From Chris Colby’s September 2005 article Top 10 Steps to Better Beer, annotated with my own notes:
- Cleaning (PBW)
- Sanitation (Star San)
- Quality Ingredients (Vacuum-packed hop pellets stored in the freezer, DME)
- Pitch Enough Healthy Yeast (Liquid yeast with starters)
- Proper and Stable Fermentation Temperature (Son of fermentation chiller, fermwrap, stopper thermowell, and a digital thermostat)
- Wort Aeration (Rock for 5 minutes)
- Avoid Excess Tannins (steep in 1–3 quarts per pound, rinse with the same volume or less, stay under 170°F)
- Keep Oxygen Away (move beer gently)
- Vigorous, Full-Wort Boil (A 10-gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker™ Brew Pot on a Camp Chef Explorer. Woo hoo!)
- Proper pH (Hmmm…)
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p>What about proper wort chilling? What would another be? Maybe pitching at your fermentation temperature, though that might be part of proper wort chilling.