honey porter

I've been homebrewing for about a year now, and so far concocted 3 different malt elixers with mixed results. And by "mixed" results I mean horrible, terrible, and meh. So I was pretty excited when my running buddy Paul, a veteran homebrewer, invited me over to his place on Sunday to co-brew a German Helles lager. What sorts of tried and true brewing secrets would be revealed to me? And would I be sober enough to remember any of them by the end of the day?