He began making mead 2 years ago, with immediate success, winning 2nd place for fruit mead at the 2018 AHA Nationals. He’s won several Best of Shows for Beer, Cider and Mead during the past 9 years. he also makes Vinifera wines from California and Washington state grapes, and finds this hobby to be an ideal blend of creativity, science and process for his interests. In addition, he has the dubious “honor” of being one of the organizers for Valkyries Horn Mead Competition. Home meadmaker and brewer, Kevin Meintsma is our guest this episode. Also, holiday flavors, what’s on your brew list? Got a Christmas list started? Black Friday is a couple days away, and finally, we answer a question about yeast from a listener all the way from Moscow, Russia!
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!
Home meadmaker Paul Johnson joins us at the house this episode. While sipping on a Rhubarb mead, he shares his thoughts and sticks around for the whole show! Jeff is wearing his lab coat again, he’s been experimenting with pasteurization, and we lightly touch on alternative fermentations. Paul helps us out on a couple Facebook Friends, and locks the gate on our way out after wrapping the show.
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 and more.
Outside there lies a great opportunity to go back a few thousand years and follow the footsteps of the great hunter-gatherers that came before us and gather up ingredients to make a mead. Well, maybe not everything, but certainly the one component you need to kick it off…yeast. Our guest this episode is Sam Wineka from Bootleg Biology, purveyor of wild yeasts. They are looking to collect samples from every zip code in the country to include in their already outstanding list of available yeasts. Bradly McArthur sent us an email about some issues he had with an amber brsggot, Dan Shannon also contacted us wanting to know more about conical fermenters, and then we wrap the show with Facebook Friends.
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 and more.
Brian Hart is our guest this episode, his smoked tea mead showed up and Valkyries Horn this year, and we want to know more! Along with his smoked tea, he’s also done a carrot mead, and has a peach habanero mead carbinating right now. Fitting right into JD’s world, he also enjoys good Bourbons, Scotches and whiskies. Also in this episode, the newest issue, November/December of Zymurgy Magazine, an American Homebrewers Association publication, features a cover article about brewing with honey, JD and Ryan discuss methods mentioned they each have used in braggots. And finally in the Facebook Friends segment, Cody has several questions about ciders and cysers.
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
Do you know what a Jackfruit is? Does anyone? Better yet, has anyone ever made a mead from a Jackfruit? Well, we found a guy who does. Meet Joe Leigh. A software architect by trade got hooked on mead while attending a beer share event, the mead? Ken Schramm’s Black Agnes. he started collecting and trading up, looking for the best meads, and in 2017, started adding yeast to water and honey. He is a multiple award winner, including three Mazer Cups, was inspired to become a certified BJCP Mead Judge, and was listed among the top 10 AMMA 2018 Mead Makers of The year. Joe starts off by telling us about his historical mead, a Tej, that just happened to take the gold at this year’s Valkyries Horn in Minneapolis. Oh, and wait until we get to the Jackfruit part in his interview, you don’t want to miss it!
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
More from Valkyries Horn with rules and things others say you must do…or do you? Plus, mead fails, we’ve all had them, for some it’s been a determining factor, we’ll give you our two cents on it. Then, a trip around the table for “What’s in the hopper,” with projects from the crew. JD, Jeff and Ryan came back with some inspirations from Valkyries Horn, we’ll talk about a few of them as well.
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
Valkyries Horn has come and gone, but we’re not done with it yet! In this episode, we discuss the event, the after parties and the most amazing meads ever brewed by home mead makers. The first annual Valkyries Horn was a great success, over 300 entries, 2 days of judging and some ingenious and inspirational recipes washed over the taste buds of those who were lucky enough to try some. What an awesome display of creativity! We wrap the show with a few Facebook Friends dealing with bourbon, oak, pumpkin and more! 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
At 14 years old, listener William Dial was able to join a Living History group out of the University of Maryland called Markland. They would reenact the culture and battles of the Viking, Saxon and Norman period. During this time, he would learn about the culture and the people of the time and this gave him resources to explore even more. It was just a matter of time before William would learn about Mead.
Ryan and Jeff give an update to the Valkyries Horn mead competition in segment 2, and then wrap the show with a few Facebook friends.
Valkyries Horn is right around the corner, September 27-28 and the Mead House is sponsoring the braggot category. We hope to see many of you there as the whole Mead House crew will be in attendance!
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
Knowing the difference between cleaning and sanitizing is one of the basic fundamentals of brewing. Preventing off flavors from forming, keeping unwanted bacteria out, and making sure your equipment is properly cleaned and cared for is essential to keep consistency in your brew house. Jonathan Ettlie from Craft Meister National Chemical joins us this episode in an in depth conversation about cleaning and sanitizing. If you have questions, Jonathan says to email him at Craft Meister.
Jeff continues the conversation in segment 2 asking how often we passivate our stainless steel fermenters, replace worn keg parts and siphon hoses, etc.
We wrap the show with a couple Facebook friends, Ryan throws a shoutout to Mike who says he has a shelf full of Mountan Rose Herbs products he’s eager to use, and Julie, who won a first place award in Maryland, then Jeff deals with Robert who’s having issues with carbonating.
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
Mead House Keyholder and home meadmaker Michael Trainer visits the House. On December 29, 2017 this biker and fan of all things fermented pitched yeast on his first home brew ever and his love of mead making was born. In a few days he had started 4 more batches and by the end of 2018 had made 20 different meads totaling about 75 gallons and is on track to almost double that in 2019 if he can manage to stay off his motorcycle for more than a week.
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