Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink

-Posted by Isaac

As a beekeeper, I have now felt thoroughly disgusted with weather woes several times this winter (This, the never ending winter from Hell.) Instead of complaining and filling you with my worries about the bees, I'll entertain with a good drinking song, and delve into another subject. (From Handel to Haggard in only a month!)

Enjoy.

This post is about turning honey into alcohol. And I know close to nothing about the particulars. I just know that a fair amount of our honey goes on this magic journey and occasionally the lucky benefactor is yours truly. 

First:

Here's the easy way of turning honey into alcohol-

Every Christmas I fill this ugly basket with Honeyrun products and put it at the doorstep of a good friend.

And every Christmas, back comes the same ugly basket filled with beer, wine and home-canned goodies. Not pictured was a large bottle of grape juice that the kids and my teetotaling pregnant wife finished off immediately on Christmas eve.

Easy Alchemy

The pickles have become a favorite of Maizy's. Just the other day she was sitting at the table crunching them down like chips. She paused, looked up with a goofy grin and said, "Ah, pickles are the life!" 

For more depth on the subject, I should have attended this:

i.e., college

 Maybe next year.
As I confessed, I know virtually nothing about brewing or making mead. I do however enjoy talking to the many beer and mead aficionados who regularly hit us up at market for another gallon or two of honey.
My expertise, though limited, comes more on the drinking end of things.
And Columbus provides ample opportunity. As many of you know, the craft brewery scene has exploded.
Here's a relatively new one:

Seventh Son has been buying our honey for a year now... exactly as long as they've been in business.

Hundreds of pounds of Summer honey and a few buckets of Tulip Poplar honey have gone into their Prime Swarm Saison. Check out the % alcohol on this one! I love their descriptive adjective "healthy."

Brewmaster Collin served me the first draft of the day early one morning.

I'm usually here monthly, dropping off a bucket or two. Sometimes Collin drives down to the farm. We talk "bees and brews" at length.
The owners of Seventh Son also own the Barrel and Bottle in the North Market. A growler is good for a refill at either place... convenient for me, I'm there at market every week all summer.

Let's change directions...

Here's another brewery making beer from Honeyrun honey.

Thanks, Angelo!

Barley's has been brewing Summer Harvest honey into an IPA for over three years.
In that time I've gotten to know brewmaster Angelo, who has been with Barley's for (I think) twenty some years. He knows his stuff. He usually just walks over to the market from their High Street location.

120 lbs of honey-- easy with a dolly.

So happy drinking, folks. I'm trying to stay upbeat through this insane cold drag of winter, but one of these days I'll have to go out and check hives. I'm hoping reality doesn't hit too bitterly hard.

"My mind ain't nothin but a total blank..."