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.
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
Experiment
The Farmhouse I set out in October of 2015 to redefine my understanding of Farmhouse Ales in a more personal way, connecting to my heritage in agriculture. While a bit narcissistic, this was inspired by visiting my family's homestead in Smith County, Kansas. I have since been back
Rambling
Let’s face facts. We have all given and received some bad advice. “I transferred my Fat Tadpole Pale Ale clone to secondary after three days like the instructions said and now there is this funny film on the top. Is this infected?” Remember these posts? And then the litany
Brew-Magic
Milling is one of those things that all grain brewers fret over at some point. Mills can be finicky, get stuck, wear out, yet they can be a key to adding consistency in the brew house. Still we fiddle with the gap looking for that perfect setting. The internet is
Brewer's Notes
It seems a non-sequitur that brewers eventually come around to appreciate and crave clean lagers. Last year, for the first time, I stuck my toe into brewing a Bohemian Pilsner. I took a keg to NHC club night with the Zealots, after confirmation from trusted friends that it was good,
Experiment
I was cruising through Facebook the other day, and the ebullient Malcolm Frazer (one of the Brülosophy crew) posted a picture of tea brewed with tap water and with distilled water. It was a tremendous example of the effects of alkalinity and the extraction of tannins (polyphenols) from plant matter.
Process
I hate to clean kegs and carboys. Ok, pretty much cleaning anything really sucks. In fact, like many folk, I saw some interesting keg/carboy washer DIY designs and built my own keg cleaner, hoping for efficient simplicity and sanitary bliss. After sourcing a sump pump from Harbor Freight and
Brewer's Notes
Just over 3 years ago I started this blog. I was struggling with my brewing, but starting to see the light. At that point, I had been brewing for about 3 years, starting with pre-hopped extract in a Mr. Beer. I quickly jumped into all grain with a round cooler
competition
I have completed the BrewUnited Challenge 2015, Balanced Division activities. It occurs to me there are some lessons to be learned from peeking behind the scenes and getting a sense of what really goes into such a thing. So here is a quick summary, with a few comments that should
Brewer's Notes
Much of my childhood was spent around agriculture, and Northern Kansas has a wonderful history. From pioneers (Little House on the Prairie) to brave farmers that worked the soil through the Depression, the Dust Bowl and two world wars, my mother's German family has very deep roots in