Lab-First
Bochet & Brewing Sugars - Reduction and Browning
Intentional browning of sugars has a long tradition in brewing and mead-making. Here's the science.
recipe
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
Experiment
Farmhouse Ales, Revisited: Part 2
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
Brewer's Notes
Improving Your Recipes
One of the more frustrating (or fun, depending on your perspective) challenges for a brewer is developing and establishing your own recipes. A great brewer's recipe creation skills sets a path for a successful brew; outlining procedure and visualizing the beer in the glass. Every brewer seems to
Process
Brewing Water Series: Brülosopher's Best Brown Ale
American Brown Ale The application of water profiles for homebrew typically starts with the beer style, and secondarily with the beer color and hop character. An American Brown Ale can be difficult as there is some variation between Brown Ales, ranging from a more malt forward beer to some that
Brewer's Notes
Damn the Torpedo... or Hopback, Part 1
It was absolutely frigid. Frightfully cold, and I say this with the slightest nod to friends and family that are north and north east getting pounded with snow, sleet and ice and truly freezing again. After 20 years here in Texas, I have lost my tolerance for the cold. My
Brewer's Notes
Bru'n Water 2.0 Subscriber Spreadsheet Tutorial
The original walk through of the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet remains one of the most popular features of Accidentalis.com. While the core information remains relevant, there is a significant difference in workflows between the Free and Subscriber version of the spreadsheet. This tutorial is focused on the Subscriber
Rambling
Full Nelson SMaSH Recipe and Initial Tasting
For those that don't know, a SMaSH beer is a single malt, single hop beer and a perfect vehicle to really get to know a new hop variety. I have gotten very lucky so far with Nelson Sauvin, using it in a previous recipe called Saison Du Sauvin.
Brewer's Notes
Malt Analysis Sheets - an Overview
It's time to get a little nerdy about Malt. We are going to run through and compare Blacklands Malt White Horn® Pilsener to Briess® Pilsen Malt, and hopefully learn a little bit about choosing quality products. Malt Analysis sheets are useful tools in a brewery toolkit for making
Rambling
Building a Recipe, Part 3: Saison in the glass
A simple tasting description: Tastes like a saison... lots of spice and phenolics. Orange and other spices are in the background. Mouthfeel is light to medium. Love the foam and the spritzy finish. This is a fairly classic saison and sessionable with just a little alcohol at 6%. I think
Process
Building a Recipe: Saison
I am on a saison kick… maybe more like a saison obsession - they taste like summ and it has been cold this winter. I thought I might do some “rambling” and exploration here about saisons and water profiles, since there seems to be some confusion relative to what is
Rambling
A gut check: Homebrewing and Consumption
On the AHA forum, Denny Conn posted this link to a sobering article.It really got me thinking. I have 4-5 batchs of strong beer in my pipeline at any given time. I am the only drinker in the house - and while I give a lot of it away.