Any tips that may help out with shoddy instructions?
1. Use a book like Palmer's "How to Brew". As I recall that has a section that will walk you through the process.
2. Boils as big a volume as your current kettle allows.
3. FERMENT AT A TEMP THAT IS SUITABLE FOR THE STYLE YOU PICK: THE RANGE RECOMMENDED IN THE INSTRUCTIONS/YEAST PACKET MAY INCLUDE TEMPS THAT ARE TOO HIGH. Simply post here when you pick a style and someone will tell you a good temp and some simple options for holding the temp.
4. If the directions simply tell you to aerate the wort by shaking the fermenter a bit you want to do a lot more than that: there's something called a mix stir a brew shop or online store will have that attaches to a cordless drill. They are great but you can use a clean paint stirrer. A clean and sanitized whisk works great if you go crazy with it for a couple minutes. basically you want to whip the wort into foam.
5. Don't bother with a secondary fermenter.
6. When making your priming sugar at bottling use a priming sugar calculator instead of the entire packet they give you. Northern Brewer has one I use online. Just pick your style, volume, and the temp of the beer and it will tell you how much sugar. Measure by weight if you can but volume measurements are close enough, especially for a 5 gallon or larger batch. Another tip is to put the warm priming solution in the bottling bucket then rack the beer in. It will mix in uniformly that way without adding excessive oxygen.