Absolute beginner

Some good advice is to find a club in your area. Brew with the experienced brewers, ask questions, get some hands on experience. Find out what they do for yeast and fermentation control.

 

get an autosiphon!

 

Good points were made about reading good literature. The only thing I would add is to use that information over most instructions that seem to come with kits if that is what you are working with. Fermentation times, steeping temperatures, etc. I have seen a lot of bad information on those instructions.

 

Well my primary batch got a little crazy yesterday and I had to replace my airlock with a blow off tube. Pictures to come. Hopefully it was a clean switch and I did not ruin the batch. I read it is a good idea not to use airlocks in the primary stages

 

Realize that there is no one single best piece of advice.

There are many ways of getting there.

 

It is highly unlikely that you ruined the batch.

I use airlock on primaries all the time, and think it's an excellent idea (it's simpler). The key though is knowing your gravities, fermentation temps, and fermenter headroom, so that you know what batches will be 'safe' to use an airlock for. Then you won't have unintentonal blowoffs. OTOH, it doesn't hurt to use a blowoff tube on every batch.

 

As another noob, albeit with a couple batches under my belt, I assume the "no airlock on primary" thing is for a 5 gallon batch in a carboy? I've had zero issues with 5 gallon batches in a 7.9 gallon plastic bucket primary.

 

Agreed, find someone that knows what they are doing, coworker, friend, heck post up on this forum where you are at and I am sure that someone would let you hang with them for a day while they brew (perhaps you could bring a 6 pack as an admission fee . The process is not difficult but it can be overwhelming when you don't know what you are doing.

 

I use airlocks on carboys (6.5 gallon). Again, it depends on several factors. But a 7.9 gallon bucket would have more than enough headroom for most 5 gallon batches.