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.
Brewer's Notes
Leaning forward from my last post about lessons learned, I am putting a plan together to help me hit a stretch goal of consistency. While this may seem obvious, I am pretty serious about eliminating "possibly" problematic issues, and striking highly consistent and predictable brewing. So here are
Brewer's Notes
I firmly believe we learn from history, even our own. While it may seem pedantic, I learn through doing and, most often, making mistakes. So here's my top 6 things I learned in this past year. Consider it confessional and cathartic. 1. It takes a while to recover
Brewer's Notes
Meet Ricardo About a year and a half ago, I met this energetic dude with a strong Southern (that is Argentinian) accent, that was coming back to Austin after spending a few years in Munich. Ricardo engaged the Zealots, looking to get back involved. Even while shipping beers over from
Brew-Magic
My last article sparked some questions about my Brew Magic Mods. Below, you will find the two most requested, and parts list. Warning: If your Brew Magic V350MS is still under warranty, I do not recommend making substantial changes to the kettles. Most of the parts may be purchased at
Brew-Magic
Discussions of brewing with low oxygen have returned to the home brewing world with some controversy. I will be using LO2 as a short cut to describe what has been termed LoDO or low oxygen brewing. If you follow this blog, you are aware that I have been exploring low
Product Review
Let me introduce you to Chris Colby, the author of the book, "Home Brew Recipe Bible" (2016, Page Street Publishing). For many experienced brewers, you might know him as the former editor of BYO and WineMaker Magazine. For many new to the hobby, hopefully, you have found his
Honey
Racking and finishing your mead can be complicated, but is simple if you can put together a plan. In Mead, Part 2, I laid out a simple mead recipe and gave instructions and recommendations for making and fermenting your must. Let's recap. * Hopefully, you have had the chance
Bru'n Water Tutorial
Martin Brungard’s Bru’n Water spreadsheet (BWS) is a modelling tool for managing your brewing water. Below, we walk through the FREE version of the spreadsheet with specific examples, reviewing options. For a modest donation, you will receive the advanced spreadsheet and details are later in this walkthrough. The
Brewer's Notes
Low oxygen brewing has been largely dismissed as a quality issue for home brewing. The term "Hot Side Aeration" or HSA was once considered a serious home brewing problem when George Fix described beer stability issues in Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues. Since,
Honey
Must Make Mead Beer is made from pitching yeast into wort; Mead is made from pitching yeast into must, the blend of honey and water. To start, we are going to focus on a simple wildflower honey traditional. The recipe is for 5 gallons (19l), but can scale down or
Brewer's Notes
I have this little problem with a mead obsession. I find something, try it, and like it, then I am all in with a hyper-intense focus. The result is a lot of random hobbies that start to compete for my time, focus, and pocketbook. Mead is one of my major
Brewer's Notes
Brewing, for me, has become therapy, almost meditation. If you are allergic to overly romantic or nostalgic posts, look away, but I am stopping short of writing poetry. I suck at that anyway. Here’s how I brew, with an overly sentimental focus on rhythms and senses. Forgive the grammar