What Is The One Aspect of Brewing That Is Least Important to Brewing a Good Beer? (In Your Opinion)

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Recipe.

I'll elaborate, process>>>recipe. Obviously recipe matters some but I think what I've learned in the 1.5 years I've been brewing is if your process isn't good it doesn't make much difference what ingredients you put into your beer. Early on I'd spend hours formulating recipes, now I'm trying to spend far more time optimizing my process which I think has come a long way but still has a long long way to go.
 
Recipe.

I'll elaborate, process>>>recipe. Obviously recipe matters some but I think what I've learned in the 1.5 years I've been brewing is if your process isn't good it doesn't make much difference what ingredients you put into your beer. Early on I'd spend hours formulating recipes, now I'm trying to spend far more time optimizing my process which I think has come a long way.

But this goes both ways. If your recipe or ingredients are terrible, then the perfect process isn't going to fix that either.
 
But this goes both ways. If your recipe or ingredients are terrible, then the perfect process isn't going to fix that either.

But most homebrewers with any experience don't have TERRIBLE recipes, like that produce awful beer no matter what. Plus it's incredibly easy to put together a basic recipe for any style. It is not so easy to put together a bullet proof(or close to it) process to consistently make really good beer. E.g. the recipe is less important, because it's much easier to not screw up.

I'll bet you very often when someone thinks their beer didn't turn out good because of a bad recipe, it really was a process flaw. Oxidation, ph issues, degraded hops, poor yeast mgmt, miscalculating IBUs because of their cooling method, etc.
 
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But most homebrewers with any experience don't have TERRIBLE recipes, like that produce awful beer no matter what. Plus it's incredibly easy to put together a basic recipe for any style. It is not so easy to put together a bullet proof(or close to it) process to consistently make really good beer. E.g. the recipe is less important, because it's much easier to not screw up.

I'll bet you very often when someone thinks their beer didn't turn out good because of a bad recipe, it really was a process flaw. Oxidation, ph issues, degraded hops, poor yeast mgmt, miscalculating IBUs because of their cooling method, etc.

Very good points. Cheers. :)
 
We will see on biab. I have a bag for my new 5 gal setup. Thought I’d use it for my Imperial stuff, and any new recipe.
I’m really not sure what I’d give up. I guess I’d have to say my HERMS. Do the steps make a difference? Yes they do in a minuscule kind of way.
 
I would expand on this and say you can skip quick chilling at all. The no-chill folks do it all the time. I chill with an ice bath, which is faster than no-chill, but it still doesn't always eliminate chill haze. Just leave the bottles in the fridge long enough to drop this out if it bothers you.

I don't want to throw a converted Sanke keg in my fermentation fridge with 190 degree wort in it.

I actually did my modified no chill for a batch on Tuesday, because I was brewing after work and wanted to be done sooner. I chilled it down to about 110 or so, and put it in the fridge. The next morning (8 hours later) it was still 85. I had to wait until I got home from work to pitch yeast. If I'd put it in there at a much higher temp (or not put it in because it's too hot, and waited until the morning to put it in the fridge, it would have taken even longer... That's too long IMHO to wait. It might be 36 hours before I could pitch.

Note that I brew 10 gallon [into the keg] batches and usually collect about 10.5-11 gallons of wort for it, so it takes more energy to chill than a 5 gallon batch takes. Maybe true no-chill would work faster with a 5 gallon batch.
 
Recipe.

I'll elaborate, process>>>recipe. Obviously recipe matters some but I think what I've learned in the 1.5 years I've been brewing is if your process isn't good it doesn't make much difference what ingredients you put into your beer. Early on I'd spend hours formulating recipes, now I'm trying to spend far more time optimizing my process which I think has come a long way but still has a long long way to go.

I agree. Beervana had an interesting post on this: https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2019/8/6/are-pilsners-really-the-hardest-beers-to-make

They are saying that, contrary to popular wisdom, the idea that pilsner is the hardest beer to make is outmoded. I.e. that making a good IPA is just as difficult, because you have to balance much stronger flavors, some of which maybe have never been put together. Whereas a pilsner is ALL process, because the recipe is so simple.

But I think in the article they're conflating the artistry of crafting a recipe with the process-oriented technical skill that you need to brew a quality pilsner.

The truth is that the key to brewing good beer is process. I agree with that 100%. (And using fresh high-quality ingredients is part of that.)

Beyond that, recipes are obviously important. But good recipes are EVERYWHERE. You can go look through the AHA website and find the recipe for the gold-medal beers in every style category going back over many years of the NHC. Obviously good process won't make a bad recipe good, but it is IMHO much easier to find a good recipe than to develop good process. If I'm creating my own recipe [as professional brewers are], it requires artistry. But if I'm just selecting recipes, whether word of mouth, or AHA NHC medal winners, or clone recipes, or whatever, the recipe is essentially pre-existing and you can filter to find the good ones.

If you start with a good recipe [which is easy to do], it comes down to process to actually make good beer out of that recipe [which is hard to do].
 
Good point. I used to find myself enslaved to recipes, then I moved to, and still am, somewhat still enslaved to the BJCP guidelines. My first big step outside the guideline parameters was a few weeks ago. I asked my friend who has been brewing with me to pick what kind of beer he wanted to do and I'd draw up the recipe. He said an oatmeal IPA. So it was my first time completely shooting from the hip in customizing a recipe. It came out fantastic. I took it to brewclub last night and it was a hit there too.
Brewing to style. Style guidelines horribly handcuff new, and some experienced homebrewers.
 
I don't want to throw a converted Sanke keg in my fermentation fridge with 190 degree wort in it.

I actually did my modified no chill for a batch on Tuesday, because I was brewing after work and wanted to be done sooner. I chilled it down to about 110 or so, and put it in the fridge. The next morning (8 hours later) it was still 85. I had to wait until I got home from work to pitch yeast. If I'd put it in there at a much higher temp (or not put it in because it's too hot, and waited until the morning to put it in the fridge, it would have taken even longer... That's too long IMHO to wait. It might be 36 hours before I could pitch.

Note that I brew 10 gallon [into the keg] batches and usually collect about 10.5-11 gallons of wort for it, so it takes more energy to chill than a 5 gallon batch takes. Maybe true no-chill would work faster with a 5 gallon batch.

Maybe your pan is insulated and keeps the temperature for a long time? I practice no chill and have never waited for more than 18 hours for the wort temperature to drop to ambient temperature, but the wort sits in a sealed fermenter.
 
Good point. I used to find myself enslaved to recipes, then I moved to, and still am, somewhat still enslaved to the BJCP guidelines. My first big step outside the guideline parameters was a few weeks ago. I asked my friend who has been brewing with me to pick what kind of beer he wanted to do and I'd draw up the recipe. He said an oatmeal IPA. So it was my first time completely shooting from the hip in customizing a recipe. It came out fantastic. I took it to brewclub last night and it was a hit there too.
Congratulations on breaking free from your chains. I think its important to know the rules so you can choose when to break them.
 
Recipe.

I'll elaborate, process>>>recipe. Obviously recipe matters some but I think what I've learned in the 1.5 years I've been brewing is if your process isn't good it doesn't make much difference what ingredients you put into your beer. Early on I'd spend hours formulating recipes, now I'm trying to spend far more time optimizing my process which I think has come a long way but still has a long long way to go.

+1
 
Chilling the wort asap. I started no chill brewing years ago and never went back. After the boil I just cut the heat and move the wort inside in the summer and keep it outside in the winter. I leave the lid on and 24 hours later it's ready to go into the fermentor and pitch. I get clear beer and have had zero issues with this method.

I made an immersion chiller about 7 years ago and haven't used it in about 5 years. I should just sell it.
 
I already responded but want to add ‘exact brands of ingredients’.

I sub Carafa for Choc, Cara whatever for Crystal whatever, Victory for Biscuit, Carapils for Carafoam, Melanoidin for Aromatic, etc, etc. I get whatever the local health food store corner shelf has on it.

I have even substituted 2-row for Pils with good results. Blasphemy I know.
 
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I see people have success with no-chill (covering it method). I read about the one method with that soft, plastic cube where the insides are pasteurized (or whatever) and you squeeze out the air and let it cool. That seems fine.

I just would have pause covering the beer and leaving it in the "danger zone"--between 40°F-140°F per USDA--for so long. The best practice would be to get that liquid to pitching temp so the yeast can start making alcohol. I suppose the alcohol kills eventual mistakes but I just don't see it 100% effective in every situation.
 
The opinions of friends and relatives. No matter if my beer is great or terrible they all say they like it.

That hasn't been my experience. I make good beer and don't share my not as good beers. And they do tell me if it is not to their liking. Sometimes it is just one person and other times they are comparing to an earlier batch and on a very rare occasion more than one person doesn't like a beer I share.
 
Late to the party here, OP, but the one thing I think most important is consistency. Oh, and learning from mistakes. Okay, and taking good notes. And being able to ask for help, accept it, and accept that some of it is good advice and some is....less good advice. And having a sense of humor. Let the bastards take your sanity, but never ever let them get your sense of humor.
 
Last Christmas I had a friend of a relative tell me "Craft beers are fuller". I asked, "What is meant by 'fuller'"? Fuller body? More alcohol? Better taste? What?

I got a blank stare in return.

I tried to enlighten this person about body, about alcohol, but they weren't interested. Guess they were just parroting something they heard or were told without knowing about what they were saying.
 
I've re-read some of this thread, and I still wonder what the intent of the OP was in asking the question.

It's as if he wants to take a shortcut somewhere and wants to know the least damaging place to take it.

This so flies in the face of how I've approached brewing--do everything right, no shortcuts. I believe outstanding beer is a product of a lot of small edges that add up to high quality. To intentionally decide to degrade the process someplace, if that's what he's doing, just rubs me the wrong way.

I'm a believer that everybody gets to decide what's important to them, and that's fine, but.....
 
I've done some batches with pre-ferment oxygenation and more without anything beyond splashing 110 degree wort into the fermenter, and the only difference I can see (yes, with liquid yeast) is that the oxygenated batches seem to generally finish faster. But my non-BJCP certified taste buds so far can't tell the difference.

I also don't chill down to pitching temp in the kettle, I run the immersion chiller to about 110f and then that's about as low as it will go for me in any reasonable amount of time using ground water at least. At that point I put it in the fermenter and use my chest freezer fermentation chamber to drop it the rest of the way. Takes about 3 hours to go from 110 to 65 with a five gallon batch. I assume that would scale up linearly with bigger batches. Usually I'm pitching same day, but if I get a late start I just pitch first thing in the morning.

I've read many times that late addition hops need to be brought below 170 asap or the flavor/aroma contributions will not be what is intended. I've timed it at about four to five minutes for me to get from flameout to roughtly 170. I have not experimented with no chilling at all, but curious how the no-chill guys square with this, or are they just doing beers with no late hop additions?
 
I recently upgraded my brewery. Went from a cooler mashtun and keggle with turkey burner to a MB Tippy Dump. The TD is cool and all with temp controllers and automatic HLT burner for the HERMS, but it seems the process of brewing on the older system was simpler and more zen for me. Now I have to figure what to pump to where and how to configure the hoses so it happens. I'm guessing it will get easier, but man what a learning curve. :mug:
 
I've re-read some of this thread, and I still wonder what the intent of the OP was in asking the question.

It's as if he wants to take a shortcut somewhere and wants to know the least damaging place to take it.

This so flies in the face of how I've approached brewing--do everything right, no shortcuts. I believe outstanding beer is a product of a lot of small edges that add up to high quality. To intentionally decide to degrade the process someplace, if that's what he's doing, just rubs me the wrong way.

I'm a believer that everybody gets to decide what's important to them, and that's fine, but.....
At the time I was very new (and still am) and just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were on the brewing process. As I build up my equipment, where should my priorities lie. Better fermentation vessels? Proper mash and boiling equipment? Better temperature control? Better knowledge of pH and water chemistry? What do people find to be the most important things in brewing?
Thats all. Just curiosity.
 
At the time I was very new (and still am) and just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were on the brewing process. As I build up my equipment, where should my priorities lie. Better fermentation vessels? Proper mash and boiling equipment? Better temperature control? Better knowledge of pH and water chemistry? What do people find to be the most important things in brewing?
Thats all. Just curiosity.
Well having just discovered this thread, I'll take a chance and respond to the original (Least Important).


Least important seems to be All-grain or Extract.
I've had very good beer using either. One is certainly more flexible while the other can be much simpler.
But both can make very good beer.
 
Trying to make every beer fit within some BJCP category. If you want to brew true-to-form Belgian IPAs or English milds, do it. But don't feel like you have to make every brew fit the guidelines. It's your beer--brew to your tastes.

Color outside the lines, go crazy, jump the shark. Brew a banana bran muffin Fruit Loops and habanero coffee porter if you like.
 
Trying to make every beer fit within some BJCP category. If you want to brew true-to-form Belgian IPAs or English milds, do it. But don't feel like you have to make every brew fit the guidelines. It's your beer--brew to your tastes.

Color outside the lines, go crazy, jump the shark. Brew a banana bran muffin Fruit Loops and habanero coffee porter if you like.
With cupcakes.
 
At the time I was very new (and still am) and just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were on the brewing process. As I build up my equipment, where should my priorities lie. Better fermentation vessels? Proper mash and boiling equipment? Better temperature control? Better knowledge of pH and water chemistry? What do people find to be the most important things in brewing?
Thats all. Just curiosity.
Yes to all the above. :)

I used to work with a friend who was the editor at the American Society for Quality. One of the things i learned about was continuous quality improvement.

I've applied that to my brewing. Each time I brew--every single time--I try to do something better than before. Every time.

That means all of the above. Now, in fairness, I'm at a point in my life where I can buy equipment to do this, that earlier (when the kids were still in school) I didn't have the excess resources to do this. So it's not an indictment of anyone whose finances at this time cannot support doing it.

But I was convinced, and still am, that excellence in brewing is the accumulation of small edges that over time, add up to...excellent beer.

So it's hard for me to say what the most important thing is. It's all important. As soon as you start making compromises in your process, you begin to go in the opposite direction from what you want. And this assumes others have the same goals as I do, which may or may not be the case.

I want to control every variable I can in brewing, as much as I can. That means proper pH in the mash, best temperatures during the mash, maybe a step mash, reducing exposure to oxygen as much as I can, getting the proper fermentation temps, and even the type of fermenter I use.

Can you make good beer with very simple equipment? Sure. I've done it, and I've had beers from others who have done it. But the same philosophy obtains. Do the very best you can, and keep trying to improve.

Of all the things you mentioned above, if I had to pick one, I'd pick fermentation vessel. The other factors aren't as difficult to control, but being able to control fermentation (esp. temps) and to even close up the fermenter as fermentation nears the end to carbonate the beer....well, I'd never go back.

I have a Spike CF-10, and it's great, but it's not the only good fermenter out there. What you need is something you can use to control things like temp, oxygen ingress, pressure fermenting, and pressure transfers to kegs.
 
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I've applied that to my brewing. Each time I brew--every single time--I try to do something better than before. Every time.
I agree...but I would say it does not always have to be something "better" every time, but I look for opportunities to try something different. Does purging your bottles with CO2 help or just add more effort? Does dry hopping at a different temperature help or hurt? Does US-05 or S-04 make a more enjoyable Pale Ale? Take notes and pay attention to your process and ingredients. Try to find the things that work for you and build on them.

I have found this really keeps me motivated. Yeah, I could just brew a core set of recipes and always have good beers on tap to drink. But for me, I more enjoy making a batch with 100% Golden Promise, or a split batch trying out some different Belgian yeasts, or trying out a Kveik strain at different temperatures. Even if those beers might not turn out "better."
 
There's room for every type of personality in the home brew hobby. For me consistency is important. Experiment to find out what you really like to drink and then nail down the process and keep what you like on hand. Since I follow recipes from Brew Better Beer by Emma Christensen, I like to think that most of the least important things have already been tossed out. I would be dead wrong with that assessment. In my case the least important aspects of brewing her recipes are a few steps and processes from her book that I prefer to disregard. Those things are:
1. No need for Irish Moss. I've found that it does clarify beer, but I don't like dealing with the pillowy, puffy gunk that floats on the top and settles out on the bottom. I'll take a little bit of cloudiness and allow things to settle out in the bottles, which it does pretty well.
2. No need to move to secondary. This is pretty well known.
3. I don't get the whole dissolved sugar water mixed in a bucket with the beer before bottling thing. I use a little scooper and place some corn sugar powder in each bottle. I brew small batches and this works well and makes the most sense to me. The results are good tasting carb'd beer.

So yeah, I think the least important aspects of brewing will depend on the set of instructions or recipes that you are dealing with. Since I'm pretty new to brewing it took recipes + trial and error + personal preference.
 
I agree...but I would say it does not always have to be something "better" every time, but I look for opportunities to try something different.

I think we're talking about different things. I'm not talking about intentionally changing the recipe or process to try something out. I do that, too. I brewed a Little Wolf clone (Zero Gravity Brewing) and a friend and I thought it might be better if it were just a tinge sweeter. So I brewed it again, increased the crystal malt by a bit and.....it's still good, but my original recipe was better.

What I'm referring to is a devotion to process, a devotion that requires me to try to improve it every single time.

Now, in fairness, I'm at a point where this is getting harder. All the low-hanging process fruit has been harvested, and now I'm reaching for the top of the tree.

I know most people don't seem to like this approach. They want the answer to brewing great beer now, with less effort, and want to collect the accolades of others in response to their creation.

But that's not how it works, IMO. It's funny, because when I started brewing I wanted the same thing. I wanted "THE ANSWER" to accelerate my brewing learning curve. Know what? There isn't one. It's everything, and getting as close as possible to perfect is the key.

Vince Lombardi is reputed to have said "Perfection is Not Attainable, But If We Chase Perfection We Can Catch Excellence,"

That's been my mantra. I have friends who want to buy my beer at commercial prices, and a local bar wants to sell it. I'm not licensed, so no dice, but I think those are signs the approach works.

Do something better. Every time.
 
sanitizer.

unless i'm dealing with something that has brett/lacto or that i know sat out for a while when it was dirty i dont bother. hot water and pbw is as far as i go. other than the aforementioned brett/lacto beer i cant even remember the last time i sanitized a keg or fermenter. i just wash it hot and good to go. sometimes i dont even wash, just a hot rinse.

i have good quality city water. if you're on a well or something else non-treated then that's a different story.....
 
As with @mongoose33 I've made many improvement$ to my equipment and process. My priorities
  • Most important: enjoyment of process and product
  • Least important: competitions, exact clones, "hitting numbers"
I measure (weight, volume, temperature, gravity, time), take notes, adjust things while staying mostly consistent, and generally take considerable care. But I accept that each brew is its own thing, that mistakes and variations happen. Notwithstanding, my beer is (usually) excellent.
 
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