Most important 'must do' in homebrewing

If you follow recipes well, then fermentation temperature is first on my list. Yeast starters are nice insurance but fermenting at higher temps than normal for style almost always results in crappy beer.

 

full wort boils.
you will notice a substantial improvement and it is very easy to accomplish. requires an investment, but well worth it.

 

As said above full boils for sure. I switched down to partial boils since I moved into an apartment and it's night and day. Next up would be fermentation temp control.

 

I think you nailed all big areas for improvement - add in doing the 'fullest' boils that you can reasonably do for your situation and I'd say you've got a good handle of the most important items.

There's a whole host of other smaller, albeit important items, that you could look into if you happen to be all-graining/partial-mashing.

 

Since you said "commercial quality", I will only add that once you are making a good beer, consistency/repeatability is the 2nd most important thing, no matter what areas of improvement you choose to work on.

 

I'd say fermentation first (after sanitation), then full boils, but thats just me.

 

The biggest must do is to stop justifying not doing things that can make your beer better.

 

I consider myself pretty new at brewing. The biggest advice I ever got was to be precise and takes notes. They go hand in hand. Plan your recipes. Make sure all your weights, measurements, and volumes are correct.

And take notes. And be honest about your notes too. If you miss a temperature or you're off on a gravity, thats OK. But taking good notes will help you realize exactly where you went wrong. And good notes will also help you troubleshoot.

 

Hard to beat temperature control, in my opinion. So many off flavors can be directly attributed to esters and fusels as a result of temps getting out of whack.

The other big thing is patience. Just because the airlock stops after three days doesn't mean go ahead and rack it off the yeast cake and get it bottled. We're not commercial brewers, so a rapid turnaround isn't really necessary (and we don't have access to the filtration and other ways they keep their brews clean). The best bet is to wait. And then wait. And then wait some more. Then, and only then, after all of that is complete, would I recommend waiting a bit longer. Then keg or bottle, or rack the bigger beers or lagers to another vessel.

While I have no evidence whatsoever to back it up, I attribute "that homebrew taste" to insufficient pitching rates, inadequate temperature control, and moving the beer before it's done.

Wait... I listed two, then added a third (pitching rates). Our THREE main weapons are temp control, patience, pitching rates, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Wait, no, the FOUR....

 

I brewed my beer at room temp, whatever it happened to be, for 10 years, all grain full boils for 7 of those years and my beer was decent, got me drunk and made me popular in the neighborhood.
I then read something about temp control and started brewing at much lower temps, low 60's (internal temp) for most of my ales and the difference was incredible. All of this stuff is important but if you want to change one variable that really makes a difference take control of your fermentation temperature.

 

Aside from sanitation, anything that has to do with proper fermentation - pitching rates and fermentation temps probably come first, followed by aeration and nutrients. Everything else comes second. I would probably follow it with quality ingredients, good recipe, full boil, and all-grain, in that order.

I'll add one more thing - if you bottle - bottling technique is key. Overcarbonating a batch can completely ruin it. This is actually tied to fermentation in some cases though - if you don't get full attenuation in primary, your yeast can kick back up in the bottle and f*** your beer hard. I have only had this problem with English yeast strains, so I tend to shy away from certain ones now.

 

Most important variable?

Temperature control on fermentation. To me a full wort boil isn't a variable. You can keep your boil a standard size and eliminate that 'variable'.

Personally for your goals of commercial quality beer, you need controlled and standardized fermentations (pitching rates, temperature control & time) along with full wort boils and chilling.

 

Just curious, which strains?

 

As it is the yeast that make the beer, it is all about the yeast: (1) Select the proper yeast for the style; (2) Make a starter and oxygenate, (3) Control the temperature of the ferment.

 

Temperature, temperature, temperature, temperature.

Remember, you are making wort. It's the yeast that makes beer. Treat your yeast well, and they'll give back.

 

I think there´s no `most important variable`in brewing beers, all of them are essential.Figure brewing as a process chain, you know, a chain is as weak as the weakest link.So, i would start things up knowing your water for brewing chemistry, i think this is the first linkof industrial beer production.

 

This too. Especially if you screw up, and really dig the outcome. If you have good notes, you can screw-up properly the next time!

 

In order: Fermentation Temp, All Grain, Yeast Starter/Stir Plate, Water Chemistry.

 

All of it is important, every step as Tebunken says. You must pay attention to the yeast, as that is when you brew. Mashing and boiling make wort, yeast make beer. You can even ruin a good beer in the packaging step.