The Mead House

A couple months back, Chris challenged Jeff to make a key lime pie flavored mead. This episode, Jeff delivers a mid-fining sample for Chris to taste. Chris gives a brief challenge on the bomb pop mead, an interesting potential new direction for that mead, and then Jeff throws another wrinkle in calling these  challenges finished. Then, Chris inquires about fermenting outside the high and low margi...

The guys take another tour through Jeff’s box of herbs and spices and brew up some teas evaluating options for gruit, metheglyn, and fruit and spice mead additions. Plus, Chris includes an anecdote from a friend on using pecans in a mead and speculation on nuts in mead proceeds further. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shoppi...

Jeff leads Chris down the trail of a concept he’s seen thrown around quite a bit recently, waterless meads, or perhaps more accurately described as no water added meads. But that’s a bit of a mouthful. Jeff takes Chris through a few different approaches, some of which he considers cheating, and a few different things to think about toward the end of the batch to get the most out of these fruit hea...

Plenty of podcasts, websites and videos exist with recipes and advice for making a good first batch of mead. This week, the guys take some time to give some advice for beginning mead makers that are moving from the first batch towards a second, third, and developing their own interests and styles as mead makers in their own right. The recipe builder site Chris mentions in this episode is www.meadt...

Jeff starts off the episode discussing a few personal milestones and then moves into talking about an exciting new product for stabilizing he’d like to see available to homebrewers called Nagardo. Then the guys get into reviewing various starter equipment kits for mead making, comparing cost and the equipment found within, what you get and what you’d want across a number of different websites and...

Jeff and Chris return to the topic of mead cocktails with some made specifically for the summer season. Jeff throws out a cocktail he’s created from playing with citrus in the kitchen while Chris takes a mead forward approach to five classic cocktails, and the results would speak for themselves, but you’re going to have to trust what they have to say about it unless you want to try these for yours...

The guys throw some ideas around for incorporating smokey flavors into a mead, different processes, ingredients and other approaches to get the smoke flavor into a mead, along with a bit of discussion as to what flavors would taste good with it. Then, Chris throws down a new challenge for our listeners! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 fo...

Much to his chagrin, Jeff recounts a situation where he was tricked into sharing an AI generated video with an AI generated script on fake honey to his cohost Chris, which spurs on a conversation about fake honey, tests for fake honey which are themselves kinda fake, along with a side discussion on supposedly hallucinogenic Mad Honey which is real but the effects of which seem… overstated. The Mea...

With so much talk about session meads they have planned for the summer, the guys go through some best practices to keep in mind for getting those light delightful little low-ABV meads from fermented to tasting great in a bottle. They also take a few minutes to talk about the challenges and approaches to using citrus fruit in a mead without headaches and delays. Finally, as if their summers weren’t...

The guys take a bit to talk about the ins and outs of aging mead. They talk bulk versus bottle aging, Jeff shares a tip for sampling bottle aged meads that allows for less product loss, Chris shares one of his horror story meads that still taught him a strong lesson, and as you’ve naturally come to expect, there will be tangents. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use...

In this episode, the guys challenge each other to create a summer time mead. They present each other with a concept and have to define their flavors, sources of the flavors, intended ABV for their projects giving plenty of insight into the start of the recipe building process. Stay tuned for the end result in another month or two! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Us...

Is it the last fading remnants of spring in the air, or is that just a pollen cloud heralding another allergy attack? This week the guys sit down to chat about meads made with flowers – what kinds to use, how to get the flavors out, as well as some speculation as to which would make the best meads. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all...

The guys try a braggot Jeff made using some limited availability ingredients and then get to chatting about what they want to accomplish with their summer. From fruity stuff to session meads and meads made with kviek, before too long time gets away from both of them as the ideas start flying. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your...

After last week’s boozy episode trying easily available commercial meads, the guys decide to flip the script. They sample commercially available meads from smaller producers in various parts of the country for the sake of comparison to more widely available commercial brands. Mead makers include Sky River Meadery, Ozark Viking Meadery, Prairie Rose Meadery and Texas Longhouse Meadery. The Mead Hou...

If you walk into a large local liquor store anywhere in the country, you MIGHT find mead there. If you do find it, you’re likely to find one of a few brands that have wide distribution. The guys realize that they haven’t tasted any of them in a VERY long time. To remedy that, they review five different widely available varieties of mead and sneak in a local variety at the end. The Mead House Podca...

The guys take a look at recipes from the Elder Scrolls Cookbook for quick meads, evaluating those recipes, then do some digging on older and less mainstream parts of the internet to find weird mead. What they find are unusual ingredients, archaic practices, and plenty to keep them amusing themselves. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for a...

The guys get a little silly this week – leaning into the presentation side of mead making to think up cool, interesting or silly ways to present your meads inspired by the massive quantity of fantasy books, movies, television shows, tabletop and video games. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank yo...

After their last foray into experimenting with herbs to make tea investigating a gruit, the guys return for the second part of the experiment using a variety of roots, as well as a nut and some bark. Will any of them yield a good addition to a gruit braggot in the planning stages? Or will their tastes take them in an entirely new investigative direction? The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacc...

Jeff and Chris return to the topic of making a gruit-braggot, a braggot without hops that Chris can enjoy due to his allergy to hops. In an effort to research some of the herbs which could be appropriate for such a brew, they make teas with five different herbs which could contribute to said brew, then start talking about the grains that could go along with said herbs, completely forgetting half o...

For all the new listeners to the podcast, Jeff and Chris take some time to cover all their best practices for mead making, how and why their practices differ from other recipes you might find out on the web and how those practices lead to what all of us want, better mead. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply n...

In their seemingly endless quest for new and novel ways to make mead, the guys dip their toes into the flavor palate of Ethiopia. Tej, a mead made with gesho root, is an obvious stop on the tour, but they also explore an herbal tea made with koseret, as well as an indigenous style of beer called tella made with roasted grains. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use ou...

With the weather heating up, the guys spend a fair bit of time throwing ideas for summer meads around, helping each other develop their plans and coming up with some tasty ideas. Plus, Jeff lets Chris try a couple more honeys and the guys taste an interesting mead from Drinking Horn meadery. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your s...

Catching up after an action packed travel schedule, Jeff and Chris spend a little time chatting over some of the popular trends they’ve seen in mead making, from the ubiquitous meadowfoam honey to some trends in the past and speculating as to what new trends are coming forward. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and su...

The guys take some time to do a recap of this year’s Valkyrie’s Horn mead competition while driving home from Minneapolis as the experience is still fresh in their minds. Tune in for the impressions, annecdotes, memorable parts of the experience and far too many new ideas the fellas have come up with over the course of the weekend! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! U...

Jeff challenges Chris to design a pyment using some wine concentrate which may be past its sell-by date, using ingredients he has around the house. The guys think about additional fruit, spices, different options for yeast and honey, and the end result shows a lot of promise. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supp...