* As soon as the sugar is dissolved, pour contents into the bucket or container. Pour, or splash, the contents quickly, which adds air to the mixture. The more air the yeast gets initially, the better. It allows yeast to rapidly grow and get things going.

* Add the remaining water.

* At this point, you have created wort, or malt solution.

Step 2 * Let the wort cool until it's lukewarm. The quicker you can cool it, the better.

* Add the yeast. When the side of your fermentor feels cool to the touch, it is safe to add your yeast. If you're a screw-up like me-the kind of guy who will accidentally kill the yeast-add two packages. That way, the worst thing that will happen is you'll get a nice, vigorous fermentation.

* Cover the container/bucket with a lid or a sheet of plastic, set it in a cool spot where it won't be disturbed, and wait. Don't seal the top too tightly-the container could explode.

Step 3 * Lift the lid once a day and check to see that the wort is actually fermenting-you'll know because there is froth on the top. At the same time, use the hydrometer to check to see that the sugar content is dropping.

Step 4 * When the sugar content of the brew has dropped from 6% to 1% (this can take 4 to 10 days), and there's little to no bubbling action, it's time to bottle your beer. Almost all the original sugar has been converted into alcohol and CO2. The small bit remaining will allow fermentation to take place inside the bottle.

* Gather your 70 bottles. Wash them well and then sterilize them with heat. Sterilize the caps, too.

* Siphon your brew into the bottles. Be careful not to transfer sediment from the fermentation vessel in the process. Line up all your bottles on the floor underneath it and stick the hose into one of the bottles. Then you're ready to open up the spigot on the bottling bucket and let the beer flow. Stick the hose in all the way to the bottom, and when the beer gets really near the top, yank the hose out and stick it in the next bottle. The level in the bottle drops when you take the tube out, and you want to leave about one inch of airs.p.a.ce at the top of the bottle. Put a little sugar in each bottle; this is for the final carbonation process.

* Cap the bottles, and set them in a dark, cool place for about a week. The longer you let it ferment in the bottle, the better it will probably taste. It's best not to drink your homebrew out of the bottle, because doing so will probably result in you consuming sediment and leftover yeast.

It's my experience that some of the bottles will explode. So make sure the place where you put the bottles has a tiled or linoleum floor, or they're all sitting in a big plastic tub. Your refrigerator is too cold-the yeast won't be able to do its work.

Some resources for home brewers include the following web sites: www.byo.com, www.mrgoodbeer.com, and http://brewwiki.com.

Building a Survival Library

When TEOTWAWKI finally hits, you may have a lot of time on your hands. Our forefathers worked hard, long hours, but they still had plenty of time to read, write long letters, argue about politics, learn to play the fiddle, and so on. You don't know how much time TV steals from you every day. But you may get the chance to find out when the b.o.o.b tube goes buh-bye.

Before that happens, I recommend you start stocking up your personal library. We have a designated library room in our house, but yours doesn't have to be that big. It's just a place or even a s.p.a.ce where you put the books you're going to read when you have time.

Popular novels are always good (I'm a huge Stephen King fan). But you should also build a library of useful books that will help you survive in crisis situations or in a powered-down world. It's important to realize that we may be going into a situation where the Internet won't work for weeks, or ever again. You'll need hard copy, paper books. If there are interesting articles you've found on the Web, consider printing them out. They may not always be available to you.

Books

I don't know if we're facing a worst-case scenario societal collapse in our lifetimes. But I think you should build a library as if that is the case. You'll need books that are useful to you now, to your kids 10 to 20 years from now, and for their children and their children's children.

You might start by stockpiling old textbooks, which can be found dirt-cheap at used bookstores, on useful subjects like chemistry and math. Beyond that, here are some other get-you-started ideas:* The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay. This brilliantly conceived guide to the principles and workings of hundreds of machines takes you from levers to lasers and does it all in a fascinating way. It's great for kids and the young at heart.

* Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jared Diamond. This covers how societies have fallen prey to pollution, drought, famine, social collapse, war, and disease over hundreds and thousands of years of human history.

* Life After Doomsday by Bruce Clayton. This book shows you how to survive a post-nuclear scenario. It offers a thorough investigation of survival strategies and of the problems that will face those who survive. The author outlines step-by-step procedures for preparing and defending shelters, storing food, and treating illnesses and injuries. It has a great flow chart where you can answer questions depending on what you're most concerned about, and it then tells you how to best prepare.

* Tappan On Survival by Mel Tappan. The Amazon.com write-up explains this book pretty well: "Mel Tappan was the G.o.dfather of the modern preparedness movement, and this cla.s.sic collection of his writings is an indispensable resource for information on how to develop a survival mind-set, identify the best survival locations, store food, maintain communications, select firearms, and much more."

* U.S. Air Force Survival Handbook. This one is so good, it's recommended by members of other services. Basically, the book details everything you need to know to survive under any conditions.

* The Merck Manual 19th Edition (or any edition) by Mark H. Beers. Affectionately known as the hypochondriac's bible, this is the single-volume how-to manual for doctors. In fact, it's written for doctors, so you need a fair knowledge of medical terminology, and experience/training in medicine, veterinary medicine, or nursing to fully comprehend its contents. The book mainly tells you how to diagnose and what to prescribe for most conditions.

* Advanced First Aid Afloat by Peter F. Eastman, M.D. This book tells you how to handle emergency medical care at sea, and it covers much more serious crises than typical first-aid books.

* How To Be Your Own Doctor by Carl Shrader. This book offers excellent advice for injuries and illness that will allow individuals to self-triage their problems (that is, figure out if they need to go to the hospital or not). It also offers pointers on how to save money on prescriptions.

* Field Guide of Appropriate Technology by Barrett Hazeltine. A handbook for non-technical people on how to provide water systems, food sources, medical supplies, and more in third-world countries (in other words, where the United States may be heading). The book includes step-by-step instructions and ill.u.s.trations showing how to build and maintain a vast array of appropriate technology systems and devices.

* The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book by Carla Emery. This is the cla.s.sic for learning a self-sufficient lifestyle. Tips, recipes, folk wisdom, and plenty of hard facts are provided.

* Forgotten Arts and Crafts by John Seymour. I hope we don't have to reinvent the wheel after TEOTWAWKI, but if we do, I want this book at my side. Mr. Seymour has rediscovered natural ways of making tools, shoes, furniture, and many other items. He doesn't go into detail but rather gives the basic facts. It's a good place to start if you're doing research for what you might do in a post-everything world.

* Hand Dug Wells and Their Construction by Simon Watt and W.E. Wood. Do you have a big rainwater tank? If not, you might need a well. And if you need a well, this book could be the difference between life and death.

* Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway. A good start for anyone thinking of using a sustainable way of landscaping inspired by natural ecosystems. Hemenway seems to have experience with semi-arid and shady gardens; you'll need more advice if your problems are too much water and too much sun. But still, it's a good read, and it will start you asking the right questions.

* The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. This covers everything you need to put your backyard to work growing vegetables and fruits, and it even covers animal husbandry-chickens, goats, pigs and cows.

* The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. This covers everything from growing food on your patio to diverting grey water to your garden.

* Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth and Ken Whealy. This is a detailed, complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables, as well as when and how you should plant them depending on what region you live in.

* The New Seed Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel. A great book for learning how to grow plants from seed, including proper seed-starting mediums, lighting, fertilizing, transplanting, and more.

* Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables by Mike Bubel and Nancy Bubel. This is a practical guide to using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables.

* Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon. This book is a good, solid introduction to vegetable gardening. It lays it out for you and tells you how to grow enough food on the cheap to cut your food bill in half.

* The Drinking Water Book: How to Eliminate Harmful Toxins from Your Water by Colin Ingram. Ideas for reducing pollutants in the home water supply without spending a lot of money. The author discusses virtually all the possible alternatives, from purchasing bottled water to using a home treatment system. Ingram outlines various water purification systems with details of how each one works and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

* Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game by John J. Mettler. This is a very detailed how-to book, written by a veterinarian, on how to butcher animals, as well as some ideas for preserving meats. Butchering is not a pleasant business, but it may be one that's in demand in a powered-down future.

* The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour. This book covers skills useful in an unplugged world, such as raising crops, keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and more.

* Old-Time Farm and Garden Devices and How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh. This book includes handy tips for building everything from a cheese press to a hog house, and even a bicycle-powered washing machine.

* The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joseph Jenkins. If the plumbing goes out, are you going to let your town drown in its own excrement, or are you going to step up and propose a solution? This book tells you how to go about it.

Resources on the Web

There is enough useful information about preparation, self-sufficiency, and survivalism on the Web to fill several libraries. You might want to check out the following sites before they're gone:* e-Commerce for the Third World: You can find the mother lode of self-sufficiency and sustainability at http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD_40/CD3WD/index.htm or http://www.cd3wd.com/INDEX.HTM.

* National Center for Home Food Preservation: The USDA has a great free guide to canning that you can find online at http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html.

* USDA National Agricultural Library: Along with that, you can check out the National Agricultural Library at http://www.ars.usda.gov/services/docs.htm?docid=1423.

* USDA Cooperative Extension Systems Offices: One more USDA site-The Cooperative Extension Service, with state-by-state listings, with invaluable information on animals, crops, construction, food preparation, and much more for free download. You can find it at http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html.

* A Guide to Organizing Neighborhoods for Preparedness, Response, and Recovery: The Volunteer Center of Marin County, California, offers this guide free on their web site. Visit http://www.preparenow.org/marin-g.html.

* Hesperian: The entire text of Where There Is No Doctor and Where There Is No Dentist are both available for free online. They're part of Hesperian.org's free online library (I don't know how they worked out the copyright) at http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php.

* First Aid in Armed Conflicts and Other Situations of Violence: The International Red Cross offers this free download at http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/p0870.

* GlobalSecurity.org: This web site offers many free downloadable doc.u.ments regarding security-from the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and international bodies. Check out their White Papers section, plus a lot more. Go to http://www.globalsecurity.org/index.html.

* The Oil Drum: Campfire: This site was spun off the peak oil web site, The Oil Drum, and is for people concerned with surviving what comes next after TEOTWAWKI. Check it out at http://campfire.theoildrum.com.

* Journey to Forever: Lots of free information for those who want a more self-sustained lifestyle is available at http://journeytoforever.org/index.html.

* HowStuffWorks: This site is so much fun, and so educational. Made for boys from 8 to 80. Go to http://www.howstuffworks.com.

* Paladin Press: Supplier of books that are of interest to survivalists. They also have books on surviving a street fight, throwing knife techniques, and more military knowledge than Uncle Sam is probably comfortable with you knowing. Be careful what you order from them, as it's likely that the National Security Agency is watching these guys like hawks. Check it out at http://www.paladin-press.com.

* Thedisease.net: This site provides free downloadable doc.u.ments on combat, medicine, survival training, ammunition, explosives (including improvised explosives), and more. The same warning goes here-start downloading doc.u.ments on how to blow things up and it's likely you'll be scrutinized by Uncle Sam. If you're up for taking the risk, go to http://thedisease.net.

There are also some great libraries of books on the Web, and most of them are-you guessed it-free.

* Project Gutenberg: This is a good place to download eBooks before the Web goes away. Go to http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page.

* Smithsonian Inst.i.tution Libraries: The Smithsonian digitized many older books, maps, and doc.u.ments in their collection. Check it out at http://www.sil.si.edu.

* Digital Book Index: This is more direct than a Google search. It accesses more than 100,000 free books, indexes collections specifically, and won't throw out red herrings. The index is available at http://www.digitalbookindex.org/search001a.htm.

* 2020ok: This is another directory of free online books and free eBooks, found at http://2020ok.com.

* LearnOutLoud.com: A great free resource for home schoolers-this is the Internet's largest directory of free audio and video learning resources. It is maintained by LearnOutLoud.com, and can be accessed at http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video.

These sites are great to visit, but what if a crisis happens? What if the Web isn't always there?

Get Your Downloads Before the Internet Goes Dark

There are three solid reasons why Internet usage will probably be spotty at best in years to come, and that's before we get to extraordinary events.

1. The Internet uses an insane amount of power. If we're headed into a global, long-term energy crisis, the Internet could run into an energy crisis of its own. The power plants that keep the server farms of the Internet alive don't run on gasoline, but they do use a lot of power.For example, the two big server farms that keep Yahoo!'s group of Web services online use more electricity between them than all the televisions on Earth put together. Some estimates put Internet electricity demand at 9.4% of U.S. energy usage and 5.3% of global electricity usage.

And then there's the coal, which generates 49% of electricity used in the United States. If we start to experience severe consequences of global warming, we'll probably see stronger opposition to new coal-fired power plants, even as the nation's energy demands go higher. That will make existing coal-fired electrical power more expensive.

The Internet exists because of cheap, easily available energy. When energy becomes scarce and expensive, big parts of the Internet may become unaffordable, and could go dark.

2. Another problem, which may happen concurrently with parts of the Internet going dark, is that other parts of the Internet will likely no longer be free. If providers have to choose between providing free content with an advertising model that works only for the largest, most popular sites and a small base of paying subscribers who will help them keep the lights on, more and more web sites will probably become subscription-access only.

3. We may see the actual physical connections of the Internet disappear. The metal wires that carry the Internet are going to become very valuable and probably prohibitively expensive to replace if thieving becomes rampant. In other countries that have collapsed-parts of Africa come to mind-thieves have stolen literally every piece of copper wiring they can get their hands on, to be melted down and sold for sc.r.a.p. If the United States goes into a severe Depression, copper thieving could become rampant. Satellite links will keep things functioning for a while, but they won't be cheap to maintain.

These are just a few common problems that could darken vast swaths of the Internet. Then we have the uncommon problems. I can think of several scenarios-a terrorist Electro-Magnetic pulse bomb, destruction of orbital satellites, or a power-down scenario that would either block your access to the Internet or destroy the World Wide Web itself.

On the plus side, we could see a concerted effort to stop computer spam. According to Microsoft, 97% of all e-mail sent on the Internet is spam.6 If governments and gatekeepers made a serious effort to stop spam, that would lighten the electricity load for the Internet and the planet.

What to Do? Download Your Information While It's Available and Free

You can download information to your computer, and in effect build your own electronic library. Tons of information can be stored, digitally, on your computer, and I suggest you do so quickly. But even then it isn't safe-the computer could crash or otherwise be destroyed. So you have three other options:1. Store information on a DVD. This is the super-cheap option. You can burn multiple copies of information on a DVD, and build swap libraries of information with friends.

2. Store information on a memory stick, or USB flash drive, also known as a travel drive or thumb drive. The price of memory sticks has plummeted in the past couple of years. They're generally st.u.r.dier than DVDs, and when you plug them in to your computer, they function like any hard drive. This book you're holding was written on a 4-GB memory stick I swapped between my work and home computers. The cheapest memory sticks hold 2 GB of information, but watch for sales on 4- and 8-GB flash drives.

3. Store information on a portable hard drive. This is like a memory stick, but it is larger and stores a lot more information (ours holds 500 GB).

You should already be backing up your important computer information at least monthly. Having that information on a memory stick in your bug-out bag is a smart move; you'll have access to your electronic info as soon as you can find a working computer.

The Least You Can Do * Gather some books you want to read and games you want to play.

* If you have kids, especially, get some things to entertain them, including art materials.