From Good to Great

Fermentation temperature control. Fermentation control is what I credit most with my making tasty beers. I have a freezer/johnson controller and fermentation temperatures are always 64-66F. Makes for tasty beer.

 

Fresh ingredients.
Well-designed recipe.
Water quality / brewing salts.
Temperature control during fermentation.
Data collection and analysis.

 

After sanitation I think the most important thing to control is your fermentation temps.

 

Don't be afraid to experiment with partial mash if you're getting good results with steeping grains and extract. It's not much different.

EDIT: and making your own recipes is easy, if you do a little research first.

 

Temp control, proper yeast pitching rate, oxygenation, yeast nutrient... thats what brought me from good to great (at least I consider what I brew to be above average)

 

This worked for me. The only thing I can add is to keep detailed notes (yes, that really improves your beer)

 

Ive been very lazy with my notes recently which is pissing me off since now I cant keep track of my sours and exact spice additions in other beers. I really have to get back on track with that.

 

All water is not created equal.
The judicious addition of brewing salts such as...

Code:

Gypsum (CaSO4)
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)
Canning Salt (NaCl)
Baking Soda (NaHCO3)
Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
Chalk (CaCO3)
Pickling Lime (Ca(OH)2)
Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2)

...can work wonders on the finished product by adjusting the pH and tweaking the flavor profile.

You'll 1st need a water report (W-6: household mineral water | Home Brewer - Beer test ) and software / spreadsheet to figure out what and how much to add to your water. More important when mashing grains than with extract.

In either case...chlorinated water should be avoided.

At this stage in your brewing adventure...may be best to stick with proven recipes before adventuring off on your own. BYO magazine has plenty of recipes for a variety of styles.

 

Purchasing Beersmith is also a good idea. Makes it easy to develop recipes and you can save all your notes in the same place.

 

I have personally found beersmith to be worth the price. It's not perfect but it's got tons of detail and you can dial in your numbers fairly easily. Making recipes and changing things like the AA% of your particular hops isn't hard at all. Comparing and saving recipes/notes is also pretty easy. A bit over-complex at times, but otherwise I'd recommend beersmith to just about any homebrewer.

 

using quality fresh ingredients
brewing water quality / control
fermentation temperature control
wort oxygenation system
stir plate for starters
better recipe formulation
-beersmith2.0, ray daniels designing great beers & jamil z. brewing classic styles are great starting points

 

Good advice. I'd add that I can build virtually every useful water profile I want (from either distilled/RO water or tap water) with just three of those... Gypsum, Calcium Chloride, and Pickling Lime. Plus Lactic Acid when I need to lower pH without increasing minerals.

I'dd also add that since OP is extract brewing, water tweaking is probably of limited value, since he won't know what minerals are already in the extract, and by the time he can make educated guesses about that, he'll probably have moved on to all grain brewing.

 

Here are six that I consider important:

Adequate Yeast Pitch Rates
Fermentation Temperature Control
Adequate Oxygenation of the Wort
Exclusion of Oxygen from the Finished Beer
Make sure your yeast get the trace elements (nutrients) they need (mainly zinc)
Water Profiles that enhance the Style Brewed

 

I think the three things I noticed that made my brewing better were temp control, oxygenating wort at the time of pitch, and proper yeast pitch rate. It's all been said before, but the difference really is night and day. The first thing I thought when I regulated all three was, "wow, my beers are shaping up quicker." They will, and they will taste better overall.

Godron Strong also has a book Brewing Better Beer. It pushes you to break down your brewing process and expects you to dissect the hows and whys of your brewing.

 

My bad.
Didn't see where OP was brewing with extract.

 

I'll add the book I mentioned is for AG brewers.

 

For someone on their 3rd batch, I would say that the first two are easy and well worth the trouble of dealing with, especially with an extract batch. And then careful racking/bottling for #4 is also easy to deal with.

If I was making a list for a newish brewer, I would say fermentation temperature is the most critical and easy to deal with. And full boils vs. partial boils.