There are a myriad of packaging options. Most homebrewers start out by bottling their beer. Bottles of varying sizes and materials are available. It is recommended to use brown bottles, as these reduce the amount of light which reaches the beer, and reduces the chances of the beer becoming skunked.
If bottles are used, then once fermentation is complete, the required number of bottles and caps are washed and sanitized.
In order to carbonate the beer, a second fermentation is needed in the bottle. Unless the beer has been sitting long time in the fermentor, there is enough yeast still in the beer to accomplish refermentation. However, there is not enough sugar. To provide sugar for the yeast to consume, for five gallons about ¾ cup of corn sugar is boiled in 2 cups of water and cooled. This is added to the sanitized bottling bucket.
The beer is then transferred via a sanitized siphon hose to a separate sanitized vessel such as a bucket with a valve. The trub and yeast cake at the bottom of the fermentor should be left in the fermentor.
Usually a sanitized hose and bottling wand (a tube with a spring loaded valve at the bottom, which opens when the wand is pushed onto the bottom of a bottle) is used for bottling. I use a short piece of tubing (1 inch or so) and connect the bottling want up to the bottom of the bottling bucket valve, then put the bucket over the dishwasher, and open the dishwasher door. This serves to collect overfills. This allows allows each bottle to be pushed up to the wand, instead of the other way around. If you use a longer hose and hold the wand, you’ll find that you’ll wish you had more hands, especially if you are doing this by yourself.
Fill each bottle to the top, then remove the wand (or bottle, if you use my method). The space taken by the bottling want will leave the proper amount of space in the top of the bottle. Cap immediately, or at least set the cap on top of the bottle so no airborne bacteria or wild yeast can find its way into the bottle.