First grow, point me in a direction please..

My first grow! I've finally gotten myself a place fit for a nice small undertaking; we'll see how this turns out and if I try to go bigger later.

For now, I have two plants (pics 5&6). I've been growing them since the 5th of July. One of them (pics 1-4) is about half the height of the other (pics 7-11) which is about waist height; I'm 6' but have no measuring tape and no sense of measurement.

I started them out under a plant light, blue tinted? I don't know the wattage or lumens, only that I found it in my grandpa's garage. Anyway, I've since upgraded to a 150w HPS and am currently on a 19/5 light schedule. I'm not sure the size of my pots either, let me know what you think they could hold Nutes to this point have only been leftover beer from parties since I'm a poor college student with alcoholic roomies.

They've been doing well to this point, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I do have some questions though, your input would help me a ton

-I know my first is a fem, but is the taller one?
-Where do you think they are in their veg stage? I don't know quite when to flip over to flower since I'm not sure what the bud nodes are supposed to look like.

Any other words would be welcomed Thanks for all the info, you've helped me get this far!

Why 19-5? Anyway you can veg for whatever time you wish, there are people who put them onto 12-12 from seed. As you only have a 150w light i would put them onto flower sooner rather than later, as depending on strain they will double, maybe even triple in height. Beer for nutes? You really need to get yourself some proper nutes!

Force flowering early, will reduce the overall height of the finished plant, meaning that your light will have more chance of penetrating the lower branches of your plant. The nutes will cost you money but your plants will thank you for it in the long run.

If you're growing in soil and want to be cheap like me, just use miracle gro. They make both growth and bloom types. I know everybody groans about it but I am growing in miracle gro soil and fert, because it's my first grow and I am poor. No recent pics, but these are my girls about 2 weeks old. If they look wet it's because I misted them with liquid seaweed.

Miracle gro is one of the causes many first time growers become last time growers! If miracle gro is your only option, as its cheap and readily available. Use it sparingly. I have used it previously to feed my plants through veg, but that was then!