Episode 303 – The Mead House AI Challenge Part 1

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 303 - The Mead House AI Challenge Part 1
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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. Additional similar prompts for a chocolate cherry were also given, results contained below.

For the Google Doc with full text for Cherry and Chocolate Cherry prompts (warning, 21 pages in length) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bg-rXEdXc4fZ8nzOZ63gJRUN0pNomXx-SvhlsqooljQ/edit?usp=sharing

To enter the drawing for either a copy of The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm or The Flavor Bible, send an email, or two if desiring to enter for both, to info@themeadhouse.com. Enter “Ken” in the subject line to enter for the Compleat Meadmaker and “Flavor” in the subject line to enter for The Flavor Bible.

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!

Episode 302 – Tamarind

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 302 - Tamarind
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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 entry link: https://ironbee.brewcomp.site/

To enter the drawing for either a copy of The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm or The Flavor Bible, send an email, or two if desiring to enter for both, to info@themeadhouse.com. Enter “Ken” in the subject line to enter for the Compleat Meadmaker and “Flavor” in the subject line to enter for The Flavor Bible.

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!

Episode 301 – Polish Style Meads

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 301 - Polish Style Meads
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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 product.

To enter the drawing for either a copy of The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm or The Flavor Bible, send an email, or two if desiring to enter for both, to info@themeadhouse.com. Enter “Ken” in the subject line to enter for the Compleat Meadmaker and “Flavor” in the subject line to enter for The Flavor Bible.

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!

Episode 300 – Mead in Popular Culture and Mythology

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 300 - Mead in Popular Culture and Mythology
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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 Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm or The Flavor Bible, send an email, or two if desiring to enter for both, to info@themeadhouse.com. Enter “Ken” in the subject line to enter for the Compleat Meadmaker and “Flavor” in the subject line to enter for The Flavor Bible.

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!

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 primary and secondary and some of the interesting results he’d obtained.

Man Made Mead’s Ultimate Fruit Mead Test

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!

Episode 298 – More Mailbag Questions and Fruit Tasting

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 298 - More Mailbag Questions and Fruit Tasting
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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 Chris had picked 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!

Episode 297 – Getting Social

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 297 - Getting Social
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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 Bacchus & Barleycorn!

Episode 296 – Gluten-Free Braggots

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 296 - Gluten-Free Braggots
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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 either process.

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!

Episode 295 – Mead Cocktails

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 295 - Mead Cocktails
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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 Knees

  • 2oz gin
  • 3/4 oz honey syrup
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • shaker filled with ice/strained

Autumn Breeze

  • 2oz mead
  • 1oz apple brandy
  • 1/2oz lemon juice
  • 1/2oz cinnamon simple syrup
  • 2 dashes bitters

Hot Mulled Mead

  • 2 cups mead
  • 2oz brandy
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp clove
  • 10 cardamom pods, divided
  • 2″ piece of ginger
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 orange
  • 1 tsp honey
  • orange peel for garnish

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!

Episode 294 – Gruit

The Mead House
The Mead House
Episode 294 - Gruit
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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 braggot or just a metheglyn.

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!