Stout advice

One thing:

You're being told (for good reason) by a lot of folks to use a starter. Since you're just starting out, if you're not inclined to do that, make sure you at least spend the extra dough for the proper number of smack-packs of your yeast to get a good pitching rate. I often do this if I decide to brew last-minute and don't have a starter around. To me the extra $5-12 is worth it not to make a batch of bad beer because I underpitched. And on a huge beer like this, the one thing that can be said with complete certainty is that a single smack-pack of yeast ain't gonna do it.