Chocolate pistachio, lemon bar, oreo cookie, toasted coconut cream, or a tropical blend for a hopped mead, what if you could get those flavors from just a couple drops of extract, or an Artisan Natural Flavor for your brew? We’re talking natural real fruit and nut flavors, not imitation extracts. Debra Coletti from Amoretti returns to the Mead House for a discussion on flavoring your brew. We also have a special deal for members of the Keyholder Club from Amoretti, listen for the details by Jeff & Ryan in the show!
Valkyries Horn is right around the corner, and the Mead House is sponsoring the braggot category. Jeff lets us know what a few of the BJCP guidelines say to help you get your recipe together and brew one up for competition. The best part of this world class competition is braggots will be judged as it’s own category. Enter as many as you want, in any category you want, but be sure and enter your best braggot too!
Thanks for keeping the Mead House podcast free with your continued support, we appreciate all our listeners. Get a set of keys to the mead house, help keep the Mead House podcast free by subscribing to Patreon, when you do, Jeff will send you some great gifts!
And when you do get your key, it will unlock a couple of great interviews with Ash Fishbein from Sap House Meadery
He started his career out as an engineer, With degrees in Architectural and Civil Engineering on his resume, for ten years he worked in the land development and highway design industries. So how does a civil engineer go from blueprints of bridges to dumping 5 gallon buckets of honey into large vats of water for a living? Evan Henderson from 
In this episode, we talk about the effects of oaking at different times during and after fermentation based on a study by Becca at 
Iron Bee first place winner Bert Mayer joins us in this episode. He has been making mead since he turned 21, and when all his friends bought set ups to make beer, his small apartment pushed him in a different direction. A mild hobby at first, he spent more of his time in the underground world of facial hair competitions. Since retiring from that after the World Championships in 2017, he has turned his focus back to the art of making mead, taking classes at UC Davis and the American Honey Tasting Society, as well as becoming a steward captain at the Mazer Cup. With hopes of someday opening a small tap room (a rolling 5 year plan), he hopes to just keep making things people enjoy drinking.
He’s a Minnesota-native, has six Mazer Cup wins, a Minnesota State Fair Best of Show and two first round placements in this year’s National Homebrew Competition. And, he’s only been making mead for a year and a half. Adam Bystrom joins us at the bar tonight.
A Hawaiian Luau mead, got any ideas or a recipe to share? Contact us at 
When asked what kinds of meads he likes to make, he answered this way, “What would I like to drink?” Award winning mead maker, Nathan Steigman drops in, he also put together the winning MVP Challenge mead at the 2019 Iron Bee. We’ll get Nathan’s perspective on mead making, and and ask him the source of his inspiration. Also in this episode, from the 
Iron Bee Silver Medalist, Brett Guthrie, stops by the house to talk about his winning entry and thoughts on mead making. He likes doing session meads, and uses his environment of sandy beaches and sunny days as his inspiration. And from the Mead House survey, we discuss kegging your homebrew. Finally, we wrap the show with a few Facebook Friends, and answer a couple questions.
Home meadmaker and medalist, Josh Mahoney joins us on the show for some final thoughts and a wrap-up of the first Mead House Iron Bee competition that took place last weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota.