In celebration of Mead Day August 7th, the Center is excited to announce the re-entering of on-site mead education field this coming winter. It has been a long time coming!

Save the Date!

Mead Making Bootcamp: A one-day hands on learning experience in the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology’s Leed Platinum Teaching Winery will be held Thursday, January 20, 2022. Under the guidance of UC Davis winemaker, Leticia Chacon Rodriguez, students will work in small groups making mead, learning about fermentation and bottling the finished product (from previous years.)

Intro to Mead Making: This two day program completes the learning experience offering fledgling meadmakers with information that can be utilized to develop their mead making skills. Lectures from both UC faculty and staff as well as professional meadmakers cover history, tasting experiences of mead and honey, sanitation, yeast, production and personal experiences. January 21 and 22, 2022.

Coming Up

A lot was learned during the pandemic, clarifying areas which can be easily taught online and others that are best served in a classroom setting. While planning for the future of our program, we have been collaborating with the recently established Mead Institute “a nonprofit international membership organization for mead professionals and consumers that promotes education and global quality standards. . . to uphold the values of quality, integrity, diversity, and hospitality in our materials and programing.”

Working with Ken Schramm, one of the founders of the Institute, we are actively planning the first collaboration for Spring, 2022: “Quality Control.” Research into a selection of courses will revolve around learning to critique meads through an assortment of lenses.

And finally, we are working with the California Master Beekeeper Program to create a special introduction to mead for beekeepers wishing to learn how to create a ‘value add’ for their honey – or just for the fun of it!