What single change most improved your beer?

Using a yeast starter to get proper pitching amounts and adding O2 to the wort.

The10mmKid said:

Patience



'da Kid

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++++ 1 on the patience! You'll avoid more mistakes, too.


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Paying attention to the water. Tastes fine out of the tap, contains chloramines.

Here in coastal SoCal temp control isn't quite as big an issue as some places, though I'm paying close attention to it during this hot spell. My "fermentation chamber" (the tub in the spare bathroom) generally stays in the mid- to high-60's most of the year. Not this week.

Temperature control followed closely by using RO water and building water to suit.

Temperature control. You can do without, but you can do better with. I use an old fridge in a back room. No add on controls or other mods. I just took out the shelves to make room for fermentors.

Perhaps this thread should go in a different direction what 5 things made the most difference and what is the order of importance!

Temperature control.

Temp control.

Definitely temp control.

I got tired of hearing you can't make great beer with extract, so I brewed an all extract DIPA and entered it into a competition. There were 132 entries and it took gold in IPA category (scored a 45) and was an honorable mention for best of show.

1+ to temperature control. It's not even as expensive as other upgrades; I purchased a chest freezer new for $180 and it holds two carboys. When the beer is done i simply cold crash and keg.

Experience / patience

Brewing with other people....

Can't say the batch to batch consistency got better, but brewing with new brewers is always fun for me.

1) Stopped drinking while brewing (ok, maybe one while chilling)
2) Practice with my system
3) temp control
4) mill my own grain
5) yeast starters
6) patience (had to establish a pipeline first!)
7) kegging my beer (not to debate bottle vs. begging either)

Not in that order, but those were the biggies for me. I

homebrewdude76 said:

Brewing with other people....

Can't see the batch to batch consistency got better, but brewing with new brewers is always fun for me.

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I do the same. I have to keep my mouth shut so I don't take over their brew day... I'm just there to watch and make sure they don't forget to sanitize. Hehe. It's nice to see where you have been, and where you are now in your skillz

Practice. This applied to everything else. After that it was...
Patience and letting the beer set the time (instead of the 1 week primary, 2 week secondary, 3 weeks after bottling formula)
Yeast starters/Right amount of yeast
Full volume boils instead of 3 gallon + top-up water
Proper Oxygenation. With an Oxygen stone.

Stopped drinking??? Really... I make a point to drink the style we are brewing. If we brew at 8am we drink at 8am...

Pitching the correct number of yeast cells.


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The biggest impact on my beer has been the temp control. Thanks to you guys I figured that out early on in my brewing stages. The second thing was cleaning and sanitizing, again learned that early on.
So besides those two, I think my biggest improvements have been pitching the proper amount of yeast and getting my mash temps right. For some reason I struggled with the mash temps for a while.
I will put water chemistry next not because I think it is less important but because I think it is the next step in fine tuning my beers.
The one thing I hope for is that I never think I make the perfect beer. I love brewing and experimenting and as long as there is room for improvement, i'm gonna try!

homebrewdude76 said:

Stopped drinking??? Really... I make a point to drink the style we are brewing. If we brew at 8am we drink at 8am...

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I hear ya, but with a 6-7 hour brew day, I can put down way too much beer... I hate stumbling around boiling wort. Also, I typically brew by myself. So I end up talking to the wall for a while. Some people think that's crazy I guess (hehe)...

One more thing (back on topic): Lots of hops!!

Ditto to above! I struggled with mash temps for a while... Now (thank you practice!) I pretty much know exactly where I need my strike water to be to get right where I want the mash to be, and control the temp swings.

1- temp control, mash & fermentation
2- dialing in my system, ie, boil off volume, whirl pooling, chilling
3- keg conditioning
4- patience
5- good record keeping for consistent results


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Definitely switching to All Grain, followed by moving to a different city and different water, followed by the ubiquitously mentioned fermentation/mash temperature control....

Buy a good thermometer. I had a a floating thermometer before buying a digital one, and realized my floating thermometer was off and all my beers were going really dry. I also noticed the hydrometer I was using was off by a few points and measured water at .995.

Making sure your equipment works well is always key. After that, I think temperature control will make the biggest difference. I have only made one beer using my fermentation chamber so far, but it's a spot on Pliny clone. Going to compare it to the original this weekend.

Starting with the same brew and ever since. Yeast pitching rate and temp control.

For me it was priming with DME instead of sugar. I did a few split batches and found the ones primed with DME were consistently creamier, better head and more "professional" feeling.

But, I'm just now shopping for a chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber so we'll see what my answer is after my next couple batches.

cernst151 said:

For me it was priming with DME instead of sugar. I did a few split batches and found the ones primed with DME were consistently creamier, better head and more "professional" feeling.

But, I'm just now shopping for a chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber so we'll see what my answer is after my next couple batches.

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When you prime with dme, do you match it to the grain bill any kind of way?

I need to start checking my mash conversion doing an iodine test so I don't rush mashing and get more conversion efficiency.


Oops, misread what do I need to do should be what did I do.

Temperature control is a big one of course. But patience. I liken brewing to baking that's faster. I hate having to wait to see my result. But I brewed my first Russian Imperial Stout and Barley Wine in the last couple months and that has forced me to say "Well, gonna have to wait for a while, get over it"

Taking notes/numbers and correctly configure profiles into beer software. It is now easier to predict numbers such as mash/global efficiency, OG/FG, boiloff, volumes, then to calculate on the fly adjustments!

Absolutely, temp control!

Since temp control has been somthing that everyone points to, I focused on getting implemented right a way as I started brewing this year, so that hasn't been a factor for me. What did change mid-year, was that I got a pot that was big enough to hold a full boil of my 5 g extract brews.
Next is the jump to AG later this fall, once I get more time to brew.

Temperature control-- I got better attenuation, No diacytel, and better tasting beers over all

Also, using only 2-3 gallons of water when steeping grains for extract got rid of my tannin astringency.

Temperature control. I've never regretted purchasing my fermentation freezer.

1. Research-books, HBT, magazines, etc (with a beer)
2. Shared experience (over a beer)
3. Sanitation...Sanitation...Sanitation...
4. Fermenting at the lower end of the suggested temp and controlling that temp completely, ie temperature gauge, etc.
5. Cold Crash at the end of fermentation
6. Yeast Starters/quantity/Pitching procedure

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This weekend: English Red Winter Ale
Primary: Empty
Secondary: Empty
Kegged: Pumpkin Spiced Porter, Belgian Tripel
Bottled: Scotch Ale, Red Ale

This app


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Making large starters and pitching new, healthy, working yeast.

Water adjustments

Best change I ever made was to stop stressing and being anal over sanitation and started enjoying the brewing process. Not saying to ignore sanitation, just keep it simple and don't go nuts. I mean, I've had my hands on my cooled wort and had no problems. I've had my fermenter open for around 30 minutes with yeast in it (got stuck speaking with my neighbor). I hardly ever disassemble my keg to clean it. Simply rinse good. Fill with BPW, shake up, let sit 30 minutes. rinse and run through the out line. Dip connectors in Star San, cover them with foil until next time. Again, never any troubles.

I must agree with the majority of the responses...Temperature control for me, and a close second is all the experience gained through the years.

Practice has given me the biggest improvement.

Fermentation temp control is what I plan to tackle next.