which of these will improve my beer most?

[tatlock]

which of the following,(that i don't do) will improve my beer the most?

force cooling the wort
treating my water (i use bottled water)
testing the ph
secondary fermentation
using liquid yeast
buying a cornie

[wetdog]

testing and if required, adjusting the Ph I'd say. no point in treating bottled water. secondary fermentation helps to clear the beer but not really an absolute necessity. A cornie will do nothing to improve your beer, if you put bad beer in then bad beer will come out

[Jim]

I would say force cooling your wort after the boil is a must.

Other than that, liquid yeast (if chosen appropriately to suit the beer) will make a big difference.

[Horden Hillbilly]

treating my water (I use bottled water). This is the best option for improving your brews, although as you are using bottled water, there is probably not much to worry about there.

testing the ph. This is fine tuning the mash, it will make a slight improvement.

force cooling the wort. This will achieve a "cold break", forcing more proteins to fall out the wort. This will lead to a clearer brew.

secondary fermentation. I only do this if I bottle a brew, if it goes into my kk I don't bother.

using liquid yeast. The advantage with these is the vast amount of strains available, much more to choose from than dried. There is nothing wrong with a good quality dried yeast though.

buying a cornie. Down to personal choice really. A cornie will serve beers at a higher psi than a pressure barrel, worth considering if your tipple is Lager.

[Aleman]

Just to throw a spanner in the works

Controlling fermentation temperature

There is no point in measuring the pH of the mash if you aren't treating your water (And vice versa)

A secondary is nice but no way essential, and some will say its just an additional step that can lead to infection etc.

No point in using liquid yeast unless you are controlling fermentation temperature.

A corny is just a big bottle, and while nice to have will make no difference to the quality of your beer.

Which leaves force cooling your wort (from your list). I've done the polypin in the bath thing . . . . and let it cool overnight during winter . . . but will always cool the wort with an immersion chiller

[Dennis King]

Ive always thought the biggest leap forward in the taste of my beers was when I moved to liquid yeast

[Subsonic]

Immersion chiller. Just my two penneth. Made a hell of a difference.

[delboy]

From your list, i'd say liquid yeast (depending on the style of course).

[yashicamat]

I'd say the yeast is less of an issue really. Ask me this a month ago (when I tried my first beer with a liquid yeast; Wyeast Brit Ale 2) I too would have sworn that my beers are significantly better than anything before. However, I've just tried a sample of my EKG Pale which is conditioning at the moment, and that was fantastic, even better than my Wyeast based AG beer . . . the EKG Pale was fermented with Safale 04.

I'd say force cooling, water treatment and secondary. The last is really because it effectively forces you to wait even longer before drinking, adding an extra week or two by it's very existance as a stage in the process. Consequently, you'll get the benefits of that extra ageing.

[subsub]

Aleman & Chris-x1 voter here - fermentation control makes the world of difference

[Scooby]

Aleman & Chris-x1 voter here - fermentation control makes the world of difference

Another vote here, if you want to do just one thing that's it.

BTW IMO most liquid yeast are over priced and over rated.

[delboy]

I'll just chip in to say that buying a cornie will improve the enjoyment of your beer

[greenbank brewer]

I recall a number of years ago attending the BrewLabs homebrewing course. Of the list you set out forced cooling would deliver the greatest improvement, reason being it enabled yeast to be pitch very quickly and minimised the time available for other beasties to become established in the wort.

hope this helps

gb

[Muttley]

It seems as though a lot of people are voting for forced cooling - easy enough with an immersion chiller - and fermentation temperature control. This may well have been covered here before, but what is the easiest way of controlling fermentation temperature?

[agentgonzo]

Depends on what you take as being most important.

If it's ease of serving, get a cornie (though personally I don't like them - much prefer cask conditioning in a pressure barrel with a bottom tap)
If it's clarity you're after, then force cooling the wort (won't make a lot of difference to the taste)
If it's taste and you don't care about the clarity (or don't have problems with it), move to liquid yeast. This would be my first priority (though have had some very good results with dried yeast - liquid yeasts give more consistantly good results though)