FL Seller of Travel #ST3504

Art of Mead Making

Mead has a history as rich as its golden color and as full as its flavor.  Although appearing in various places around the globe over time, nowhere in the world has this ancient drink been elevated to such  heights as it has in Poland.   Once made in every farmhouse, mead is now only made by a small group of artisans producing quality, award-winning meads using recipes passed down through generations.

To preserve and advance mead making, one of the few places left that teaches professional level mead making is Pszczela Wola (Will of the Bees) agricultural school outside of Lublin, Poland.  What is normally a year long training program has been condensed into an intensive, hands-on, definitive class on mead making.

The class is designed for the home brewer looking for a challenge, microbrewer looking for new tastes, and honey producers and beekeepers looking to diversify their products.  In five days you'll spend a mix of time in the classroom learning and hands-on time doing.  You'll not only be starting your own batch of mead in class, but to help the process along several other batches have been prepared in advance and will be at the right stages ready for you work with them.  All the while you'll be staying 6 nights right on campus (double rooms, private bathrooms) where you'll enjoy 3 meals a day on campus, and with the historic town of Lublin only 7 miles away (an easy taxi ride) you won't be at a loss for things to do in the evenings.

Includes:

• 7 days, 6 nights

• All accommodations

• All transfers to and from Lublin

• All meals on campus

• All equipment and ingredients

• Training conducted in English

• Mix of classroom time and hands-on learning

• Meads pre-made at various fermentation stages so you fast-forward through the process.

Itinerary:

Getting there and away:

The best airport to fly into is Warsaw.  Transfer to the Warsaw central train station where there are  frequent train connections direct to Lublin.

Day 1, Sunday: Arrive Lublin

• Pick-up at the Lublin train station

• Transfer to Pszczela Wola

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 2, Monday: Know your honey

• Breakfast

• Classroom (1/3 day)

  • Everything about bees

  • Everything about honey

• Lunch

• Hands-on (2/3 day)

  • Working with bees

  • Gathering honey

  • Clarifying honey

• Dinner

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 3, Tuesday: Preparing the mash

• Breakfast

• Classroom (1/2 day)

  • Introduction to mead making equipment

  • Sensory selection of different kinds of honey

  • Preparing the mash

  • Setup of yeast culture

• Lunch

• Hands-on (1/2 day)

  • Preparation of the mash: establishing the proportions of mash, melting of honey, cooking of mix, measuring of extract

• Dinner

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 4, Wednesday: Halfway to mead and other honey alcohols

• Breakfast

• Classroom (1/4 day)

  • Progression of fermentation

  • Seasoning of the mash

  • Filling of the carboys and vaccination of mash

  • How to tell if the ultimate product (mead) is going to be a good batch

• Hands-on (1/4 day)

  • Equipment preparation

  • Testing

  • Transferring

• Lunch

• Other honey-based alcohols (1/2 day)

  • Preparing ‘krupniks’ and other liquors according to selected recipes

• Field trip: Institute of Orchard Tending and Commercial Flower Production, Beekeeping Division in Pulawy

• Dinner

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 5, Thursday: The finished product and other uses for honey

• Breakfast

• Classroom (1/4 day)

  • Bottling

  • Pasteurization

  • Corking

  • Labeling

• Lunch

• Hands-on (1/2 day)

  • Bottling & Pasteurization

  • Corking and Labeling

• Hands-on (1/4 day) Other honey products

  • Baking honey cookies

  • Making non-alcoholic honey drinks

• Field Trip: Api Therapy Institute of Dr. Giza (honey therapy)

• Dinner

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 6, Friday: How the professionals do it

• Tour and tasting of the international award wining commercial mazer Apis

• Breakfast

• Transfer to the Apis commercial mazery

• Tour of the facility and mead Tasting

• Afternoon in Lublin

• Field trip: Visit to the town of Karzimierz

• Return to campus

• Dinner

• Night at Pszczela Wola

Day 7, Saturday: Depart

• Transfer from Pszczela Wola to the Lublin Train Station

Price: 2139 zl
(Convert from Polish Zloty)
2008 class dates: August 17-23
Space is limited, reserve now!

Toll-Free: 888-849-4464

Email PolskaTrek

Outside the USA: 727-421-0218

Privacy Policy