Sourcing local honey for brewing and mead

Sourcing lots of local honey can be a bit difficult for brewers and mead makers because West Virginia has relatively few large honey producers interested in selling honey in bulk. That situation should hopefully be changing over the next few years.

West Virginia honey producers are getting a boost from training and technical assistance programs that should lead to a greater local supply for breweries and wineries. The state’s Veterans and Warriors to Agriculture program is greatly boosting beekeeping around the state. Beekeeping Short Courses, like the recent one at the WV Small Farm Conference in Morgantown, are attracting a different audience of men and women beekeepers interested in upping their game. Local WVU Extension agents are holding beekeeping workshops out in the counties. Put all these efforts together, and you can see why honey production is growing.

Local honey adds local flavors

Brewers can use local honey to bring a taste of place or terrior to their beer. Brewers also use local honey to add a specific flavor to a particular beer recipe. Varietal honeys have very specific tastes in a wide range of flavors that are definitely worth exploring.

Wildflower Honey

Much of the honey produced in West Virginia will be labeled simply Wildflower Honey. This means it is made from nectar the bees collect from any variety of blooms they find in the forests and fields. The primary blooms worked by the bees during the production period will affect the color and flavor. Wildflower honey can range in color from light gold to medium amber to darker reddish amber.

Depending on the time of year the honey was harvested and the mix of plants that were in bloom during the time the bees made the honey, wildflower honey can have quite a range of flavors and intensities. Always taste the specific honey before you purchase it to determine how it might work in a beer or mead.

Varietal Honey

In the local honey market, many West Virginia honey producers market a varietal honey, such as Tulip Poplar or Goldenrod. Varietal honey is produced primarily from the bloom of a specific tree or plant species. No honey in West Virginia is 100% varietal because bees are always working more than one type plant and beekeepers cannot control where they go. When hives are located near a large stand of a specific tree or plant species, and the bloom breaks, bees being the opportunistic creatures that they are will mostly work those trees or plants until the blooms fade.

A varietal honey producer loads empty honey frames into the hives at the beginning of the varietal bloom break and removes them at the end of the bloom period. This allows the honey collected to be primarily made from that specific plant species. This kind of honey gets sold under a varietal label.

Those experienced in honey can quickly identify the specific tastes and colors that are associated with a specific varietal honey. Even for the average person, it is easy to tell the difference between basswood honey and tulip poplar honey.

West Virginia is blessed with a great wild plant diversity in its forests and fields, some of which provide great opportunities for beekeepers to produce delicious varietal honeys. Some of the more popular ones include Basswood (Linden), Tulip Poplar, Sourwood, Autumn Olive, and Goldenrod. From our orchard areas, you may also see Apple Blossom honey.

WV Varietal Honeys

Honey in the Brewery

Most any beer style can have honey added if the brewer so chooses. Adding honey will raise the alcohol content of the beer only slightly, because honey most often would make up only a small percentage of the fermentables (sugar) in a beer.

Brewers should learn the honey calendar for their local producers. Find out when they expect to have varietal honey available and plan some special brews accordingly.

Honey in the Winery

Pure mead is made from a mixture of honey and water. Melomel is a mead flavored with fruits other than apple. Cyser is a type of mead made with honey and apple juice. All these products can be produced under a single West Virginia Farm Winery license. Due to the high cost of purchasing local honey, most meaderies in West Virginia keep their own bees to supply most of their honey needs.

Raw honey vs. pasteurized honey

Most commercial honey you are used to seeing has been pasteurized and filtered. Especially in local honey, some brewers prefer the raw, unpasteurized  and unfiltered kind of honey that contains small amounts of pollen and propolis. Raw honey means that, during processing, the honey has not been heated above the 95°F temperature that is normal inside the beehive. It is raw, uncooked and unpasteurized. Unfiltered means that some pollen, propolis, and other material has not been filtered out.

Honey is first extracted from the wax comb using a centrifuge-like device. It is then strained to remove the larger solids, such as pieces of wax comb, bee parts, and other particles. Raw honey is not usually fine filtered and retains a cloudy appearance. Most commercial honey is fine filtered to give it a clear, bright appearance, which is more important to on-the-shelf retail sales than it is to sales to breweries or wineries.

Unpasteurized honey is a natural product that also contains wild yeasts and bacteria. These microorganisms cannot grow in pure honey due to its low water content. When honey is used in brewing, however, those microorganisms are released, which can then be an issue for the brewer. That is why brewers sometimes use pasteurized honey or add raw honey to the boil stage, which pasteurizes it. Unfortunately, adding honey to the boil also breaks down much of the honey flavor and aroma. Adding honey during the fermentation stages retains most of the honey’s distinct flavor and aroma, but can release undesirable yeast or bacteria, which might adversely affect the beer’s taste. Good brewers manage these inputs and processes to ensure a good outcome.

Some suggest that the pasteurization process diminishes the distinct flavors in a honey, so they prefer an unpasteurized one. Whatever the case, the actual taste of the honey should be the first determinant in any purchasing decision.

Some alternative health advocates promote the health benefits of consuming unfiltered raw honey, but it is not known whether any of these purported health benefits would also come from consuming honey beer.

Finding honey suppliers in WV

The best honey supplier would normally be the one closest to the brewery or winery, one that you can visit easily and get to know the operators. To be a candidate for bulk honey sales (meaning 5-gallon pales and up), the producer should keep a couple hundred or more hives. For instance, Mountain State Honey Company in Parsons had approximately 1,600 hives last year. Several of the veterans going through the state honey program are now reaching two or three hundred hive level. Smaller honey producers have to pretty much sell all their production at retail in one-pound or smaller jars so they can maximize their profits. Brewers and wineries need to find larger local honey producers who will price competitively in larger quantities.

Charles Walter, a local honey producer in Shepherdstown and operator of Walters Wholesale Goods, said he sells honey in 5-gallon buckets that are pretty good size for WV small breweries. A 5-gal. bucket holds approximately 60 lbs of honey. Honey prices vary from year to year according to availability, especially for varietal honey.

To get an idea of current pricing, Walter recently said he was selling 60 lb. buckets of local wildflower honey for $180 and local varietal honey for $300. On the national market, commodity wildflower honey retails for around $100 to $125 per 60 lbs. and commodity varietals go for $200 and up. One thing you will  notice online is that honey prices are all over the place. This again underscores the benefits of knowing your honey producer and only dealing with someone you trust.

The best way to buy larger amounts of honey is to negotiate the price. You probably won’t find a published price list at many local honey producers. Because raw honey is a less-processed type and it could sell for a bit less than a finely filtered, clear honey.

West Virginia law requires all apiaries (beekeepers) to register their hives with the state Department of Agriculture. A call to the West Virginia Beekeepers Association could probably get you a list of the larger honey producers in your area. Also try googling local beekeepers associations in WV. Several groups operating here have Facebook pages or websites.

Sourcing local honey is all about relationships

A potential problem in sourcing local honey has come from dishonest honey suppliers who have marketed honey as local when it is not.

Ed Forney, a long time honey producer in Hedgesville, WV, and a beekeeping instructor for the veteran’s program, says dishonest honey suppliers are a real problem. Since local honey brings a large price premium over commodity honey, which may come from anywhere in the world, Forney says unscrupulous honey suppliers have been known to pass off generic honey for local, and, of course, the buyer doesn’t know the difference. Even worse, products that mimic honey, but have no honey in them, have sometimes been sold as honey or are blended with honey to fool the consumer.

When sourcing local honey, building a relationship with your supplier is vitally important. Forney says the only absolute way to know the honey you are buying is local is to be there when the honey combs are pulled from the hive and watch the honey be extracted. While this is certainly not practical for a brewer or mead maker, it does underscore the importance of knowing your honey supplier well and dealing with someone you trust.

Recent WV beers containing local honey 

Indigenous IPA – Blackwater Brewing Company. Made with local Basswood and Goldenrod honeys sourced from Mountain State Honey Company in Parsons.

Gardening Angels Farmhouse Ale – Weathered Ground Brewery. Made with local sourwood honey sourced from Wills Honey Supply in Shady Spring.

SOB Buckwheat Honey Porter – Screech Owl Brewing. Made with  buckwheat honey.

Honey Creme Hefe Blonde – Brew Keepers. They made this hybrid-style beer with a dose of local honey.