🧪 The Homebrewer’s Mead Yeast Master Table

A practical guide to widely available wine, cider, ale, and mead yeasts — optimized for honey must, not malt.

SNA vs TOSNA: A Comparitive Guide to Nutrient Addition Methods in Meadmaking

Discover the key differences between SNA (Staggered Nutrient Additions) and TOSNA (Tailored Organic Staggered Nutrient Additions) in meadmaking. This comprehensive guide explores traditional and organic nutrient management methods, helping both novice and experienced meadmakers choose the right appr

On Brewing Competitions, Competitors, Rules and Ethics

We need an honest and direct discussion about brewing competition. Of course, being a homebrewer, I am mainly focused on amateur beer, mead, cider, and wine competitions, which often also have a commercial or professional track. Here in 2024, competition stakes are very high, and success is critical

Improving BJCP Tasting Exam Scores - REDUX

There are a few common Examinee mistakes that are easily addressed and should ensure a fairly easy shot at an 80 score. This is pretty straightforward advice that applies to any BJCP Beer/Cider/Mead Tasting exam.

"Guile Brews" by Peter Symons - a review

"Guile Brews" is a historical treatise on the brewing traditions of Cornwall, Ireland, and England. This reasonably narrow region of focus allows a deep dive into brewers logs, local news reporting, and even into legal records (which are plentiful) of specific breweries in specific locations. This i

When Perfection is the Enemy of...

With the exit of 2020 and a horrible start of 2021 behind us, I feel the need to address some of the issues hampering my brewing over the past few years and the resulting lack of regular content for Accidentalis.com. Hopefully, this will be cathartic for me and perhaps

Improving your BJCP Tasting Exam Scores

Suggestions for improving your BJCP Tasting Exam scores.

Over Complicated Home Brewing, Going Electric

If there is a theme to my personal homebrewing career, I over complicate everything. It is in my personality to over-engineer, and sometimes my solutions are laughable. That said, after letting my brewing lapse for the past year, I am looking for a new start and a solution to two

Walkthrough - Bru’n Water Subscriber Edition, V 5.3

Overview of the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet Subscriber Edition, V 5.3, a major update released in July 2018.

YAHBB Review, "Methods of Modern Homebrewing"

YAHBB: Yet another Homebrewing Book (TM). Yes, they keep coming along and I am one of the addicts that absolutely love books of all kinds. I have a large bookshelf, the kind with the glass doors that protect the books from dust and stuff, and now have two full rows

Judging and the Anatomy of a Score Sheet

It is inevitable. After a major competition, someone posts a horribly written score sheet to social media, and drama ensues; defensive lines are formed, names called. In my years of competing, the quality of score sheet feedback has been random. When reading paired sheets side-by-side, you can often tell who

A Celebration of Mead and Makers

Between March 8 and 11, a herd of mead makers (and a few bee-keepers), converged on the beautiful and scenic Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado in celebration of mead. This year, the weather was gorgeous, hanging in the 50's - 60's, with clear views of

Brewer's Notes

Keys to Consistency

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

Learn from my mistakes...

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

Brewing With a Master - Ricardo Fritzsche

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

Brew Magic Mods: Loc-line and Whirlpool

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

Practical Guide - Low Oxygen Brewing on the 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

Chris Colby: Home Brew Recipe Bible

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

Mead, Part 3: Racking and Finishing

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

Bru'n Water Spreadsheet Tutorial 1.17: Free Edition

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; Exploring LODO

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

Mead, Part 2: Must Make Mead!

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

Mead, Part 1: Mead Making Accelerated

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

Brew-day Walkthrough. Therapy. Meditation.

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