The Mead House

Chris and Jeff spend some time talking about strategies for making time for making mead and getting mead made in an efficient manner, then they also take time to cover some equipment that can be a major time saver for your mead making processes. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our … Continue reading "Episode 289 – Time Management and Tools"

Chris and Jeff take some time to brainstorm on fall flavors and what makes a good fall mead now that Kansas City weather has taken a decidedly more pleasant turn in recent weeks. The guys share some past experiments, successes and lessons learned along with throwing out a handful of new flavor ideas and directions … Continue reading "Episode 288 – Fall Flavors"

Chris shares some thoughts and recipe ideas regarding making meads inspired by popular sodas like Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper. The guys discuss their thoughts on making a mead that tastes like a soda without the high degree of processed ingredients that come with commercially available sodas. Chris’ Mountain Dew Base (for 1 gallon of … Continue reading "Episode 287 – Soda Meads"

Jeff gives Chris a rundown on a handful of tools and processes to go beyond single use yeast packs at your local homebrew store. From freezing for long term storage, reuse, collecting, and even capturing wild yeast, the guys cover a bunch of techniques for the rare instance when it makes sense to take that … Continue reading "Episode 286 – Microbiology of Yeast"

Chris and Jeff take some time to walk through their own process for planning and developing a recipe including ingredients, thought process and planning – and of course a few anecdotes and tangents along the way. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and … Continue reading "Episode 285 – Recipe Development Process"

Chris and Jeff take a deeper dive into the world of tinctures, what they are, how to make them, why to use them, and different approaches above and beyond a base spirit and an herb or spice. Then, inspiration strikes Jeff in the oddest times and he walks away with the idea of making… mead … Continue reading "Episode 284 – Tinctures & Having Fun Serving Mead"

It’s a content packed episode this week on The Mead House, Jeff and Chris reflect on some of the differences between the process of making a mead versus making a beer or a wine. Chris tries a taste of Jeff’s partigyle bonus braggot. The guys switch gears to talk general rules about estimating how much … Continue reading "Episode 283 – Making Mead versus Beer & Wine, Estimating Starting Amounts for Adjuncts"

Jeff and Chris walk through a few different methods for caramelizing honey and making bochet style meads, along with a little discussion of their successes and failures along the way. Then, Jeff gives a series of tips for diagnosing and dealing with a stalled ferment. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! … Continue reading "Episode 282 – Bochets and Stalled Batches"

It’s a listener request episode! First the guys discuss various options for labeling mead for home mead makers, from elaborate to extremely simple. Then, they discuss adding hops, from why, to how, and what kinds of flavors and types of hops lend themselves best to a good mead. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by … Continue reading "Episode 281 – Labeling Mead and Hopped Meads"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 280 – Competition Prep"

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% … Continue reading "Episode 278 – Getting Started Beekeeping (or not), Jeff’s Lemon Mead, Sour Meads"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 277 – Roane’s Experiment and Growing Berries in Containers"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 276 – Making Meads Fast, Using Kviek and Jeff’s Modern Orange"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 275 – Adding Whole Fruit and Refining Recipes"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 274 – Carbonation and Evaluating Recipes Published Online"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 273 – The Mead House 12% Recipe"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 272 – Kitbashing"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 271 – Historical Meads and Metheglins"

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 … Continue reading "Episode 270 – Fortified Meads and Mead Cocktails"