Honey and hops- home brewing bee beer and home made lip balms too!

Hops, in the bag, were home grown by our speaker.

My second session of the day during the convention was about home brewing beer with honey. Since I don't know much about brewing beers it was a little foreign to me, but it was enough to convince me that it is something that I am definitely going to do.

We learned about equipment, measurements, different ingredients and what the outcomes would be. Mmm... Delicious frothy honey beers. The most important thing I took from this session is that different honeys from the variety of different plants that the bees visit influence the taste of the beers. I also learned that you should pair light honeys with light beers and dark with dark beers. The flavors are complimentary and work together to make the best brew possible.

I am absolutely ready to run out an get myself some buckets and bottles and get this basement brewery up and running.

The third session I visited focused on balms, lotions, candles and salves made from honey and beeswax. I learned an awful lot about different herbs and flowers that heal and sooth. I also grabbed a recipe from the speaker for a natural beeswax bug off roll on stick. That's definitely on the list... As well as some peppermint lip balm and an essential oil tincture for when James has his horrendous bouts of poison ivy.

Home made essential oils for addition to balms, lotions and salves.

If it wasn't already obvious, I attended a lot of the honey and hive product courses. James, on the other hand, chose to sit in on the bee management courses. He learned about splitting and requeening new hives. We met up for our last class to learn about pest management, since that seems to be the biggest problem bee keepers face.

Again, I'll be posting more detailed information later this week or next, but for now I just wanted to give a brief play-by-play of how our first experience at a beekeeping convention went.