The Mead House

It’s another longer topic this week as the guys dig into getting ready to get meads to competition. They talk finishing your meads with an eye for entering, packaging your mead, options for shipping and the ins and outs of getting it entered! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus &...

The guys take a deep dive into the various faults one can encounter while making mead, and talk steps to mitigate and deal with them as they spring up. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

It’s a three-topic Thursday at the Mead House. In the first topic, Jeff discusses his experience beekeeping and things a home mead maker should think about before getting into the hobby themselves. Then, the guys discuss PUT SOME SEEDS IN YOUR POCKET, Jeff’s lemon mead recipe that he finished based on the Mead House 8% mead recipe. Finally, the guys discuss options for making a sour mead for the h...

Chris’ son Roane has undertaken an experiment making the cheapest mead possible, comparing mead made with wine yeast and mead made with bread yeast. Chris and Jeff try an experiment to see if they can tell one from the other, with surprising results. Then, Chris drops some knowledge on growing berries in containers, a topic near and dear to his heart. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus...

With the calendar turning over to June and the temperatures climbing, we’re definitely in the summer months. Usually that means making mead gets tricky but Jeff throws out some ways to make your summer meads fast and tasty using kviek yeast strains, and uses one to make a juicy orange mead that’s sure to be a favorite summer sipper – Jeff’s Modern Orange! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bac...

Jeff and Chris talk in more depth about using whole fruit for making mead, including process and procedures, cautions and best practices, along with why it might be preferable to several of the easier ways to add fruit flavor they’ve covered in previous episodes. Then, the two of them discuss approaches to refining favorite recipes and building up ‘house mead’ recipes. The Mead House Podcast is sp...

It’s another two topic episode! In the first part, Jeff gives Chris a deeper dive into the ins and outs of carbonation, discussing the pros and cons of bottle conditioning versus kegging. In part two, the guys take a look through a handful of easily accessible mead recipes online and point out some red flags that might be a good sign for new mead makers to be cautious of using those recipes, discu...

Jeff lays out the basic recipe for a 12% starter mead recipe along with some discussion on what makes this different than the previous 8% recipe and what extra techniques we need to use to get the end results we’re looking for. Mead House 12% Mead Recipe Start with approx 1/4 cup warm (80-90 degrees Fahrenheit) water. Add 2g 71B yeast and 2.5g GoFerm and set aside to proof. Add honey and water to...

Jeff and Chris spend a bit talking about an easy way to get started in making new kinds of meads – utilizing kits. Whether it’s fruit wine, regular wine, cider, or beer, it’s a great way to get started making melomels, pyments, cysers or braggots with a pretty high probability of yielding good returns! The guys spend a while talking different strategies for utilizing kits and share some of their o...

The guys spend some time reviewing historical ingredients used across a variety of historical cultures all around the globe. Chris issues a friendly challenge to brew a historical mead recipe (see the link below) and the guys sample some obscure herbs and spices for making meads getting ideas for future projects. The Queen’s Mead recipe (Courtesy of Brew Your Own Magazine) Jeff’s Editorial Note –...

Jeff and Chris wander deep in the weeds this week, broadening the possibilities of making good meads and giving themselves even more mead ideas to work on in the process. First a discussion on fortifying meads and all the dimensions that fortification process could take, then a brief discussion on using meads in cocktails! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our di...

By listener request! How to get started making mead with a smaller initial investment to find out if this hobby is right for you. Naturally, these guidelines come from the assistance of our sponsor Bacchus & Barleycorn. Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs. Then, Jeff and Chris spend some time throwing around ideas for seasonal mead flavors and give some hints as...

Jeff and Chris take some time to talk about oaking as a process in the finishing of meads, kinds of oak, toast levels, the various products that are available for getting oak into mead, and it wouldn’t be Jeff and Chris if they didn’t throw around some out there ideas for using oak as well! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your sh...

From nutrients, stabilizers, acids & tannins, the guys talk through the various substances at our disposal to help make mead making easier and give us better results. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

The guys spend a little time chatting about carbonated meads – ways to do it, cautions needed during the process, why and what to expect. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

The guys spend an evening breaking down all the different ways to get fruit flavor into your mead, and the pros and cons for each – from fresh, frozen, concentrates and purees, to other odd options like freeze dried and flavorings. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

The guys returned to Minneapolis/St Paul for the annual Valkyrie’s Horn mead competition this weekend and spend about an hour chatting over the events and things they liked, sharing some of their favorite experiences and some of the goals they have moving forward. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Th...

Jeff and Chris taste a few varietal honeys the two of them have collected, giving some notes and thoughts, as well as talking about some strategies for using varietal honeys in their meads. Chris gets a proud father moment as the guys sample a mead made by his son Roane! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply ne...

This week Jeff and Chris talk about keeping your must’s microbiome clean talking about the sanitization process, what it is, methods for doing it and making it work, as well as similar but different terms like sterilization and pasteurization. Then the boys go into some of their favorite yeasts for making mead, and chat about a mead Chris’ son is putting together. The Mead House Podcast is sponsor...

This week Jeff and Chris chat about what to do when your batch just isn’t going your way. Topics include how to diagnose a bad batch, what kind of problems you can correct and what kind you simply have to walk away from, as well as a handful of approaches to enhancing a batch when it could be going better. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10...

Jeff and Chris dive into a wide variety of topics related to how to store your mead – with opinions on closures, types of bottles, labels. wax seals and heat shrink closures, plus a sidebar on bulk aging your meads as well. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

Jeff and Chris take a deeper dive on fermentation vessels for making mead – Preferences, pros and cons, the whole nine yards. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you Bacchus & Barleycorn!

In this episode, Jeff walks Chris through the process of how to judge a mead at competition, giving all kinds of insights on processes, flavors, faults and philosophy for judging and appreciating meads along the way. But what unlabeled surprise does Chris have in store for both of them?! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopp...

Jeff and Chris talk about entering, volunteering and judging at competitions, how to enter, how to get involved, and how much fun it can be to be a part of the event! Stories and anecdotes get shared, and then the guys move on to covering the specific categories used by the BJCP for competition as well as some tips to make sure you get entered into the right one. The Mead House Podcast is sponsore...

Jeff and Chris dive in to the topic of what it takes to get started making mead, a topic both of them have been asked about countless times recently. They start with a run down of the gear it takes to get rolling, all of which is available at your local homebrew store, or at our sponsor Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your gear and brewing related needs! Big thank you...