PODCAST · arts
The Mead House
by Jeff Shouse
Two good friends invite you to join their conversation as they explore the topic of making great mead at home.
Episodes
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Episode 340 - Key Lime Pie Mead & the Highs and Lows of Fermentation Temps
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...
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Episode 339 - Tea 3 Back to our Roots
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...
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Episode 338 - Waterless Meads
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...
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Episode 337 - The Next Batch
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...
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Episode 336 - Starter Mead Equipment Kits
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...
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Episode 335 - Summer Mead Cocktails
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,...
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Episode 334 - Smokey Mead
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...
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Episode 333 - Everything is Fake Now
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…
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Episode 332 - Finishing Session Meads & Citrus
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...
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Episode 331 - Aging
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…
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Episode 330 - Summer Mead Recipe Development Challenge
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...
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Episode 329 - Floral Meads
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…
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Episode 328 - Summer Plans
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...
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Episode 327 - Craft Commercial Meads
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...
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Episode 326 - Widely Available Commercial Meads
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...
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Episode 325 - Weird Meads
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...
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Episode 324 - Fantasy Fun
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...
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Episode 323 - Tea2: The Root of the Problem
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...
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Episode 322 - Gruit-Tea
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…
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Episode 321 - Best Practices
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…
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Episode 320 - Exploring Ethiopian Beverages
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...
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Episode 319 - Summer Meads
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...
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Episode 318 - Trends in Mead Making
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...
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Episode 317 - Mead House on the Road
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...
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Episode 316 - The Pyment Challenge
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…
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Episode 315 - Thinking about Pyments and YouTube Content
The guys spend a fair bit of time thinking through how to put together a good pyment, a mead/wine hybrid, and all the considerations that need to go into that. Then they take a few minutes talking about some of their favorite YouTube content creators by listener request. Valkyrie’s Horn Mead...
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Episode 314 - Sangria Mead
Jeff takes some time to talk Chris through a mead recipe he’s taken through several iterations – a sangria style mead he makes for his wife Sheila. Using a base of blackberry wine and merlot kits and some eclectic ingredients for backsweetening, they end up with a consistent crowd pleaser that…
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Episode 313 - Bringing the Heat
The guys take some time speculating about the burn – not just capsumels using hot peppers, but what other ingredients could be used in mead to get the heat sensation and how to approach adding those ingredients, including hot peppers, ginger, black pepper, and even a few other odd possibilites!...
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Episode 312 - Exotic Fruit Tasting
The guys are working towards a trifecta! In this third episode of “let’s eat interesting stuff we found and see if it can make a mead” Chris brings in a series of 11 different fruits to sample and evaluate their feasibility in making a new interesting mead with. Some produce strong options, some...
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Episode 311 - Adventures in Citrus
Jeff takes a turn at “I found this weird thing…” and cracks into some pomelo. Chris ups the ante and brings ‘sweet lime’ and kumquats to the flavor party, along with pomelons, then Jeff takes a step way out to left field to sample a little dried galangal. Editor’s note: It looks as though pomelo,...
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Episode 310 - Lychees
At Chris’ suggestion, the guys take a deep dive into trying lychee and lychee flavored drinks, talk options for how to make lychee into a mead, whether to use whole fruit or prepared options, honey selection, and even a little on other flavors that play well with this fruit. BJCP Mead Judging...
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Episode 309 - Maintenance
Jeff and Chris take some time going in depth regarding maintenance steps for equipment used on the day to day when it comes to meadmaking, from glass carboys, plastic buckets and stainless steel fermenters, along with all the smaller bits and bobs like rubber grommets, transfer tubes and…
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Episode 308 - More on Personalizing Recipes
The guys realized in all of last week’s talk of fruit and spice additions to recipes, they’d completely neglected to talk about several important finishing steps, so this week they move to correct that with a discussion on oaking, finishing, fining and filtering, and a few words on bottling as...
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Episode 307 - Personalizing Recipes
Last year the guys gave you three basic starter recipes – traditionals with an ABV of 8%, 12%, and 16%. Today Jeff and Chris start wading into taking these recipes – or any other recipe you find – and making them your own with advice on when and how to add fruit, spices, and even a brief…
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Episode 306 - The Mead House AI Challenge Part 2
Jeff and Chris return to feeding prompts into Large Language Model Chatbot AIs to test their capacity to create recipes, this time testing the ability to manage a more technically complicated prompt as well as a potentially confounding subjective prompt. Afterwards the guys give a few brief...
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Episode 305 - 2025 in Review
The guys spend a little time talking through their year making episodes of the mead house, favorite parts, proud moments and even a little room for growth, along with a few hints as to where things may end up going in 2026! The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our...
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Episode 304 - Holidays with The Mead House
Happy Holidays from The Mead House to your house! In this holiday episode, Jeff and Chris are joined by their wives Sheila and Kat for a laid back, fun session of mead tasting and a couple rounds of a card game called Principle Dilemma giving you and us a break from the sometimes hectic holiday...
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Episode 303 - The Mead House AI Challenge Part 1
Jeff and Chris decide to test the validity of using AI to design mead recipes – in what quickly becomes a multi-episode topic, the guys discuss feeding a simple prompt for a cherry mead recipe to four of the most popular Large Language Model AI chatbots – ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Grok and Claude....
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Episode 302 - Tamarind
Jeff and Chris take some time to play with the Iron Bee 2026 secret ingredient – Tamarind. A really fascinating fruit with a bunch of different ways to add it to a mead, they taste a few different ways to get it into a mead and throw around a few additional flavor combination ideas. Iron Bee 2026...
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Episode 301 - Polish Style Meads
Jeff and Chris spend a little time talking about making meads in the Polish style, general characteristics and processes for approaching that style, then Jeff transitions to his batch making a first attempt at something in this style using a new-to-him yeast to push the ABV of his finished…
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Episode 300 - Mead in Popular Culture and Mythology
In honor of Episode 300 and the Thanksgiving holiday, inspired by the historically dubious movie 300, the guys take a look at the way mead is portrayed in movies, TV, and other pop culture media along with a few digressions on the mythology of mead. To enter the drawing for either a copy of The...
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Episode 299 - Ginger and Fruit in Primary vs Secondary
With the holiday season fast approaching, the guys spend a little time talking about a particular ingredient that fits strongly in the holiday palate – ginger. Then, they discuss an extensive experiment undertaken and published by Man Made Mead on YouTube comparing using 15 different fruits in...
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Episode 298 - More Mailbag Questions and Fruit Tasting
The guys take a look at a few more questions they didn’t get around to the first time around from cruising social media from last week. They also talk through a trip to Total Wine and a few natural food grocers looking for ingredient inspiration, which leads to tasting two new fruit varieties…
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Episode 297 - Getting Social
Jeff and Chris look at some questions posted by users on social media, Facebook and Reddit, answering them and discussing several of the topics in more depth. The Mead House Podcast is sponsored by Bacchus & Barleycorn! Use our discount code MHP10 for all your shopping and supply needs! Thank you...
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Episode 296 - Gluten-Free Braggots
Following the episode two weeks ago regarding using Gruit inspired ingredients to make a braggot without hops, Jeff talks Chris through options for making a braggot which is either gluten-reduced or completely gluten-free, the process for going about both and some adjuncts and ingredients used in...
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Episode 295 - Mead Cocktails
Chris mixes up and talks through a series of four cocktails made with traditional mead as one of the ingredients, and makes them for he and Jeff to sample. Blackberry Mead-Fashioned 3 fresh blackberries 2tsp honey syrup 2 dashes bitters orange peel 1 1/2 oz mead 1oz bourbon splash of water Bee’s...
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Episode 294 - Gruit
Jeff and Chris wander out into the yard and back to the olden days of brewing to examine a way to make beer using herbs and spices in place of hops, talking through some of the historical and some of the modern herbs being used, and how to incorporate these herbs into a gruit beer, a gruit…
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Episode 293 - Christmas Meads
Jeff and Chris continue making their lists. Jeff shares a rather involved recipe for a Christmas braggot with some fun ingredients (recipe below!) and then the guys spend a long while plotting out several ideas for flavor combinations that might just hit the spot for a Christmas seasonal brew.…
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Episode 292 - The Mead House 16%
What do you do with a drunken meadmaker? To complement the previous Mead House 8% and Mead House 12% recipes, this week Jeff presents the highest base recipe yet, a 16%. He walks Chris through the process and ingredients, along with subtle changes from previous base recipes, then Jeff and Chris...
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Episode 291 - Exotic Fruits and Processing Fruit
Chris and Jeff spend a little time going down the rabbit hole of fruits that are exotic, hard to find, or otherwise rarely seen in meads, as well as talking about how to handle working with an unfamiliar fruit. Various ways to process fruits for making a mead also quickly become a topic of...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Mead House have?
The Mead House currently has 172 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Mead House about?
Two good friends invite you to join their conversation as they explore the topic of making great mead at home.
How often does The Mead House release new episodes?
The Mead House publishes regularly with 172 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Mead House?
You can listen to The Mead House on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Mead House?
The Mead House is created and hosted by Jeff Shouse.
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