My $0.02:
I would do a full boil, but I already have a 5 gal. stockpot to use. So for now I will just do what I can. My wife already thinks I have spent too much money ;D
Totally understandable. I was just trying to give some tips on priorities if you do happen to have some extra cash in the future; what will give you the most bang for you buck. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need some mega all grain setup or conical fermentors to make quality beer. Just try to get as much liquid into your kettle (without boiling over) as you can and you should be just fine. Making a real starter with around a half gallon or wort rather than just re-hydrating dry yeast would probably be a good idea. Also, anything to cool your wort down to pitching temperature a quickly a possible is important. No-rinse sanitizers are great, but if you have to use bleach make sure that you rinse like crazy with boiled water.
If after a while you decide that you really like brewing keep your eyes open at yard sales, e-bay etc for a ‘turkey fryer’ type setup with a propane burner and big kettle. An aluminum kettle is fine. You don’t really need stainless.
As far as what to brew? That one is super-easy: Brew whatever your wife likes.
As long as it comes out good, and she likes it I think I will be able to stay in this hobby for a while 
How much can I get into a 5 gallon pot without boiling over? Is 4 gallons too much?
It depends on your burners. Some kitchen burners wont even get four gallons to a full boil. Maybe more of a rolling simmer. With four gallons in five gallon pot you may boil over. I think in most circumstances you want 2 gallons of head room.
Be extra careful when you add hops. The boiling increases with this addition and it can tend to boil over then.
I found a good deal on a Mr. Beer keg. You know what I did? Made a all grain starter! It’s also a good beginner brew. I wish I had started like this. I started 17 years ago with can and kilo kits.
I think it’s very important to give good tips to those on a tight budget. It’s too easy for new brewers to get a false impression from pimped-out systems; that they have to have a trust-fund to brew.
bwn, because wort aeration is very important here is a $2.25 gadget you may be interested in:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/siphon-sprayer.html
I am looking at the device above and am not quite sure how to use it. You put it on the end of 3/8’ tubing and then what? Do you pump air into it? I can’t imagine you are supposed to dump your wort through 3/8" tubing. I will just be using an ale pail for a primary fermentor and plan on dumping it through a strainer.
Brian
If you use the aerator then yes- you must run your wort through 3/8" tubing. Myself? I usually just use a strainer.
What euge said. I’ve used an auto-siphon to do the transfer and it doesn’t take all that long. To be on the safe side I cover my kettle with aluminum foil after getting the siphon started to keep out any dust-fall. You just set up your gear so that the siphon sprayer hangs near the top of your fermenting bucket. The cone shaped part diverts the wort into a thin sheet that looks like it has really good air contact. I have to admit that I’m going to stop using mine because I’ve got an oxygen injection system arriving any day now.
I’ll try the strainer first maybe move up to that after a while
Just make sure that after you make the transfer you really shake that wort up. Either rock the bucket back and forth (violently) for a good 15 or 20 minutes or stir the hell out of it with a sanitized spoon. It’s kind of a trade-off. On one hand you want to get a bunch of air into your wort. On the other hand you want to minimize the amount of airborne bacteria you might get in there.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their opinions and advice. I had my first “Brew Day” Sunday and things went pretty well. I shook my yeast starter up too much the day before and blew the top off, I grabbed it and stuck it back on without thinking about sanitation. It was a foam stopper that I had soaked in starsan and I didn’t touch the part that went into the flask. It was a natural reaction I guess. When I steeped the grains the temperature got up to 176 at the 10 minute mark and I shutoff the burner and it went down to 166 by the end of the 20 minutes. I didn’t boil enough water(didn’t take evaporation into consideration) and had to boil more and cool it after I had dumped the wort and water into the fermentor, luckily I had lots of snow to help with that. I also had to wait about 3 hours for the fermentor to get cool enough to pitch the yeast. I didn’t have a thermometer that read low enough for the extra water and wort(I already ordered one for next time :)) So I hope those few things don’t affect the beer. When I pitched the yeast I had bubbling in the airlock 4.5 hours later and it is still bubbling away. Now the hard part, waiting ;D
Sounds about par for the course for a first brew day. Congrats on getting one under your belt!
Wait till you encounter the wort faeries… 