2025 End of Year Update
| What we’ve done so far and what happens next: |
| Hello Mead Institute Members and Followers, Frank Golbeck here, Co-chair of Mead Institute. I helped start this organization back in 2020 with Ken Schramm and Alyson Schramm Naeger. With the help of Carvin Wilson and Pete Bakulic, we built it into a 501c3 non-profit, put on a three day course at UC Davis about Excellence in Mead Production, ran two national mead competitions judged by sommeliers and cicerones and other beverage alcohol professionals, (including Ray Daniels, Randy Mosher and Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon) and began collecting and disseminating educational content about mead of the highest quality. Our mission is to define and educate about standards of excellence in the Mead Industry, from production to service, including honey quality, fermentation management, adjuncts, shelf stability, storage, customer engagement and sales. In 2025 we received a grant from the Catania Foundation to further this educational work. We are actively looking to use that grant to hire an Executive Director and Operations Manager and establish an office for The Mead Institute. This evolution will turn our admittedly inconsistent endeavor (that we chip away at when we are not running our own meaderies, raising our young families and serving our physical communities), into a daily effort led by an experienced beverage alcohol professional with great people skills and strategic leadership abilities. A capable, committed ED will enable us to organize, commit consistent effort, develop meaningful partnerships and deliver on the opportunity the Mead Institute offers – taking the whole mead industry to a level of excellence and national prominence. So, 2026 has promise for the Mead Institute. But, we need an Executive Director who understands the beverage alcohol landscape and has leadership, partnership building and organizational skills. Do you know anyone who might be in a position to take on this opportunity and help us grow the Mead Institute into an industry defining educational organization that lifts up all mead and mead associated boats? If you do, please send their names and contact info our way and we will reach out to them. Or, you can send them to our job posting here where they can see the job description and the process for applying for the job: https://www.meadinstitute.com/job-postings/ We hope that this season is full of warmth, connection, gratitude and that de-light-full, sunshine in a bottle, 10,000 flower visits to make the honey for one sip, mead that we all love so dearly. May 2026 bring all of us growth, joy and success. Cheers, Frank Golbeck Co-Chair, Mead Institute |
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