Matt Chrispen | Accidentalis Brewery. Overly serious home brewer sharing long-form articles on beer, mead, and gear. Passionate about historical and modern techniques and systems. Documenting the ongoing journey to mastering craft from my garage.
Rambling
Was thinking about what I really want to do, related to brewing, beer, etc. so thought I would put together a barrel list... 1. Tour Belgium a few times, skip the commercial breweries and head toward the few real monastic breweries. Bonus: spend a week helping. 2. Attend Octoberfest. Been
Brewer's Notes
I'm posting my brewing process, more for myself than anything else. It is a good reference point to revisit over time, should certain habits or problems creep up. Brewing has become a ritual for me, something I can do that provides a lot of focused, refreshing concentration on
Brewer's Notes
So it has been several weeks since I brewed the first APA, and took fairly careful notes of mash pH, mash efficiency, etc. I was very happy with the results in the glass, but... I bought an RO system, specifically to address a terrible water report. Terrible in that sodium
Brewer's Notes
Since I am exploring water issues, and recently purchased several pounds of high-alpha American and New Zealand hops... I thought I would calibrate on a hoppy Pale Ale. The title really references hops varieties that make me think of space and NASA, as well as the problems I have been
Brewer's Notes
So, as I mentioned previously, I bought a R/O system. That's Reverse Osmosis, which forces water, under pressure, through membranes that operate on the microscopic level, rejecting certain sized molecules. Essentially it strips water clean, allowing only H2O through the other side. There is a downside, that
Measurement
The general sensibility is that if the water tastes good, you can brew good beer with it. While I agree with that statement, we have a "calibration" and observation problem. We tend to become blind to flaws in things we are exposed to every day. I have adapted
Recipes
Ok, I am officially about 1/3 into the first keg of my black saison, and fairly pleasantly surprised. It did take, as always, really about 2-3 weeks for the beer to mature, under pressure, and lose some of the sharper flavors. There are some things that I may do
Measurement
I use a refractometer(s) almost exclusively in my brewery. Now first, I realize I am giving up some precision, which tends to go against my personal philosophy, but please allow me to explain. I am greedy. Using a hydrometer consumes wort. That is about a pint of wort that
Recipes
Hard to pick a first recipe for a brewing blog, but here it is - summer in all its sweltering Texas glory. So I deal with summer brewing session saisons. I have been drinking a few and reading quite a bit about the history, and seldom does the past match
Brewer's Notes
In his book Outliers, Gladwell makes an interesting observation. To get really good at something, there is a magical "10,000 hours" of practice necessary. It's an amazing read, and the theory has some acceptance in the academic world. Clearly, if you repeat anything 10,000