bins, they will be recycled by the facilities that possess the ability to remove the plastic lining from paper before recycling the cup.

If you often go shopping in shopping malls, you will find that Kraft Bags are widely used in all walks of life. For example, clothing stores and shoe stores we often go to are the most common places to use kraft paper bags. Even when you pack in some fast food restaurants and beverage stores, you will also use kraft paper bags as Takeaway Bags. Compared with plastic bags, the cost of kraft paper bags is higher. Why are so many enterprises willing to use kraft paper bags? One of the reasons is that more enterprises attach importance to environmental protection and regard environmental protection as a part of corporate culture, so they choose more environmentally friendly and renewable paper bags instead of plastic bags.

The rise of Insulation Bags in China can be said to have started in 2006, when McDonald's China gradually implemented a kind of kraft paper bag with thermal insulation performance in all stores to hold takeout food, replacing the use of plastic food bags. This move has also received positive response from other businesses, such as Nike, Adidas and other former large consumers of plastic bags have begun to use high-quality kraft paper bags to replace plastic shopping bags.

Of course, there are still some people in the market who have different opinions on whether kraft paper is environmentally friendly or not. Generally speaking, people who think kraft paper packaging is not environmentally friendly mainly focus on the manufacturing process of kraft paper and the selection of raw materials. They believe that the pulp of paper packaging is obtained by cutting down trees, causing damage to the ecological environment. The other is the paper in the production process will discharge a large number of sewage, causing water pollution.

Through comparison, it is not difficult to see that kraft Paper Bag is better than a plastic bag in environmental protection. Today, more and more attention is paid to environmental protection. An environmental protection kraft paper packaging bag has become the first choice of more and more manufacturers. If you want to contribute to environmental protection, you may as well take the kraft paper bag as the first choice for shopping or food packaging.

The automatic Sealing Machine can produce up to 32 vacuum gas flushing MAP containers, 28 vacuum skin packaging or 60 sealed-only trays per minute. It uses 304 stainless steel washing structure and tool-free disassembly of the vacuum chamber. The machine can handle film widths up to 18.75 inches and tray depths up to 4.3 inches. Film sealing, as well as MAP and vacuum skin packaging, can be achieved on the same sealing head. Options include aisle dividers, extended feeders with integrated automatic tray separators, filling and placement systems, cover applicators, aisle merging systems, and seal head storage carts.

A total of 21,000 cups were available to the 25,000 fans in attendance, offered as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics in the live event space. According to Ball, 93% of Plastic Cups used each year end up in landfill, whereas its cups, it says, are recycled and returned to market in approximately 60 days.
According to research conducted by the corporation, 73% of consumers would opt for environmentally friendly containers if given the choice, with half willing to pay a premium. Ball Aluminium Cups have been designed to meet this growing demand for sustainable packaging.

Wooden Crafts are the artistic practice of shaping and decorating wooden objects. India is famous for wooden handicrafts. Skilled craftsmen of each state create handicrafts using wood that is available locally. The most common varieties used to make Indian handicrafts are teak, sheesham, sal, oak, mango, ebony and mahogany. Sandalwood, rosewood and walnut are the exotic varieties and are expensive and are used in producing fine pieces of furniture and decorative items. There has been a complete revival of the traditional and antique wood craft, owning to its uniqueness and demand in India and abroad. Indian artisans are experimenting with designs to create a blend of traditional and modern woodcraft. Each piece of Indian wooden handicraft is a labor of love, sweat, and patience, which no machine can replicate.
Wooden Toys and games are winning mass of quality these days. The wooden toys and games are put up in innovative as well as classical types that are energizing and thought-provoking for everyone to examine their power. A heavy number of attractively fashioned wooden toys and games will offer hours of amusement. They are designed with exquisitely workmanship and paragon for people of all age-groups.
Designed with expert workmanship, wooden toys have arrived at immense popularity and are perfect for people of all generation. The most widely playacted wooden toys and games are wooden chess and wooden carrom board. The wooden toys are carefully carved and attractively designed engaging a special place in lots of families. Wooden toys and games are meant for kids and adults both, and are perfect items for gifting purpose. They are handcrafted with extreme care to have an eye-catching visual aspect. They provide durable fun and are designed to germinate coordination and imagery power among children. The most widely played wooden toys and games are wooden chess and carrom-board. In order to make them easier to carry while traveling, they are available in wooden box which makes them excellent for gift items.

Festival Wooden Crafts are very popular. Many companies prefer to give away various wooden gift items as corporate gifts as they are durable and elegant. When wooden items are purchased in wholesale from suppliers or exporters, they prove to be very cost effective. In fact, when companies directly deal with the wooden gift manufacturers, they save a lot of money by avoiding the middlemen in suplly chain. However, wooden corporate gifts might be procured on cheap rates, they always look more expensive due to craftsmanship of the artisans as well as because wood itself is considered to be an expensive medium to make craft items. They can be offered on various occasions including retirement , transfer or anniversary etc. They help in encouraging and motivating people who really deserve to be appreciated. It helps in minimizing attrition rate as well as staff turn over. Wooden gift items cam also be customized as per the requirement of various companies.
Acrylic Charms are made with a solid, clear acrylic material that can be printed in full color and cut to any shape. Acrylic charms feature a small 0.085” (~2mm) cut hole for creating your own keychains, jewelry and more. These Acrylic Crafts have been a real hit! Acrylic charms consist of either one layer of acrylic board with an epoxy-covered image on top (or on bottom, if you prefer the acrylic layer over the front and epoxy on back), or two layers of board with the image sandwiched in between. The image itself can be one-sided or two sided.

Acrylic Rhinestones are so attractive! When we go shopping in department stores or walk on the road, we often see various shapes and sizes of rhinestones on shoes, bags, jewelry, and even displays. The rhinestones are colorful and shiny, and it is difficult to ignore them. Rhinestones are not diamonds; they are a simulation of diamonds. Since diamonds are natural and are formed under high pressure and high-temperature conditions deep in the earth, often taking a long time to form, they are scarce and very expensive. Rhinestones are artificial and have the sparkling, dazzling effect of diamonds. Therefore, when rhinestones could be manufactured in large quantities, people began to use rhinestones as decorations for jewelry, clothing and other accessories.

Forty years ago, the sending and receiving of Christmas Greeting Cards were one of the steps in declaring adulthood and establishing one’s own home. Part of becoming an adult was communicating the year’s events to family and friends.
In the Christmas letter that went with the card, there was some bragging about the good things in one’s life but it was also a vehicle to let people know about deaths or difficulties.
As Christmas became more about persuading consumers to buy, greeting card companies understood this. They grew their sales by offering greater varieties of cards, including boxed sets and charitable cards. Businesses began sending greeting cards to each other as a thank you for the work done together that year.

Folding Chairs are great for small spaces as they can be used for multiple needs. From dining to studying, a comfortable folding chair can be enjoyed anywhere and then tucked away for storage. Sleek folding chairs are a much better option than bulky wooden chairs in a space that is already short on storage. The folding feature also makes the chair easily transferable and portable. Depending on preference, one can choose between different materials for folding chairs, with plastic being one of the most popular material as it proves to be lightweight.
Reclining Chair offers a wonderful place to sit and relax and would be perfect next to a pool or on a back deck or patio. This folding chair transitions effortlessly from an upright seated position to reclining one and will provide utmost comfort to the user. This chair features a lightweight yet sturdy powder-coated steel frame. Its double bungee support system runs up one side and down the other, securely connecting the fabric to the frame. The chair offers reliable support and can accommodate up to 198pounds. The chair also features a weather-resistant Textilene fabric that offers comfortable breathability and ensures a comfortable, stay-cool seating surface that will not stick to the skin.
Add convenience to your home with this metal chair in black. Featuring a foldable design, this Folding Lounge Chair is easily portable and can be stored with ease when not in use. Ideal for use at breakfast tables or the dining table while hosting guests, this black chair will prove to be a comfortable option for varying needs. The mesh seating and backrest are soft and comfortable and will give a contemporary appeal to your home. This chair has a PP bush attached at the legs that protect the floor from scratches.

Summer is finally here. Now that restrictions have eased and the days are warmer, we will all be hoping to spend a bit more time outdoors, whether lounging or enjoying some alfresco dining. And with that comes the need for adequate (and stylish) Garden Furniture.
Whether you are planning to have some barbecues and outdoor parties this summer or just wish to be able to lounge around outdoors, there is no denying that outdoor furniture is a must for 2021, especially if you can find some weather-resistant pieces that mean you will not need to drag your indoor furniture inside every time a sudden downpour hits mid-barbecue.
Investing in Garden Cart does not have to be just a practical task, however. Take the opportunity to find stylish pieces, building out the aesthetic of your outdoor space and making it somewhere you really do want to spend time. But with that being said, it can be pretty hard to find the right stores and furniture to suit your garden, given just how many options there are to choose from. Thankfully for you, we know just where to look.
From tables and chairs, to sun loungers, fire pits, hammocks and sofas, so many of our favourite furniture stores have launched outdoor lines for this year that are perfect for taking your garden to the next level. Whether you only have patio space or are lucky enough to have some green space to work with, these are the best garden furniture retailers to start browsing.

Can you leave garden furniture outside?
In reality, the whole point of furniture that is specifically for your garden is that you should ideally be able to leave it outdoors during the warmer, sunnier months. Of course, whether or not this is possible does depend on the material of the furniture and its quality, as well as just how durable it is. Some Hammock Chair is designed more for aesthetic purposes and is best suited to keeping indoors and then dragging outside for your next garden party, but plenty, if not the majority, of garden furniture, is more than suitable to leave outdoors. Make sure to read the product information carefully before placing an order to check whether it's weatherproof, rust-resistant or weather resistant, and research the weight of the furniture so that it isn't easily blown over by the wind.

You may have heard of "Blue Bolt Coating", its real name is Whitford Xylan® Coating... and it isn't always blue. Many of our customers ask for the "Blue Bolt Coating", but what exactly is Xylan and when should it be used?

Xylan is a blend of fluoropolymers, engineering plastics and selected corrosion inhibitors which, when combined, create these characteristics in fasteners:

• Low friction
  
  
• Exceptional adhesion
  
  
• Unusual resistance to wear and abrasion
  
  
• Excellent corrosion resistance
  
  
• Resistance to chipping
  
  
• Resistance to the weather, sunlight and salt water
  

Health Care Material is a dietary supplement that has become a popular way to help people reach their daily recommended intake of vitamins and minerals. The nutrient combination in greens powder is formulated to support your body’s immune system and energy levels while meeting the nutrition requirements for a healthy diet.
Ingredients in greens powders vary by brand, but commonly include nutrition from:

• Leafy greens and seaweed
  
  
• Grasses and other vegetables
  
  
• Antioxidant-rich fruits
  
  
• Probiotics
  
  
• Nutritional extracts and herbs
  

• Calories: 45
  
  
• Protein: 3 grams
  
  
• Carbohydrates: 6 grams
  
  
• Iron: 18% of your daily value
  
  
• Vitamin A: 60% of your daily value
  

Garden Hoses: What To Know Before You Buy
Hose for gardening don't last forever. When you're in the market for a new one, these tips will help you make an informed purchase.
Your garden hose is probably working overtime this summer as you water plants, irrigate a vegetable garden or wash the car. According to hose manufacturer Teknor Apex, a good garden hose will last five to 10 years if properly maintained. A bad garden hose, as most of us have already found out, will waste water, function poorly and cause bouts of frustration.

So to keep the kinks out of your relationship with your PVC garden hose, let’s take a look at what to consider before you buy a new one.

Garden hoses are used for transporting water over short or long distances. They can be used for watering a plant, washing a car or every other activity where water is needed. Because garden hoses are very widely used, they need to be able to do many different things. Firstly, they of course have to deliver water at your chosen location. But that’s where the simplicity stops, while not all water or application is the same. Are you working with super clean water and want to be 100% sure there is no contamination with the materials of the hose? Then a garden hose with a pvc-free inner layer specially made for this situation will fit your needs. Is storage space limited? Then a spiral hose, reel garden hose or expandable garden hose will come in handy. Are you looking for a drip irrigation system? Then soaker hoses might be the solution. For every application there are different products available specialized for that situation. Read this article to make a jump start into the world of garden hoses.

Diameters and lengths
When selecting a garden hose there are multiple parameters that will guide you in the right direction. The diameter of the hose is a good starting point. Typical internal sizes are 13mm (1/2"), 19mm (3/4") and 25mm (1"). It’s important to know that a garden hose has an internal and external diameter. If you want to connect the hose to male coupling, the internal diameter is most relevant to you. Also important is the total length of the garden hose, because a too short hose won’t reach to your destination and a too large hose will take up unnecessary space and cause extra pressure drop, which is often not desirable.

Materials
Mostly, garden hoses are made from multiple materials. Some garden hoses are even made from up to 8 different layers. All these layers are made from a different material. The outer layer has to be strong because it’ll be dragged along concrete and stones. Often PVC is used for this outer layer. The inner layer can be made from many different materials. If the expandable garden hose is suitable for drinking water purposes, often PU food-safe materials are used for the inner layer. All materials used together determine the temperature range, which is often between -20°C and +60°C. Garden hoses can often withstand pressures up to 30/50 bars (435/725 psi). A pressure gauge is placed to monitor the pressure in the system, to learn more about this read our article on pressure gauges for water applications.

5 Important Factors When Buying LED Drivers
WILMINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2017--Osram, a leading global lighting and technology company, today announced its OPTOTRONIC®Dual-Mode Programmable Emergency LED Driver, the market’s first programmable single-driver solution for emergency Solid State Lighting fixtures, which offers the ability to program and customize the light output in both normal and emergency operations.A separate snap-on battery pack with harness, available in slim, linear and compact options, powers emergency lighting in the event of an outage and provides up to 18W in back-up mode. The complete solution reduces the number of components required per emergency luminaire, substantially simplifies in-fixture wiring, and enables OEMs to better tailor their fixtures to application requirements while reducing the number of SKUs they must inventory.

Industry’s First Dual-Mode LED Driver with Programmable Emergency Light Levels Offers OEMs Greater Flexibility, Simplifies Manufacturing (Photo: Business Wire)

“Emergency lighting luminaires typically require a dedicated emergency driver, a dedicated LED driver and numerous wiring connections, creating a complex manufacturing process and often compatibility issues for OEMs,” said Tom Shottes, Head of Osram Digital Systems, Americas Region. “Osram’s new OPTOTRONIC® Programmable CE Emergency LED Driver combines the emergency and standard LED drivers into one solution, addressing key issues experienced by OEMs. The ability to program and tailor the light output in both standard and emergency mode offers additional value and flexibility in designing emergency lighting fixtures.”

The National Fire Protection Association’s code has a minimum requirement of one foot candle of light on the ground for at least 90 minutes to allow people to safely and efficiently exit a building in the event of an emergency. A programmable emergency driver solution enables OEMs to support customers with tailored and optimized emergency led driver accessories, irrespective of the building architecture, space and lighting plans.

The lamp inrush current on switching LEDs has become an area of concern in the lighting industry. ‘Inrush current’ of the LED drivers refers to the input current of short duration that flows into the LED driver, during the initial start-up, to charge the capacitors on the input side. Typically, this is a short duration current, whose amplitude is much greater than the operating or steady-state current. The inrush current is due to the EMC filter on the input and bulk capacitor on the boost circuit this is inherent to the LED technology.

The figure shows the nature of the inrush current and its peak, IMAX. T50 is the time duration in which the inrush current pulse is equal to 50% of IMAX. It shows an example of inrush current (IMAX) and T50 times for a typical LED driver.

If there are a number of LED drivers in an LED Luminaire, and if there are a number of such LED Luminaires on one circuit, the max peak inrush current and it’s duration may be additive. However, it is not an exact mathematical calculation; i.e. for “N” drivers connected in parallel does not equal exact “N” times the inrush current for one driver or N times the T50 time for one driver. It depends on the impedance of each driver and the line impedance.

The line impedance has a significant effect on the peak and duration of the inrush current. Transformer type and size, wire size, length of runs, and other devices in the circuit path are a few things that could lead to high impedance.
The inrush current and the duration of the LED driver differs from manufacturer to manufacturer and from model to model. As this current duration is very small, sophisticated instruments with very high sampling rates need to be used for exact calculations. The inrush current also depends on the exact moment of switching, during the alternating cycle.

STAINLESS STEEL CABLE CLEATS – PREVENTING GALVANIC CORROSION OF CABLE FIXINGS
In the following article we provide an evidence based specification case for stainless steel cable cleats where levels of atmospheric corrosion preclude use of other cable fixing materials.

One of the most important issues to consider when specifying cable cleats is the risk of material corrosion – not just as a result of the installation environment, but also from other metals which the cable cleat is in contact with.

Galvanic corrosion occurs when dissimilar metals are placed in contact with each other in the presence of an electrolyte. There are two factors that affect the rate of galvanic corrosion, the first is the distance between the two metals in the galvanic series.

The further apart the two metals are in the galvanic series, the greater the risk of galvanic corrosion – with the metal higher up the list (more anodic) being the one whose rate of corrosion is accelerated.
The second factor to consider is the relative surface areas of the different metals.

If the more anodic (higher up the list) metal has a smaller surface area than the metal it is in contact with, the difference in surface area causes the rate of corrosion of the anodic metal to increase.

Conversely, if the more anodic metal has a much larger surface area than the cathodic metal, it may be sufficient for the effects of galvanic corrosion to be discounted. In terms of cable cleat selection, the surface area of the cleat is generally significantly smaller than the structure it is mounted on.

Therefore, if it is made from a metal that is more anodic than its support structure it will be susceptible to galvanic corrosion.

Conversely, if the cable cleat is more cathodic than its support structure, there is little risk of galvanic corrosion.

Using this criteria, if galvanised ladder is the support structure, and there are no other significant factors, it is safe to use ball lock stainless steel cable tie. However, if the support structure is stainless steel, separation should be provided if aluminium or galvanised cleats are used.

Galvanic corrosion is not easily predictable and can be influenced by the type of electrolytes present such as salt water or fresh water containing impurities. In general terms when guarding against galvanic corrosion, the safest course of action is to separate dissimilar metals with polymer separation washers.

This separation should be carried out between the cable cleat and its mounting surface and the cleat’s mounting fixing.

All Ellis cable cleat products constructed from dissimilar metal are designed in a way that completely avoids bimetallic contact. As a result of this you can be confident that cable cleats will have a service life measured in decades.
All Ellis single stainless steel cable cleat are produced from 316L austenitic stainless steel.

In general, cable cleats are manufactured from austenitic stainless steel due to its non-magnetic and corrosion resistant properties – the former ensuring the cable cleat will not induce eddy currents or localised heating of the LV-HV cable.

Austenitic stainless steel does become a little magnetic as a result of work hardening when processed. This magnetism can barely be detected with a magnet and so is not significant from an eddy current perspective.

304 austenitic stainless steel, often referred to as A2, is one of the most commonly used stainless steels. It has excellent corrosion resistant properties in most circumstances, although is susceptible in atmospheres where chlorides are present, making it unsuitable for use in coastal or marine environments.

BREWING YOUR OWN BEER: WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
So you want to make your own beer. How hard could it be, right? Really, it’s not that hard, and I’ll have a nice home beer brewing equipment for you soon that outlines every aspect of the process.
Before you get all fired up about it, though, let me be the voice of reason and point out that you’re going to have to spend a pretty nice chunk of change before you can even make your first batch.

While the actual process of brewing is simple, it is pretty time consuming, and when you first get started, there is quite the long list of equipment and ingredients that first need to be bought.
Not all of these are cheap, either, but after your initial investment, the home brewing process is actually much more affordable than buying beer at the store. Let’s take a look at what all you’ll need to get ready to brew.
Every single article or guide that I have read is sure to emphasize this one key point: sanitize like a maniac. Every item that will have even the slightest contact with your beer at any phase of the brewing process needs to be as clean as you can get it.

You can, of course, use a mixture of bleach and hot water to soak everything, and then rinse everything thoroughly. This can add additional time to the process that you don’t necessarily have to spend.

Many sanitizers do not require rinsing and most are on the inexpensive side, costing less than $5 on average and up to $15 for a large container. One package or bottle will last you through many brewing sessions, so they are a fantastic deal. I would definitely make the small investment in a good no-rinse sanitizer if I was planning to brew on a regular basis.

I suppose that you could use any old stock pot for making your wort, but I wouldn’t recommend it. First, when you’re boiling your wort (pronounced wert- see my guide to beer for more on that), you will need plenty of extra room to avoid overflowing the pot.

Most home beer recipes make five gallons, so you need at least an 8 gallon pot to have enough additional space during the boiling process. This is not your average-size stock pot.

Additionally, brew kettles are made specifically for making beer (obviously), which means that they have nice heavy bottoms for even heat distribution.

You can also get them with built-in temperature gauges to easily keep an eye on that, which is really important for the step that follows the boil- adding the yeast (if you add it when the wort is too hot, it kills the yeast, and  dead yeast=no beer).

You can even get a kettle with a built-in spigot, which will come in super handy. These two features cost more, but even a basic kettle will be a bit pricey, with the price climbing upwards for the extra features and larger sizes.

Known in the beer fermentation equipment as a carboy, a fermentation vessel is simply the place where the wort and yeast are combined and allowed to sit for several days to turn into beer.

Whatever you use for this fermentation process needs to be 100% airtight so that not even one airborne microbe can get in to alter the taste of the batch.

Keep in mind also that you will need at least two containers for this part of the process, because you will siphon the beer out of the first fermentation vessel into a second one after a few days (more on that part of the process in my next article).