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

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

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