Your Top 5 Most Important Factors When Brewing

Thought this might be helpful for the newbies (myself included!) so I thought I'd start a little list.

1) Fermentation Temperature - The temperature of the room the brew is in is NOT the same as the temperature it should be fermented at. I don't know if I'm the only one but I totally missed that even after reading How to Brew and Designing Great Beers, and it's had a drastic effect on my brewing. MAKE SURE the temperature of the room you're brewing is ~7 degrees lower than what your fermentation temperature should be.

2) Sanitation - The one's obvious. More sanitation = less infection. Besides that you can always develop some off flavors from poor sanitation, even if it's not an infection.

3) Changes During the Boil - If you messed up and your gravity is too low, let some of that water boil off! There are a ton of different things during your boil that will effect your beer, and having complete control over them is a must.

4) Yeast Choice - This is obvious to most by now, it's very very important to research your yeast depending on your style. This includes what temperature to ferment at, the probability of a blow-up, whether you need a blow-off tube, etc.

5) Hop Choice - This can define a style. You need to know what the characteristics of the hops you choose are, not to mention what country they're from (to know what type of a style you're brewing). And when it comes to pale ales and IPAs (my favorite!), hop choice is everything. So research that %$#^! Get it memorized!

Would like to see some of the higher-ups post in this thread, let us know your opinion. And remember, no one is WRONG here, it's just an opinion-based list. Have fun!

Also newbies feel free to post too!:f

6) Always use your Hydrometer! This seems obvious to those who have brewing for a while, but it is IMO the most important step. Hydrometer readings tell you exactly what is happening with your beer. Is it ready to go to secondary?, Is my fermentation stuck?, Did I kill my yeast by doing this?, How do I know when to do X? This and many other things are answered quickly and effectively with gravity readings.

I'll go for my top 5, they overlap with yours a bit.

1) Cleanliness & Sanitation. Become obsessive about these two guys. Just because your beer doesn't taste like vinegar doesn't mean your sanitation is perfect. Low level infections can linger in the background making your beer not all it could be. When was the last time you replaced your plastic equipment or cleaned your dip tubes?

2) Fermentation. If you're using liquid yeasts you must be making 2 or 3 L starters, preferably aerated or stirred. And that's just for an ale. If not, use dried yeast. Keeping the temperature stable is vitally important. If you dont have some kind of temp control then you'll have to be imaginative when brewing in the warmer months. Aeration of wort is very important especially for liquid strains.

3) Fresh Ingredients. Hops especially, if they're cheesy in the slightest or you're unsure about them, chuck em. I'm not really bothered about malt that has been crushed for a few months, it will be fine.

4) Water. Some may consider this advanced but you must pay attention to things like treating water for chlorine/chloramine, reducing alkalinity if your water is hard, ensuring there is enough calcium for mash/fermentation reactions to take place. Water is more than 90% of your pint, use crappy water and your beer will be crap.

5) Maturation and Finishing. This can only be learnt from experience, but don't drink your beer before it is ready, let your tastebuds guide you. Carbonation can be harsh and unpleasant IMO if not allowed some time to meld with the beer. Cold conditioning and lagering can improve your beer too.

If I could have a 6th it would be 'don't oversparge!'

+1 on the fermentation temperatures.

Of all the things that I have done to my brewery the fermentation chamber has had the biggest effect on the final quality of my brews. My last 5 beers have been far superior to the previous ones.

schweaty said:

+1 on the fermentation temperatures.

Of all the things that I have done to my brewery the fermentation chamber has had the biggest effect on the final quality of my brews. My last 5 beers have been far superior to the previous ones.

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This is true, but even with poor temperature control, you'll make drinkable beer. I'd put healthy yeast and then sanitation at the top of the list. Without these you'll be buying your beer from the store.

My top 5 would be:

1. Fermentation temperature control.
2. Yeast pitch count.
3. Good strong boil.
4. Wort aeration.
5. Cold conditioning.

Sanitation - this is up there.
Water - biggest improvement was getting finding campden tabs.
maybe yeast- safale 05 or notty. thats usually my biggest factor
location- in garage or out. this makes a big difference in my brewing experiance. (specially in the winter)

thats it. everything else is left to chance. I just aint picky.

Wait, WHAT?

No RDWHAHB?

No 'Just Wait, Don't Dump'?

Every time a batch of beer gets dumped, a Revvy loses it's wings.

1: Order
2: Brew
3: Keg
4: Drink
5: Reorder

+1000000000 HH!

From my point of view, one thing is paramount. This is a hobby and it is meant to be fun. Two things can interfere with that fun, stress and ruined beer. Therefore , my list is set up to prevent those two things from occurring.

1) RDWHAHB - Have fun. You're not getting paid to do this, so you gotta be doing it for the enjoyment of it.

2) Sanitize - Nothing will more surely ruin your brew than some mold or bacterial infection. It's a pain, but is the single most important step to producing beer.

3) Yeast Management - Give the yeast an environment at the correct temperatures and don't over or under pitch. It's not that hard and really helps in controlling off flavors.

4) Patience - The single most difficult thing for the beginner to master and the one thing that will make the biggest contribution to taking your beer to the next level.

Henry Hill said:

Wait, WHAT?

No RDWHAHB?

No 'Just Wait, Don't Dump'?

Every time a batch of beer gets dumped, a Revvy loses it's wings.

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Thank you for the sig quote!!! A classic!!!

1. Yeast count
2. Fermentation temperature Control
3. Sanitation
4. Water quality
5. Time is your friend

1. Fear
2. Surprise
3. Ruthless efficiency
4. An almost fanatical devotion to the Pope

#1 - Sanitation. If you can't get this right then, well, you're screwed.

#2 - Fermentation. Pitch the proper amount of yeast, select the proper yeast for the style you are brewing, and ferment at the proper temperature. If you're not doing all 3 of these things then you're not making the best beer that you can possibly make.

A pack of Nottingham or US-05 will ferment out that ESB just fine and while you've certainly made beer, you haven't really made an ESB. Without the traditional English phenols that you would have gotten if you used WLP002, 005 or 007 it's just an Americanized version of an ESB.

#3 - Recipe creation. Start making your own recipes. Odds are that you will still enjoy the beer, even if it's not your best batch. I learned more about the impact of certain grains, hops, yeast and how they change a beer when added in different quantities or at different times than I ever would have learned from just brewing other people's recipes. Don't be afraid to experiment or to make mistakes that you can learn from.

You can only learn so much by following EdWort's Haus Pale Ale or Yooper's DFH clone, or whoever's recipe to the letter every other month.

#4 Documentation. If you want to be able to accurately reproduce a beer on a consistent basis you will need to keep good notes along the way. Keep the recipe on your PC. Takes notes of any changes that you made during the mash/boil. When you pitch, take the temperature of the wort and your starter.

Anytime I move a beer I taste it and makes notes in Beersmith about how the beer tastes, smells and feels. The first time I taste it I'm already thinking about what I can do to make it better the next time I brew it and I put those in my notes as well - "Mash higher", "More flavor hops", etc. etc.

Can you make good beer without doing this? ABSOLUTELY, but it goes back to #3. If you're experimenting and you're drinking a few while you're doing it you could turn out with an incredible batch of beer and no clue how to reproduce it.

#5 - Storage. Find a cool, dry place to store your grain in airtight or mostly airtight containers up off of the floor to keep bugs and critters out.

Buy a Foodsaver and vacuum seal your hops - find a freezer to keep them in.

Organize your equipment storage area so that you know right where everything is. This will save you time in both preparing for your brew day and in cleaing up after your brew day.

My top 5 would be:

1 Ferm Temp
2 Yeast Count
3 Water Chem.. especially PH
4 Mash Temp.. make sure the entire bed temp is as constant as possible.. and on target.
5 SANITARY

#5. And nice red uniforms!

Was wondering if anyone was going to get it.

Yeast count in the top 3? Really? It's important for certain styles I guess, but I usually just close my eyes and pitch the yeast right out of the vial or packet and it turns out great. Temperature, on the other hand, is the main culprit in all the nasty beers I've made. No temperature control and a freak hot wave can really mess things up. As for sanitation, it's hard to say because I'm so paranoid about it that I've never lost a batch. Maybe it isn't #1 but since it's easy to sanitize everything in sight, might as well treat it so. Finally, I've had a couple of mediocre batches that I blame on crappy ingredients: old cans of extract, hops left in a hot car, crappy water, etc. Ingredients is at least #3 or #4. Once you have temperature and sanitation under control, and you're using the best ingredients you can worry about yeast count, but if not, why bother?

riromero said:

Yeast count in the top 3? Really? It's important for certain styles I guess, but I usually just close my eyes and pitch the yeast right out of the vial or packet and it turns out great. Temperature, on the other hand, is the main culprit in all the nasty beers I've made. No temperature control and a freak hot wave can really mess things up. As for sanitation, it's hard to say because I'm so paranoid about it that I've never lost a batch. Maybe it isn't #1 but since it's easy to sanitize everything in sight, might as well treat it so. Finally, I've had a couple of mediocre batches that I blame on crappy ingredients: old cans of extract, hops left in a hot car, crappy water, etc. Ingredients is at least #3 or #4. Once you have temperature and sanitation under control, and you're using the best ingredients you can worry about yeast count, but if not, why bother?

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Try pitching a new beer on top of a prior yeast cake and get back to us on how it turns out. Then you'll appreciate pitch count. :rockin:

jkarp said:

Try pitching a new beer on top of a prior yeast cake and get back to us on how it turns out. Then you'll appreciate pitch count. :rockin:

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Okay, but pitch crappy extract wort onto your yeast cake, stir it with a dirty spoon and ferment it at 85F and see how it turns out. In fact any one of those things are going to mess it up in my opinion, regardless of how much yeast you pitch.

riromero said:

Okay, but pitch crappy extract wort onto your yeast cake, stir it with a dirty spoon and ferment it at 85F and see how it turns out. In fact any one of those things are going to mess it up in my opinion, regardless of how much yeast you pitch.

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Of course, but you asked why so many of us had pitch count listed. Now you know.

I'll have to say there is only one important factor,

sobriety factor.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I'll have to say there is only one important factor,

sobriety factor.

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I agree - but somehow the homebrew angels always take care of us. I got so trashed on Tuesday night during my brew event that anything I did after the 1st sparge is a little foggy. In fact, I wasn't completely sure I pitched any yeast until I found an empty pack of Notty and a 2-cup measuring cup with some crusty yeast in the bottom.

Oh, I thought he meant that brewing completely sober was inadvisable.

riromero said:

Okay, but pitch crappy extract wort onto your yeast cake, stir it with a dirty spoon and ferment it at 85F and see how it turns out. In fact any one of those things are going to mess it up in my opinion, regardless of how much yeast you pitch.

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Hey, stop copying my brewing process!!! :cross:

I think that Water is going to make my top 5. It seems like high chlorine/chloramate levels are becoming much more common and biting people much more. I'm a habitual filterer/campden guy now.

I know that pitch count is sacred around here, but that one would be at the bottom of my top 5. I think that if you under pitch, and you keep fermentation temp under control and have a good oxygenated wort that pitch count matters much less, but a low pitch count will exacerbate under-oxygenation and high ferment temps.

I could only come up with 3:

1. Relax
2. Don't worry
3. Have a homebrew

I'm horibly undisciplined when it comes to brewing but nothing, to date, has ruined a single batch of beer.

OK, been brewing for nearly 20 years, all extract. Here's MY top 5.

1 - sanitize
2 - sanitize
3 - sanitize
4 - patience
5 - patience

worked so far.

Joe

An observation from still limited experience: Make advance plans for the small details in your process, and the "big things" will tend to fall into place.

1. Have enough bottles
2. Sanitize
3. Have enough Home Brew to drink
4. Have something to eat during the 5 hours
5. Have fun!

Music
Cold beer
Wife away
Food
HBT

I would add Keeping a full pipeline.

I find everything much more enjoyable when I have plenty of beer bottled, conditioning and in my primary's. Helps me be patient and leave my beer alone until it's ready. The beer is much more enjoyable that way.

When I get holes in my pipeline, I find myself drinking beer that's not fully carbonated, or even bottling a few days shy of the 3 week mark if I'm in a rush for more beer.


Plan ahead and keep that pipeline stocked up! You'll enjoy all of you beer much more!

1. Sanitize
2. Experiment
3. Remember
4. Details
5. Fun

1. sanitize - religiously
2. planning - equipment, materials, time. and the constraints and limitations of these.
3. research - fermentation expectations, yeast strains, etc.
4. timeliness - 90 min boil is not the same as a 105 min boil
5. education - good ol' fashion common sense has made some damn good beers.

and the most important one. cant add a "6." to this one because it has to be prudent throughout the entire process from first thought to last swallow.

******HAVE FUN!*****

OK. I'll kick in my top 5, in order of importance:

Numero Uno: Homebrewing is a hobby and a craft. There is more than one path to the desired end, and there's more than one right way to do things. RDWHAHB, and you'll be fine.

Numero the second: Healthy yeast make good beer. Learn to make good starters for your liquid yeasts, learn what proper pitching rate is and how to figure it out, and the wee beasties living in your wort will reward you.

C: Be patient -- when it's called for. When in doubt, wait. Yes, you can (and I often do) make fine beer and be drinking it within two to three weeks of brewing. Truly. However, time heals beer, and a little extra time on the yeast can help fix problems caused by poor technique.

Numero Cuatro: Start Cold, finish warm. At least for ales, I have better results pitching yeast at or even under the low end of the recommended temperature range for the strain, then allowing the beer to gradually warm up after the krausen drops. This minimizes off-flavors formed during the yeast's reproductive phase, but maximizes the "clean up" the yeast performs after the krausen drops.

Fifth and last: Clean well, sanitize properly, and replace plastics often. Clean beer is happy beer, and great sanitation goes a long way toward good flavor and good stability in the bottle or keg. It's not surgery, and you don't have to gas your kitchen with ethylene, but a little extra elbow grease and proper mixing of sanitizers sure doesn't hurt.

AZ_IPA said:

I agree - but somehow the homebrew angels always take care of us. I got so trashed on Tuesday night during my brew event that anything I did after the 1st sparge is a little foggy. In fact, I wasn't completely sure I pitched any yeast until I found an empty pack of Notty and a 2-cup measuring cup with some crusty yeast in the bottom.

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THANK GOD I'm not the only one. I brewed the other day and while I was chilling my wort, I went to move the burner. Forgot that it wasn't off for all that long. At least only 1 of my fingertips blistered. The other 4 just hurt like a bastard.

<edit>

I should also add:
1. Sanitation/Cleanliness
2. Quality/Fresh ingredients
3. Patience and Efficency
4. SWMBO either gone or sleeping
5. Good beer/music

jkarp said:

Try pitching a new beer on top of a prior yeast cake and get back to us on how it turns out. Then you'll appreciate pitch count. :rockin:

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Just out of curiosity, what DOES happen?