What's the single most important aspect of making a great-tasting beer?

[Batinse]

Is it:

1. Tweaked Recipe
2. Quality of Water
3. Quality of Malt
4. Quality of Hops
5. Mash Temperature
6. Mash Conversion Efficiency
7. Quality of Yeast
8. Fermentation Temperature
9. Sanitation
10. Patience
11. Other ________________

No points for saying all the above!

 

[passedpawn]

8 .

 

[arturo7]

Any points for taking 2-5 plus 7 & 8?

 

[bob1852]

9. sanitation

It doesn't matter what you do with #1-8 if you wind up with an infection, you're beer won't be "great-tasting."

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

9. Patience

 

[dirtdigger]

All the things you list are important for making a quality beer.
However, when my friends and family tell me how much they like my beer(they keep proving it by drinking all I can make, which is fine by me), I tell them it's the love that goes into brewing it that makes it so good.
I love home brewing and I love watching folks enjoy my brew!

 

[Special Hops]

All of the above

 

[pernox]

My biggest improvement was made by controlling fermentation temp.

 

[Batinse]

I'm with you passedpawn, but that could just be because I find it difficult to keep my fermentation temps down since I don't have a basement. When I get it right, those beers are my best.

I added sanitation and patience to the list, and I "loved" your answer, dirtdigger!

 

[Schlenkerla]

8) Sanitation
9) Patience

Lack of both tend to be common rookie mistakes.

#8 is an absolute, without is less than stellar results are quite likely. I have a friend who does not sanitize. He used 160F water and rinsed thoroughly. I consider him lucky and somewhat foolish. 18 years w/o infection.... but he's like an obsessive-compulsive with cleaning.

#9, the lack of patience, not allowing for time, tends to bring on needless worry. Sometimes it convinces people to open fermentors, pitch more yeast, dump beer, or just become disappointed. You can chalk up brewing mistakes too, not planning adequately, or not checking the recipe while brewing. Goofing up the hop schedule. Pitching yeast into warm wort.... etc.

 

[Yooper]

My biggest improvement was made by controlling fermentation temp.

This, plus proper yeast pitching amounts. Stressed yeast causes far more off-flavors than any of the other things, in my opinion.

Temperature control + proper yeast pitching= better beer.

 

[Brewkowski]

11. Other PRACTICE So I advise drinking as much as possible to keep new batches a brewin'. Seriously though, everything on the list is necessary, but it's only through the hands on of it all that you get comfortable with what those things mean for you and your set up. At least for me.

 

[NorCalAngler]

In order of brewing process:

Organization
Quality Ingredients
Proper Sanitation
Fermentation Temp

 

[boo boo]

All of the above

Weather it counts or not, I agree.... all of the above.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

They are all important. You need them all to make good tasting beer.

 

[spareparts]

11. Other Technique

A good technique will take in to accout all of the important variables as well as those adjustments for your brewhouse conditions.

 

[ThickHead]

Temperature control + proper yeast pitching= better beer.

What Yoop said!

 

[mithion]

This is a difficult question to answer as all aspects you list are necessary. I will therefore answer it with the assumption that in the event that you're already capable of taking grains, water, yeasts and hops and make non infected beer out of it, the biggest thing you can do to dramatically improve the quality is tighly controlling fermentation temperatures.

However, if you're only beginning and have grand aspirations of brewing the next wesvleteren masterpiece, you should begin by focusing on sanitation. It's pretty universal that nobody likes nasty infected beer.

 

[Palefire]

This, plus proper yeast pitching amounts. Stressed yeast causes far more off-flavors than any of the other things, in my opinion.

Temperature control + proper yeast pitching= better beer.

I vote for this. I started reading this board pretty early, so I've been controlling ferm temps since by 3rd beer or so. But my beers got far better and far more consistent when I started trying to pitching proper amount every time. And when I've gotten lazy and underpitched, I've always paid the price!

Mr. Malty is your friend (as is Yooper!). :rockin:

 

[Scooby_Brew]

Is it:

1. Other ________________

It is: Passion for brewing

 

[robertbartsch]

...cooling the wort quickly and lower ferm temps have helped my beer. Also longer conditioning periods....

 

[dlester]

Although "all of the above" is important, the "most" important is the water profile and the fermentation temperature (assuming all the other items are good).

There is a very good explanation on John Palmers site at:
"Briefly, sodium and chloride act to round out and accentuate the sweetness of the beer, while sulfate (from gypsum, for example) makes the hop bitterness more crisp. You need to know and understand the initial mineral profile of your brewing water before you start adding anything to it though. Too much sodium and sulfate can combine to produce a very harsh bitterness."

You can read more at John's website:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter4-2.html

 

[Teromous]

I don't like this question. Single most important aspect, and can't say all of the above? Ridiculous. I would say that 7 and 8 are very important and go hand in hand. Yeast makes a huge impact on beer flavor, but must be used properly. Bad yeast in the proper temperature will yield you a poorer beer, same as using good yeast in an improper temperature range.

That being said, all of these are important. No points for me.

 

[SteveM]

Process control. Attention to detail.

 

[XXguy]

11. Other: Reading HBT so that you will know the answers for 1 thru 10 !

 

[Teromous]

11. Other: Reading HBT so that you will know the answers for 1 thru 10 !

Good one.

 

[SumnerH]

+1 on Yooper's advice. Getting fermentation temp and yeast pitching levels under control are the keys to making a great beer; obviously everything else matters, too, but those are the ones where their critical importance isn't totally obvious--every brewer assumes using different malts or hops or neglecting sanitation is going to have huge effects on the beer.

Fermentation temp has nearly as much effect but is what a lot of new brewers neglect for a while.

 

[schweaty]

Fermentation temperature makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Special Hops]

All of the above

I changed my mind. All of the ones highlighted below.

Is it:

1. Tweaked Recipe
   [*]Quality of Water
   [*]Quality of Malt
   [*]Quality of Hops
   [*]Mash Temperature
2. Mash Conversion Efficiency
   [*]Quality of Yeast
   [*]Fermentation Temperature
   [*]Sanitation
3. Patience
4. Other ________________

Tweaked recipe is irrelevant - as long as you have a good recipe.

Conversion efficiency is irrelevant too, as long as you know what it is. If you have 50% efficiency you just need more grain and. But can still make quality beer.

Patience is nice but i bet some very impatient people can make great beer.

 

[ghack]

In a class by themselves...

Sanitation
Fermentation Temperature

And the second tier...

Patience
Recipe
Quality of Ingredients

And largely irrelevant...
Conversion Efficiency

 

[NCBeernut]

9. sanitation

It doesn't matter what you do with #1-8 if you wind up with an infection, you're beer won't be "great-tasting."

This. Without question. You can get away with the other stuff on there and still have at least drinkable beer. Of course to actually make good beer, other factors come into play.

 

[babalu87]

Other

Paying attention to detail

Recipe
MEH

Take an all Pils....Pils have ten brewers make one cant tweak it, its a Pils...........gotta brew as is over half are gonna suck because details weren't paid attention to

 

[hal2814]

Our 4 chief weapons are:
1. Fear
2. Surprise
3. Fanatical Devotion to the Pope.
4. That's it! There's no fourth thing.

On a more serious note, you can't distill brewing down to one important lesson. Most lessons are important. Several factors like fermentation temp and sanitation are so crucial they can destroy a beer.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

11. Other

Trying often.

 

[Scimmia]

9. sanitation

It doesn't matter what you do with #1-8 if you wind up with an infection, you're beer won't be "great-tasting."

Bingo. If your beer is infected, the other stuff is really and truly pointless.

 

[j1laskey]

I work in a lab "doing science" daily....and if brewing is considered a science...then it is without question sanitation...Have you ever smelt the inside of a 37degreeC incubator with a cell culture that has an infection??? Terrible!

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Self satisfication

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Self satisfication

Clean out your PM box! Wanker!