Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / Honeytree Meadery: Dru & Ross on Mead, Honey & Bees in Nashville | Re-Release of Episode 41
Transcript
- 0:00Right now we're on assignment, so we have a special episode we
- 0:04want you to hear. What would that be?
- 0:07This is Honey Tree Meteor out of Nashville, TN, which by the way
- 0:10was episode 42 that was released on September 26th, 2024.
- 0:15So great episode. We love Jordan Ross, don't we?
- 0:18All right, yes, indeed. So while we're on assignment,
- 0:22you go ahead and you listen to this special episode.
- 0:25Enjoy. Cheers.
- 0:28Cheers. The brewery underground.
- 0:42Podcast today is rolling along, man.
- 0:45We have got a very, very great episode.
- 0:49A little different because we have the guys on who won the
- 0:52Honey Tree Meatery in Nashville and we're going to be talking to
- 0:56them. But First off, got to bring in
- 0:59the chancellor of craft beer. He is Scott Turon.
- 1:02I'm Steve Sullivan. How are you, man?
- 1:04What's up man? A little late to the podcast.
- 1:06Apologies everyone having technical difficulties over
- 1:09here, but we are limping along on my phone.
- 1:12Well, Scott, who do we have here today from the Honey tree
- 1:15meatery? We've got Ross and Drew from
- 1:19Honey Tree Meatery, Who we reached out to what maybe a
- 1:22month ago or so. And then we got to meet you
- 1:25about two weeks ago. Steve and I stopped in and just
- 1:28to make sure we met you before you guys came on and and Ross, I
- 1:32hadn't met you at the Pres Beer Fest.
- 1:35Steve may have as well. That's always a wild time there.
- 1:41Yeah, great, man. We, we, I think we left your
- 1:43table and walked over and talked to the foamy heads and they were
- 1:47asking us about some of the best stuff we had in there.
- 1:50And the first thing I said was honey tree meatery right here.
- 1:53The table is like it was right there first thing I said and
- 1:55it's on camera. You can go back and look.
- 2:00Let's go, let's go. Get to be on that podcast.
- 2:03They were like when Shane came up to me earlier that day, he's
- 2:06like, alright, you gotta stop by the booth.
- 2:08I gotta, you know, I gotta have an interview with you and I was
- 2:10like, oh, for sure, yeah, no, no worries.
- 2:12Yeah, of course. So that's like, you know how it
- 2:15is, I was working my within the VIP section and I don't get a
- 2:18chance to get over there in time before he closed up so.
- 2:21They those guys are cool when my time out a few times.
- 2:23They're really good. Cool dudes, man.
- 2:25We like those guys a lot. Yeah, for sure.
- 2:27Yeah, yeah, absolutely in. Quite a while.
- 2:29I was saying before we went on that that was my first time that
- 2:33I'd had you guys been able to taste the, the great stuff at
- 2:37Honey Tree Meatery at the Prince Fest.
- 2:40And then about a month or so ago when I went into your location
- 2:43with Scott and we had it too. But you guys have a very unique
- 2:48story, I think, as to how you began this thing.
- 2:52And Ross, I want to begin with you because you're the guy that
- 2:56you're the the owner. And I know Drew, you're involved
- 2:58in that too. But can you really describe what
- 3:03Honey Tree Meatery is for people who they've never been?
- 3:07They maybe they live in Nashville, they've never been or
- 3:10people that are coming to Nashville and they're trying,
- 3:12they want to try something different.
- 3:14And you're going to say, what is the honey cream?
- 3:17Eatery definitely the perfect place to try something different
- 3:20and fun and unique for sure so Mead is the oldest fermented
- 3:25beverage known to man the same way sake is made from rice and
- 3:29beer is made from grains tequila is made from agave Mead is made
- 3:34from hunt right so it's it's three ingredients at its core
- 3:37like a standard traditional Mead has three ingredients water and
- 3:40honey mixed together yeast is added to that to ferment the
- 3:43sugars so it's all of our Meads are around 12% alcohol by
- 3:48volume, but you can really do anything with it so we have some
- 3:52Meads that are 20% ABV. We have some Meads that are 6%
- 3:56ABV and they're chilled and carbonated so they're more like
- 3:59a spritzer seltzer vibe. We also have full service bar
- 4:03too. So we're making cocktails with
- 4:05Meads subbed out for one of the ingredients.
- 4:07So that's something really unique that we do here as well.
- 4:10Honey trees, kind of like a, it's sort of like a, like a bee.
- 4:15I've got taken over by Vikings in a way.
- 4:19It's, it's, it's super cool. It's, it's not like super in
- 4:22your face like and stuff, but it's like a very, it's very fun.
- 4:25It's very unique. There's you could spend like 3
- 4:28days here and probably not see everything that we have here.
- 4:30No doubt there's like a 10,000 board games we have.
- 4:35We won Nashville's best patio Nashville scene two years in a
- 4:38row. So we've got a really cool stage
- 4:41Outback and a pergola and a greenhouse area.
- 4:44Obviously you've got the burger boys out front, and that's kind
- 4:47of brought a whole cool new element in for us here too.
- 4:51So yeah, it, it's a very fun, unique experience.
- 4:54It really connects you to nature.
- 4:57We're basically taking honey right out of a beehive and
- 5:00putting it in our tanks and fermenting it.
- 5:03So it's it's, it's definitely like at our core.
- 5:05The core mission is save bees with booze, basically.
- 5:09So Ross, I'm going to ask you a couple of obvious questions that
- 5:12I know you've been asked before so for.
- 5:15But. Yeah, we don't.
- 5:16If we, if we don't ask them, people are, you know, how come
- 5:19you didn't ask that? Yeah, we're gonna.
- 5:20Educate. Some people.
- 5:22Too a lot. Yeah, we're.
- 5:22Gonna educate some people so you're a.
- 5:24Long. You're a long.
- 5:26Time beekeeper, which obviously coincides with a lot of the
- 5:30offerings at the metering. So it's almost like.
- 5:32Perfect for you, right? Absolutely.
- 5:34Oh yeah, 100%. We got our start really like
- 5:37backyard beekeeping and like kitchen beer brewing.
- 5:41So yeah. And it was kind of like it all
- 5:44just going to happen on its own. It's like, it's like it made
- 5:46itself really. So, you know, obviously Drew,
- 5:49Drew and I were roommates back then still at that point.
- 5:51And so, yeah, when still working at the pharmacy back then too.
- 5:56So it just kind of became one of those things we just just did it
- 6:00over and over and over again until we finally started getting
- 6:02good at it. I eventually got a job as hired
- 6:05on as a beekeeper for a local brewery here in town, Little
- 6:08Harpeth Brewing. And they, they had like a little
- 6:12pilot brewing system there for any, any of their employees
- 6:14could make beer on this little pilot system.
- 6:16So I eventually worked my way up into where I could start brewing
- 6:20on the little pilot system. And they finally were like, Oh,
- 6:23well, you know, we're, we're dissolving the beekeeping
- 6:25program, but we definitely want to hire you as a Brewer.
- 6:29So I, that's kind of how I got my foot in the door, like
- 6:32working as like in like a large scale alcohol manufacturing
- 6:35facility. So I did that for quite a few
- 6:38years. And you know, during that time
- 6:40was when I started making Mead. Full disclosure, I got super
- 6:44enorced mythology at one point and I was like, like half the
- 6:47stories in there are centered around Mead.
- 6:50And I was like, oh, Mead, you know, I'd, I'd had meat before,
- 6:54but I didn't really think about, you know, like, like, damn, I'm
- 6:56getting like 60 gallons of honey a year out of my harvest for my
- 7:00hives. I was like, I have so much
- 7:01honey. I was like, I'm going to try
- 7:02making meat. And yeah, so my, my first, my
- 7:05first few batches in my basement did not come out well at all.
- 7:09So they ended up going down the. Drain.
- 7:11What goes wrong with it early on with with me?
- 7:14And maybe it's like some of the same things that goes wrong with
- 7:16like beer when you're making it. The, the, the one of the biggest
- 7:19problems a, is not having cleaned and sanitized equipment
- 7:24and B, if your yeast gets stressed out, it's going to make
- 7:27your stuff taste good. So that's what happened with
- 7:30mine. I was, I was not familiar with
- 7:32using wine yeast or making meat or anything at all.
- 7:35And so yeah, my first couple batches were were pretty weird.
- 7:38I'll never I'll never forget the way my first one tastes.
- 7:41It was like burnt tires or something it.
- 7:44Was so bad it. Was not what you were going for.
- 7:49No Sir, that one went down the drain.
- 7:52And then I finally started getting into using very
- 7:55distinctive making the meats and that's when I really started to,
- 7:59to make some really tasty stuff. Zimmer G Magazine, I'll never
- 8:04forget this Zimmer G Magazine had this big, this big like
- 8:07experiment that they did and they, they had 20 different
- 8:11honeys that they made one gallon batches of Mead with and they
- 8:15used the same yeast for every single one.
- 8:18And then they had 20 different 1 gallon batches that they made
- 8:23with the same honey and 20 different kinds of beer yeast.
- 8:26And they had this huge like judging panel and the judges
- 8:30ranked all the meats on there. And they, they gave like their,
- 8:34their tasting notes and what they liked about it and what
- 8:36they didn't like about it. So the, the yeast that scored
- 8:41the highest from all of the judges were the yeast that I
- 8:44went out and bought and started using to make the meats with.
- 8:48And that's, that's when I really started to hit the stride and
- 8:51was like making stuff that was real, real yummy.
- 8:55And yeah. And then it was probably like
- 8:5820, 2016, 2017, we, we came up with the idea for honey Tree and
- 9:05this kind of never really looked back from there.
- 9:07So here's another obvious question.
- 9:10How many times have you been stung over the years?
- 9:15Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I could ask that questions
- 9:18pretty often, Yeah. I mean, like thousands, man.
- 9:21Countless, right? Thousands of times.
- 9:24So many times. I couldn't go to the podcast
- 9:26without asking that question. Even though I'm sure.
- 9:29You probably get asked it at least how many times a week, but
- 9:32I'm like, that's the obvious question.
- 9:33You gotta ask that one, right? Yeah, yeah.
- 9:36Yeah, it's a lot easier to to work the hives without gloves
- 9:40on. So, you know, I would start the
- 9:43day without gloves and after like 10 stings, I'd finally have
- 9:47to put gloves on because I could like hardly move my fingers
- 9:50anymore, you know? But I mean.
- 9:52Well enough on you get. Stung like Oh yeah.
- 9:55You're driving home and you don't realize there's a bee in
- 9:57your car and you get stung. I'm getting stung on my face
- 10:00like more time than I can count. So you thought so.
- 10:04And so you know your. Next question.
- 10:07It always hurts. It never like, yeah, it used to
- 10:10be. Right now, no.
- 10:11It always hurts. Every time it's like.
- 10:13In pain, huh? You.
- 10:15Just yeah, yeah, you. Play through the pain.
- 10:18Yeah, if you put honey on your stings, it helps.
- 10:21It helps the the swelling go down and it it really is like a
- 10:24natural cure for it. Little bit of irony, don't you
- 10:28think? Now you both are involved with
- 10:31the the colonies, the beehives that are located in the East
- 10:35Nashville and you have two locations where you you harvest
- 10:38all the honey. Can you?
- 10:40Can you, can you both talk about what you do, what your
- 10:43involvement is with, which is each of that?
- 10:45So we've been lucky enough to where we pretty much have a full
- 10:49time beekeeper on staff now and he helps manage the hives for us
- 10:54just because we're so busy that we just can't get out there as
- 10:57much as we'd like to. But our best yard is in Ashland
- 11:02City. That's really where we've got a
- 11:05decent amount of acreage out there that some good friends of
- 11:08ours let us use. And I mean, the honey out there
- 11:14is amazing and it's in the middle of nowhere, you know,
- 11:18you've really got to fight the ticks to be out there.
- 11:20But I mean, it's, it's just amazing.
- 11:24Every time we've ever gone out there, we come back and it's not
- 11:28if you have ticks on you, it's how many you have on you, you
- 11:31know? So you layer up as much as
- 11:34possible, you know? Being that like you've got
- 11:36multiple locations, can the honey, and I guess it is maybe
- 11:39it's an obvious question, be different because you got
- 11:41different bees and you've got different flowers in those areas
- 11:45too. Absolutely.
- 11:46So your location and your time of year that you harvest make
- 11:51up, you know a huge amount of what that honey is going to
- 11:55taste like. But even if you harvest the same
- 11:58time of year from the same location, that honey's going to
- 12:02taste different every time. There was a few years ago our
- 12:05Ashland City yard, I don't who I don't know who it was, but
- 12:08somebody in the area had a massive amount of honeysuckle
- 12:13and all of our honey tasted like honeysuckle and it was so good.
- 12:17And we were so decided for the next year, we go back and
- 12:21harvest the exact same day. The next year didn't taste like
- 12:24honeysuckle at all. You know, So whoever had this
- 12:27giant honeysuckle Bush, they pulled it out.
- 12:29You know, so say that it's hyper seasonal and hyper local.
- 12:34So Drew, talk about your background a little bit and we
- 12:37we heard from Ross there and what he's done and and along the
- 12:41way tell us. So when you guys are long time
- 12:43friends, tell us what got you into the metering.
- 12:48Yeah. So, you know, we were like he
- 12:50was saying we've been, we were roommates for years.
- 12:53He and I were bartending together at pharmacy.
- 12:57And it was one of those things where, you know, as he became
- 13:02more and more involved at Little Harpist, the more and more we
- 13:05started talking of, hey, you know, this, this could really be
- 13:09a thing, you know. And at the time, the owner of
- 13:14Little Harpeth was a certified BJCP Mead judge.
- 13:20So while we're I know, right? So while we are secretly making
- 13:26these Mead recipes, we were lucky enough to have, you know,
- 13:31his boss, the owner of Little Harpeth, both excited about the
- 13:36project and judging the Meads that we were making.
- 13:40So it was really cool for us in that process to where it's not
- 13:43like we were just kind of, you know, shooting for the stars.
- 13:47We were able to really spend a couple of years dialing in
- 13:50recipes and all that kind of stuff because we had a legit
- 13:53judge checking all of our stuff. You know, and still to this day,
- 13:58we're pretty sure through our research that we're the first
- 14:03meetery in the country and potentially the world to
- 14:07commercially make all of our Mead with beer yeast instead of
- 14:10wine yeast. So fundamentally, we're changing
- 14:14the game, you know, and it was one of those things for us where
- 14:18Ross was saying that, you know, we would like brew in our
- 14:20kitchens. And it really, that's really
- 14:23what we did where we would throw these parties and, you know,
- 14:27we'd be brewing in the kitchen. And finally, it got to the point
- 14:31where, you know, we were like, all right, we need to take this
- 14:35to the next level and start being a little more serious
- 14:38about this because we're throwing these parties and
- 14:40everybody's having a good time. There was one time one of our
- 14:43buddies threw an onion in the wart, you know, while we're
- 14:47making this beer. And he's like, oh.
- 14:48It'll be great. You know, it's like, Oh my gosh,
- 14:51we're going to have to drink this beer that's got onion in
- 14:53it, you know, So it was really cool for us to kind of come into
- 14:58it and it, you know, we were keeping bees in our backyard.
- 15:02So our backyard was not a backyard at all.
- 15:05It was a driveway. So we had two hives in our in
- 15:10our driveway of the house where we were renting.
- 15:13And you know, it was just one of those things where we'd harvest
- 15:17the honey and we'd experiment with me.
- 15:20So we had this really cool opportunity to where, you know,
- 15:23we didn't have the expenses of buying random honey.
- 15:27You know, we were able to harvest our own, use our own and
- 15:30really take our time making sure that we were making a new
- 15:35product because a lot of the needs that we were trying, we
- 15:40didn't really like, you know, they were too sweet, they were
- 15:43syrupy and texture. So we wanted to try and rewrite
- 15:48what Mead was capable of because as we got more and more into the
- 15:52beekeeping community, the more we saw that it's really hard to
- 15:57be a beekeeper for a living. So we wanted to try and make a
- 16:01new spin on Mead so that we were able to come up with a better
- 16:06way to fund beekeepers and to buy more honey from them and
- 16:10turn it into a premium product so that we could buy their honey
- 16:13at a premium. So, you know, it was this really
- 16:16cool organic, starting from the ground up mentality.
- 16:20How? Big is the meadery business, do
- 16:22you think, across the United States right now?
- 16:25Pretty small, Yeah, pretty small, no doubt.
- 16:28Yeah, Why don't they pop up like breweries do?
- 16:31It's just harder to do and harder to maintain, Yeah.
- 16:33It is more expensive to buy honey and whatnot than it is to
- 16:37buy and whatever to have it, mail it yourself and everything.
- 16:42But it's also like half of what we do is educating people on
- 16:46what meat is. You know, it's just, it's not as
- 16:49popular as beer. It kind of died out like in the
- 16:53Renaissance era, it was really popular and it was like the
- 16:56drink of the people. You go to any pub anywhere, get
- 16:59a mug of meat or what not. But as even even back then, as
- 17:04honey became less available and more expensive, like ale and
- 17:09wines kind of started to take over.
- 17:12So, you know, back in Renaissance times, that's kind
- 17:14of when it started dying out of popularity in Europe.
- 17:18It's, it's not like that, you know, meat, meat is really
- 17:21popular over there still to this day, but it's, it's just like in
- 17:25in American culture, it just hadn't really like made like
- 17:28that huge resurgence. And it was probably, I don't
- 17:32know, before COVID, they were estimating that there was like
- 17:36one or two new meteries opening a day.
- 17:39And then COVID just kind of killed everything at that point.
- 17:43Even some of like our favorite meteries are like downsizing a
- 17:47little bit and like they're kind of having to to pivot and do new
- 17:51different creative things to try to like, you know, keep need in
- 17:54the forefront. Before we go much further, and
- 17:57again because I was late to the, the podcast on, if you can see,
- 18:00is I've got a bottle of your honey tree bouquet.
- 18:04Bouquet does. Yeah, Oh my God, it is so good.
- 18:08I'm sipping over like this is like it's, it's named
- 18:10appropriately. It's really damn good.
- 18:12And I had it, I've had it chilled in the the wine fridge
- 18:15downstairs, so it's kind of got a little chill to it, but not
- 18:18too much. Is that kind of how you would
- 18:20serve some of these meats anyway?
- 18:22Is it very like it would on wine?
- 18:23It does vary. I mean, we, we kind of, we serve
- 18:26it here like cellar temp ish, you know, like like 5560°.
- 18:31Obviously the, the, the low ABV chilled carbonated ones, those
- 18:36are served like ice cold. But yeah, you know, it's, it's
- 18:39mostly a preference. You know, some people, most
- 18:43people like it cold and chilled, but you do get like more of the
- 18:48flavor when you drink it, room temperature.
- 18:50But it can be drank room temp like a red wine for sure.
- 18:53But it is sort of a preference thing.
- 18:54It's it. We've got to the point where
- 18:55it's like, hey, however you want to drink it, just drink it.
- 18:59And of course, in the summer, you know, it's like the hotter
- 19:01out it is, the more people want cold drinks, you know, So if
- 19:05it's just really hot out, one day we'll kick the temperature
- 19:08down a couple of degrees on the cooler, you know, And so the
- 19:12bouquet toss in particular, there's, you know, there's the
- 19:15whole back story to need in the the wedding culture.
- 19:23Have you ever heard where the term honeymoon comes from?
- 19:27I don't believe so. I've heard the term honeymoon
- 19:29but I don't know the rest of it though it comes.
- 19:32From me. So Cost is really good at
- 19:35telling the story. I'll let him tell it, but it
- 19:37comes from Mead. Well, so in in ancient times,
- 19:41before they knew what yeast was or alcohol or anything for that
- 19:45matter, they just thought that Mead was like this enchanted
- 19:48beverage that instantly turned you into a poet and a scholar.
- 19:52When you drank it, you, you immediately became incredibly
- 19:55attractive to the opposite sex and you became incredibly
- 19:58fertile and, and whatnot. So they would send off newlywed
- 20:02couples. For a moon cycle with jugs of
- 20:06honeywine, like enough honeywine to to get through the moon cycle
- 20:10and in hopes of like like procreating and and whatnot.
- 20:14And so for a moon cycle in the honeywine came the term
- 20:18honeymoon. Could you imagine if honeymoons
- 20:21were still a month long? Like I feel like now they're
- 20:24like they're like 3 days now you.
- 20:26Know it's like all right. Honeymoon's over.
- 20:28All right, it's back to work. You know that's another phrase
- 20:32too, right? Honeymoon's over.
- 20:33Let's see, we got to get back to it.
- 20:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, it's so funny because in
- 20:37those times, you know, the bride and groom didn't really know
- 20:40each other because a lot of the times the weddings were
- 20:42predetermined. So it's like after that month of
- 20:45being alone and drinking with your partner, you're going to
- 20:48figure out if you like them or not real quick, you know?
- 20:53We're we're thinking, run out of me.
- 20:54Yeah, you run out of Mead. This guy's not as funny as he
- 20:56once was, or once he thought he was.
- 20:58Exactly. Yeah.
- 21:00So funny. Well, that's a.
- 21:02That's a cool 1. You know, you hear that saying
- 21:04that nobody really knows that it actually comes from Mead.
- 21:07I love it. That is really cool.
- 21:10I learned today also that there is there is a difference between
- 21:14Mead and honey wine. Mead is fermented honey.
- 21:21Honey wine is wine with honey in it.
- 21:24Wow, OK. That makes sense.
- 21:25Yeah, well, not necessarily synonymous.
- 21:27They just maybe people used it in the wrong way, maybe the term
- 21:30in the wrong way. Here's a, here's a, here's a
- 21:32question along those lines. And what are some other
- 21:35misconceptions about Mead? Maybe, maybe it's the people
- 21:38just don't know what it is. Haven't tried it.
- 21:41Remember the commercial, the Bud Light commercial?
- 21:43You've probably been asked this question a million times, right?
- 21:47Oh, I've got this new Mead I'm working on and the guy drops him
- 21:49through the floor. Yeah, you will not believe how
- 21:54much that commercial helped us. Yeah, it helped us so much.
- 21:59We for months were like, thank you, Bud Light, for the free
- 22:04advertising because there was so many people that were like,
- 22:07yeah, I heard this bloodlike commercial talking about Mead
- 22:10and we wanted to come check it out.
- 22:12They thought they were making fun of us and actually they were
- 22:15just bringing us tons of people. It was so funny.
- 22:19So I would say hands down the biggest misconception is that
- 22:25all Mead is super sweet. Just like beer.
- 22:29There is hundreds of different kinds of beers and varieties and
- 22:34all these different categories and all this kind of stuff.
- 22:38You know, back from my my beer tending days when people I
- 22:44always looked at it as like a tree of possibilities is OK.
- 22:49What do you like? What's your main flavor profile
- 22:53and then how far in a, in an outward branch can I experiment
- 22:59with you and try to find something new that you might
- 23:03like? You know, and meat is the same
- 23:05way, like Ross was saying, we go from 6% to 20% on the ABV.
- 23:11And so our sweetness levels are all over the place.
- 23:15Our flavors are all over the place.
- 23:17So for you folks listening at home, if you have had a Mead
- 23:21that is too sweet and you did not like, give it another try.
- 23:25They are not all super sweet, you know.
- 23:27We don't like the Super sweet stuff.
- 23:29Even our 20 percenter is more on the dry side than vast majority
- 23:35of needs out on the market for sure.
- 23:37So that's the first one I would say, no doubt.
- 23:40How? How?
- 23:41Often, sorry, Scott, how often do you get new people to come in
- 23:46and the first thing they do, you can see they're looking at the
- 23:48board, they've never been before and they're just kind of lost
- 23:52going. What is it that I should get?
- 23:55What do you? What do you?
- 23:56What's the direction for them? The first?
- 23:58Thing we do is give you a taste of our basic batch.
- 24:02So instead of it just being this, you know, looming board
- 24:06with all these possibilities lined up in front of you,
- 24:09instead we say, hey, let's, let's share a little bit of
- 24:12basic batch. You know, let's drink some and
- 24:15we'll talk about it. You know, and it's so funny to
- 24:17see with some folks, the more possibilities you give them, the
- 24:22more excited they get. And some people, the more
- 24:25possibilities you give them, the more they just like close up and
- 24:28they're like, you are giving me too many options.
- 24:31This is too many options. I cannot handle this.
- 24:33You know, exactly, you know, so it's all about, you know, just
- 24:37the constant education of what we're doing, what we're capable
- 24:42of, what our product is, you know, capable of as far as
- 24:46depths and ranges and sweetnesses, you know, and just
- 24:51trying to tell them what it is. Because we could use Costco
- 24:56honey for all of our stuff and it would be fine.
- 24:59But we make sure that we only use Tennessee honey from our own
- 25:04bees or beekeepers we personally know.
- 25:06So we're connecting people with either the state they live in or
- 25:10the state that they're visiting and making sure that they know
- 25:14that, you know, this isn't just, you know, just another alcohol.
- 25:19We really are trying to save bees with booze because we know
- 25:24the beekeepers and we're buying it at a premium from them.
- 25:27And we make sure that we're making something for everybody.
- 25:30So keep trying stuff because we have something that you like,
- 25:33you know, we just got to find your right flavor profile.
- 25:37You mentioned something that is thought it made me think of
- 25:40ciders just a few minutes ago about talking about how sweet
- 25:42they are. So we had, we've been over to
- 25:44cyanide a couple of times and we've had Grayson on a couple of
- 25:46times and it's the same thing in the sense where it's not that
- 25:51super sweet stuff anymore. It's got that dryness to it and
- 25:54it sold me like, OK, I get this other side of it now.
- 25:57This is this is the stuff I like now.
- 25:59Same thing with the Mead for me. It's like, OK, I like that dry
- 26:02side. That sweet stuff has gone away.
- 26:03We don't need that. It reminded me of that.
- 26:06Yeah, I know. Absolutely.
- 26:08Love Grayson. Yeah, we love him to death.
- 26:11We love Crazy Gnome. We love Cyanide.
- 26:14That's so cool that he's doing that.
- 26:16Big shout out to him. We He's a total sweetheart.
- 26:20Yeah, I mentioned what Scott's drinking right now.
- 26:22I had that you're at the Meteor a few weeks ago and I also had
- 26:26the little batch and I liked them both.
- 26:27I mean, they were really, really good.
- 26:28So yeah. Very enjoyable.
- 26:30I did manage to pick up another bottle, it's downstairs.
- 26:33I think it was the signature series for Steve.
- 26:37I just couldn't meet up with him to give it to him since
- 26:39yesterday. So we couldn't quite.
- 26:40But I had one form, so we'll have some.
- 26:44Yeah, sure, sure. You were going to give him the
- 26:46bottle. Sure.
- 26:49That was being chilled in the wine fridge too.
- 26:51There you. Go.
- 26:52Let me let me tell you about my first experience in honey tree.
- 26:55So Steve and I've been recently and that was my second time,
- 26:57first time I went in there, I went in there by myself and part
- 27:00of it was to kind of hit every brewery in town, right, Write
- 27:04something about them. And you guys were on the list
- 27:06And I went over there and I got a flight.
- 27:08I go here's the best way to do it with flight guys.
- 27:10We're, you know, beer drinking flight guys and you guys had a
- 27:12flight and it was amazing in one of them, this was back in the
- 27:15fall. One of them was served like hot,
- 27:17like a like a winter kind of winter drink and it was awesome.
- 27:21And I left there and I must have told 50 people how great this
- 27:24was. I'm not kidding.
- 27:25And it's like you got to go to honey three, you got to.
- 27:28And it was it was just blew my mind how cool everything was and
- 27:30how good all the the Meads were in and when we talk more about
- 27:34what you guys do there. But my experience was just it
- 27:36was I couldn't tell enough people because I had been by
- 27:38myself and nobody had been yet. And I like you got to go.
- 27:40You got to go, you got to go. And I've continued to talk about
- 27:42it since then. So just shout out to you guys.
- 27:45Wow, we love that. Thank you.
- 27:48Yeah, that is our that hot 1 is our mold Mead.
- 27:51So it's the bouquet toss that you're drinking right now as the
- 27:55base. And we heat it up with mulling
- 27:57spices. So cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom,
- 28:01allspice, clove, and it gets everybody through the winter for
- 28:06sure. You know I.
- 28:09Think we're going to rename it the Hot 1?
- 28:14Nobody can remember. He's like, he's feeling like I
- 28:16like the hot one. OK, Yeah.
- 28:18So. We got you right.
- 28:19I just. Remember it being hot, right?
- 28:20That's the best. And the flavor was so damn good,
- 28:22too. It just reminded me.
- 28:24I'm from upstate New York, and we used to have these winter
- 28:26drinks where you serve them hot and you put like cinnamon
- 28:29candies in them and like a cinnamon stick or something.
- 28:31And everybody calls it something different.
- 28:33And it reminds me of that. Yeah, we called it Wausau back
- 28:36then, but. OK.
- 28:37Oh yeah, yeah, it's kind of this.
- 28:39It's kind of really similar. It's the same thing basically.
- 28:41Well, in our regulars, everybody that knows about it, you know,
- 28:44it's like before a snowstorm comes, they stock up on mold
- 28:48meat ahead of oh. Yeah, that's like, you know.
- 28:51Milk and bread, that's that's out.
- 28:53We need 4 bottles of mold meat in the house ready to go, you
- 28:57know? Keeps you warm from the inside.
- 29:00Yep, exactly. You know one thing.
- 29:02That stands out with the boat, both of you guys is the passion
- 29:05that you have in talking about the need.
- 29:08And I'm, I'm curious and Ross, you know, you worked at Little
- 29:12Harpeth. What does this bring a new level
- 29:15of excitement for you doing this compared to where you work?
- 29:19Not, not to say you didn't like that area or like that
- 29:22profession, but is this a more challenging venture for you than
- 29:26where you were before and now? Certainly Drew, you can follow
- 29:29up with that as well after him. Oh, no doubt, man, because we're
- 29:34totally uncharted territory. And it's like every time I,
- 29:38every time I have to integrate a new piece into the system or I
- 29:41have to make a new recipe or something, it's, it's like weeks
- 29:45and weeks and like months of like researching and trial and
- 29:49error bench trials. And it's, it's, it's, it's a
- 29:52lot. It's definitely a lot like in it
- 29:54and it, it's always evolving too.
- 29:57We're, we're always trying to improve the quality of the
- 30:00product and, and still keep the integrity of it.
- 30:04So, you know, like there's a really fine balance there as
- 30:07well. You know, if we don't use
- 30:08sulfites, so I have to come up with other stuff to, to use too.
- 30:11And there's basically no options out there.
- 30:13So I'm like having to go back to the drawing board.
- 30:16I work really closely with several different laboratories.
- 30:19And so it's, it's a constantly evolving thing.
- 30:22It like takes a mind of its own sometimes too.
- 30:24So it gets incredibly challenging and it's, it's, you
- 30:29know, there's still like there's still gaps in my knowledge base,
- 30:33you know, that I, I just, I don't, I don't always
- 30:36necessarily see. So I'm having to reach out and
- 30:38then figure out like, OK, what am I doing wrong?
- 30:40And it's very humbling sometimes too, you know, where it's like
- 30:44every day I'm like, OK, I, I messed this up.
- 30:47So just kind of having, having the ability to to like, you
- 30:53know, you got to have got to have that humility and look
- 30:56inward and see like, OK, I did this wrong and I have, you know,
- 30:59learn from it, move on, you know?
- 31:01Who are your Guinea pigs when you guys are trying new stuff or
- 31:04experimenting with new things and you just walk out you.
- 31:07Each other, Each other 100% yes, no doubt it starts with us and
- 31:16then it goes to the. Staff.
- 31:17And then it goes to our regulars and then it goes to the public,
- 31:21you know what I mean? Where it's like if it made it
- 31:23past us. And then the staff, you know,
- 31:25our regulars come in and we're like, hey, hey, come here, come
- 31:28try this. You know, tell us what you think
- 31:30about this. It's, it's not available yet,
- 31:32but what do you think? You know, because one of the
- 31:36things that happened to us after the, we had a real big tornado
- 31:42here in 2020. For those that don't know,
- 31:45Nashville was directly hit by a, a huge tornado in 2020.
- 31:51And our facility was closed for months.
- 31:54And that was in tandem with COVID.
- 31:57So we kind of had this opportunity to, hey, if there's
- 31:59anything that we need to reset and kind of do differently,
- 32:03now's our chance. So we spent months reaching out
- 32:05to meteries all over the country saying, hey, we're using beer
- 32:09yeast. You know, have you ever messed
- 32:12with it? Do you have any advice for us?
- 32:14You know, so and so and every single meter, he was like, you
- 32:18are on your own. We have never heard of anybody
- 32:22using beer yeast. Let us know how it goes, but
- 32:25good luck, you know, because we don't know what to tell you.
- 32:29So it really is, I mean, it's no joke it, it really is new
- 32:33territory 100% with vast majority of our stuff for sure.
- 32:38Was your building and part of that tornado when it hit?
- 32:41Did you suffer any damage in that and?
- 32:45We sure did. We sure did.
- 32:46Basement the, the across the street from us, the, the famous
- 32:51venue Basement E was completely destroyed.
- 32:54We had thirteen holes in our roof.
- 32:56We had the HVAC system completely destroyed, our back
- 32:58patio completely destroyed. We had no power for a month, you
- 33:03know, so that was a really interesting time for us to kind
- 33:05of reset and see what was, you know, what we could change and
- 33:10what kind of retooling we could do.
- 33:13And I mean, not two weeks after the tornado, that was right when
- 33:17the COVID lockdown started, you know, so here Ross and I are,
- 33:23you know, rebuilding honey tree, getting semi trucks full of of
- 33:28materials and lumber delivered to the building while everybody
- 33:32else is in lockdown at their home.
- 33:35You know, so our friends would constantly pull us aside and be
- 33:38like, are you guys OK? Like, what are you doing
- 33:40spending all this money like everybody else is like, not sure
- 33:44what's going on. And Ross and I were just
- 33:46doubling down over and over. You know, it's pretty funny.
- 33:51Yeah. Yeah.
- 33:52You guys see the similarity between brewing beer and brewing
- 33:55Mead? Is it called brewing me too?
- 33:57I keep saying that is it brewing me?
- 33:59Yeah, we'll take that. OK.
- 34:00Yeah, there's kind of some things we can rewrite, you know.
- 34:06At least if you say the word that people get the gist right I
- 34:08guess. Yeah, exactly.
- 34:11Exactly. Does it take longer to ferment?
- 34:14Because there's probably more sugar in Mead and you're using,
- 34:17I guess you guys are using the honey so to take longer to
- 34:19ferment, say, or even make Mead than it does beer.
- 34:23Definitely. Oh yeah.
- 34:23So it's like typically two weeks in the primary fermentation
- 34:29process and then we transfer from our fermentors into like a
- 34:33secondary like conditioning tank and it's usually like another
- 34:36like 3 months after that until it's totally ready.
- 34:39Usually once it's clear, that's when we start packaging it and
- 34:42selling it and everything. And that's, that's about
- 34:44typically how long it takes. So if we had more time, we would
- 34:48like it to age longer because it's just as it ages, it tastes
- 34:53better. But we sell through it so fast.
- 34:56We're selling through a tank a month basically so.
- 34:58Yeah. And obviously because it takes
- 35:00long, you've got to think that much further out for say
- 35:02seasonal things or the hot one, right?
- 35:05You gotta have that one ready for the fall that.
- 35:09Ones on the schedule for two weeks from now actually, because
- 35:14it's going to, we release it every year on Halloween.
- 35:17And so yeah, we've already started planning it out like my,
- 35:21my brew calendar is 3 months ahead.
- 35:23So yeah. And we've, we've got our, our
- 35:27bottle membership club. That one's really tricky because
- 35:30we have a new need that goes out to the bottle membership clubs,
- 35:34the bottle membership members every three months.
- 35:37And that's like basically how long it takes to make a batch.
- 35:39So we're basically as we're bottling the batch to send out
- 35:44for the next quarter, we're starting the, the next batch for
- 35:49the next. So it's like this like super
- 35:52fine, like dance that we have to do every once every three months
- 35:57for the membership needs. It's super cool cuz the
- 36:00membership needs are only exclusive to membership.
- 36:03So like most of the staff doesn't even get to try the
- 36:07membership needs. They just get packaged and
- 36:10shipped out and it's just exclusive from the members.
- 36:14But that's a very, like I was saying, there's a super fine
- 36:18line of like having to like, okay, the tanks empty.
- 36:21It has to get filled up clearly the next day, yeah.
- 36:24On the. Way.
- 36:26No, no. And how he was talking about how
- 36:28we released the Moldmead Halloween every year our
- 36:33regulars pretty much give us death threats as soon as it
- 36:36starts getting cold outside of like where is the mold need,
- 36:41release the mold need. And we're like, sorry, it's
- 36:44Halloween y'all. That's when we release it now.
- 36:46You know the date first. Day.
- 36:50You guys know where is it, right?
- 36:55Yeah, exactly. It's sorry.
- 36:56We love you. That's just.
- 36:57When it comes out. You know, they're like, right,
- 36:59Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 37:01Can you guys talk a little bit more about that the it's on your
- 37:04website and if you want to give out your website by the way,
- 37:07where people. Can honey tree meter e.com.
- 37:10Yeah. And so there's information on
- 37:12there about the bottle in hunting clubs.
- 37:14Can you really talk more about how that all came about?
- 37:18And you know how many people really are utilizing that at
- 37:22this point? So it's a really cool program
- 37:25for us because just like Ross was saying, you know, we do
- 37:29exclusives out of the tasting room all the time where, you
- 37:33know, we'll put something new on and within a weekend it's gone.
- 37:37You know, and our regulars and our our die hard fans, they are
- 37:42all over the country. And of course, you know, they've
- 37:45got busy lives. So they would love to try these
- 37:48exclusive means, but they just come and go so fast that
- 37:51sometimes they don't get the opportunity to.
- 37:54So this was a way for us to kind of give back to our, our, you
- 37:58know, our die hard fans of where this is, you know, any Mead that
- 38:04you ever get from our bottle club, which releases once 1/4
- 38:08and we have different packages. So you can get 2 bottles a
- 38:12quarter, 6 bottles 1/4 or 12 bottles 1/4.
- 38:15And whenever you get these Meads, they have never been
- 38:20released to the public. It is absolutely exclusive for
- 38:23you as members 100%. And it's so funny because vast
- 38:29majority of the time, I don't want to say vast majority of the
- 38:31time, but there's been quite a few of them where it's like,
- 38:34this is the best Mead we've ever made and we we're not going to
- 38:38release it in the tasting room. It is only for the members.
- 38:41We did our 20% Mead is called Beast and we did a flavored
- 38:47beast. It was.
- 38:49Was it strawberry or Raspberry? Strawberry tea infused beastly,
- 38:55Yeah. So it was a a strawberry beast.
- 38:57And I mean, it was hands down one of the best Meads we've ever
- 39:01made. You know, So it was like we
- 39:02almost wanted to like, message each member individually and be
- 39:06like, this is the best Mead we've ever made.
- 39:09Like, don't be mad at us in two years if we release this to the
- 39:12public because it is fire, you know, that Good.
- 39:15Yeah. Yeah, no doubt.
- 39:17So that's a really cool way for us to make sure that you know,
- 39:22our our fans all over the country.
- 39:25They get the opportunity wherever you're at to get some
- 39:29of these exclusive ones to where you don't feel like you've got
- 39:32FOMO for not coming in. You know, the weekend we we
- 39:35released something special, you know, like anytime our low grav
- 39:416% need called Lil batch, every time we do our BlackBerry little
- 39:46batch in the summer, it will not last the weekend.
- 39:51If we put it on on Friday, it doesn't matter how much we make,
- 39:54it's gone by Sunday, you know, so it's great.
- 39:58But also in the sense of we want more folks to try it, you know.
- 40:02Yeah. So that's a really cool
- 40:04opportunity for us to connect with our folks all over the
- 40:07country. There's a lot of people in
- 40:09Tennessee that order it too, because it is so exclusive.
- 40:13There's a lot of, like, we do have quite a few regulars that
- 40:16are in the bottle club as well. Like, yeah, every time we see
- 40:19them, they're like, can't believe how crazy it is.
- 40:22It's got a bottle right here that has like its own special
- 40:24label and everything too. You can see it's like
- 40:27holographic and the names all on the side of it.
- 40:31It's really fun. Does that get capped out?
- 40:34Does that club get capped out? Like can you only have so many
- 40:36people? Yep.
- 40:37All three. Tiers.
- 40:39All three tiers are capped out. For anybody listening at home,
- 40:42all three tiers are are not fully capped out yet.
- 40:46So there's still room and all three tiers, but when it's full
- 40:50up, it's full up. And you know, it's one of those
- 40:53things where every year all of those members get first, right,
- 40:58to stay on board. So when those slots are full,
- 41:02the only way you're going to get in is if somebody drops out, you
- 41:05know, until one day we get a larger production facility or
- 41:08something like that, you know, but once it's full, it's full.
- 41:12That's it. You mentioned different states.
- 41:15Your website showed that you are available in 38 states plus DC.
- 41:20Does that mean is that distribution, is that shipping
- 41:22to those states? Shipping.
- 41:24OK. So we own the rights to
- 41:27distribute or, you know, to ship to your house in Tennessee.
- 41:31And then the rest of the states are through a company called
- 41:35Vino Shipper. So they hold the distribution,
- 41:40you know, the shipping rights in each one of those states.
- 41:43And you're able to order online through our website,
- 41:46honeytreemeatery.com, and get it shipped straight to your door.
- 41:50So that's a really cool way. And if there's any wineries that
- 41:54are listening that haven't used this yet, we highly recommend
- 41:59it. It's a really easy process,
- 42:02really easy to add on to your website, and a really great way
- 42:07for people to ship product all over the country.
- 42:10You know, it's a good one for us for sure.
- 42:13Do they, does that company help you navigate the different laws
- 42:16between the states too? Does that take that out of it
- 42:18for you guys? You don't have to.
- 42:20Do that part yet takes it out of it.
- 42:22There's a few key states where the laws are really finicky and
- 42:26they give you the option where it's like, hey, this state is
- 42:30really tough to deal with if you want to pay all the fines and if
- 42:34you really want to mess with it, you can, but it's up to you.
- 42:38So there's quite a few states that we have to opt out of
- 42:41because it's just too expensive or they just flat out don't
- 42:46allow it. Like our neighbors state,
- 42:48Kentucky, they just flat out will not allow us to ship into
- 42:52the state period. You know, so as much as we love
- 42:55you, our neighbor Kentucky, we, it's, you know, you got to, you
- 42:59got to drive down here and come hang out with us.
- 43:01Gotta come in. Nashville.
- 43:03That's all right. Hey, I'm curious about
- 43:06something. You know, when we have talked to
- 43:08so many different brewery owners this past year and Grayson and
- 43:13you know is certainly one of them.
- 43:15You know, he talked about they just opened up a cidery and they
- 43:18have talked about so much. It's changed in the graph
- 43:21crappier industry with seltzers and ciders and things like that.
- 43:27Where do you think meat fits in to the ever changing culture of
- 43:30what we're saying? I cooked in really well because
- 43:34there's so many different things we can do with it.
- 43:36So you had, like you said, like you mentioned, the, the seltzer
- 43:39world, like our answer to that is the little batch series.
- 43:43So 6% ABV chill carbonated and instead of being made from malt
- 43:48liquor or whatever, like White Claw is like it's literally meat
- 43:52still, you know, so it's Stillwater honey yeast.
- 43:56It's just not 12%. It's 6% and it's chilled
- 43:59carbonated and it's, honestly it's, that's our best seller,
- 44:03like hands down. You know, it's, it's, it's
- 44:05really approachable, it's really affordable and it's, it's so, so
- 44:12delicious. Personally, my favorite meats
- 44:14are honestly like the little batch or beast meat.
- 44:17That's basically all I drink. Yeah, the lowest or the highest,
- 44:20you know, you know, we want to be full.
- 44:23Octane And that's what I started out.
- 44:25When I came in, I was like, I'm going to go over the little.
- 44:27Batch first. And then and then kind of go
- 44:29from there, but. Are you?
- 44:31I have. Two moves, zero and I have two
- 44:33moves, 0 and 100. Yeah, right.
- 44:38Have you guys had an interest from other breweries that maybe
- 44:42they're wanting to also expand into like the Mead business as
- 44:46they're saying, OK, we got a keep our options open or maybe
- 44:51offering what you guys do at at certain locations, are you
- 44:55getting that kind of interest in that discussion around
- 44:57Nashville? I would.
- 44:59Say it's more so that we have breweries around town that we
- 45:05love collaborating with. So instead of them saying we
- 45:09want to make Mead because they would have to have a totally
- 45:12separate license there, you know, technically we're a winery
- 45:16because there is no meatery manufacturing license.
- 45:19So technically we fall under a winery license.
- 45:22So what we do with breweries instead is we collaborate with
- 45:26them where we they use our honey.
- 45:29So the honey that we pull off of our hives here in town and we
- 45:34make beer with it. So that's a cool way for us to,
- 45:37you know, keep the community strong, keep us doing fun stuff
- 45:41together. And then when it releases, we
- 45:44sell it out of both of our tap rooms.
- 45:46Can you talk about what some of those collabs were or who were
- 45:49they with? Yeah, we did New Heights.
- 45:52They're they're like really good, really good homies of
- 45:54ours. Probably one of the the biggest
- 45:57hits. It was called the Citrus Stinger
- 46:00and it was a honey lemon shandy. So it was like 3 1/2 percent
- 46:04ABV. And we sold it for $5 a glass
- 46:08and it was just like we had it the entire summer and everybody
- 46:12just was tripping over themselves to get it.
- 46:14It was really good. Right Now we have on the Vikings
- 46:17Horn. Well, that's a collab we did
- 46:19with Tenfold and that one's about 9% ABB and that's a, it's
- 46:25a Belgian triple style. Well, let's see, we did one with
- 46:29bearded iris that was a BlackBerry cream ale.
- 46:31That one was super awesome. I'm trying to think of what we
- 46:34did last year. Everything's such a blur.
- 46:37I'm like, what did we even do? Then yeah, it's like, yeah, it's
- 46:39like, what day is it today, much less what did we do last year,
- 46:43you know, But yeah, that's a really cool opportunity for us
- 46:46to, you know, connect with our friends around town.
- 46:50But that's one of the things is, you know, we come from a beer
- 46:52brewing background. There is no Mead Guild either.
- 46:58So we're in the beer that the craft Brewers Guild and the the
- 47:02wine Guild. So, you know, we're buddies with
- 47:05everybody. So it's a really cool way for us
- 47:07to work together because obviously if we had a a brewing
- 47:11license, we would do more collabs and stuff like that.
- 47:15So it's a really cool way for us to to work with all those folks
- 47:19that, you know, we're, we love so much.
- 47:22That's great. Anytime I see any kind of beer
- 47:23with some local collabs, I'm in, man.
- 47:25Just, you know, and everybody's done and you see, you see like a
- 47:28a Barique and a Gris got together.
- 47:30Hell yeah. You know, it's going to be good.
- 47:31You just do. Yeah, shout out to Barique, Joel
- 47:35and Spencer over there. I mean, we have their their
- 47:38house pills right now on draft. I mean, it's one of the best
- 47:42pilsners I've had in my life. And they're, I mean, they are
- 47:46just killing it over there. We love those guys to death.
- 47:50And of course their sours are just otherworldly.
- 47:54Those guys, it's sold their soul to the devil for those sours.
- 47:58I don't know what they did over there.
- 48:01My goodness, they're so good. You know what's so funny about
- 48:05that? And we've talked about this many
- 48:06times as you know, the word soured beer is got a such a
- 48:10range on it. You talk about fruited on one
- 48:12end and you talk about that barik on the other end and
- 48:14that's and both are good, but they are completely different.
- 48:17Yes. Sure.
- 48:20I read an article, I think was it the, the variety or something
- 48:24or it was a local interview or something you had done.
- 48:27But anyway, they, you talked about your business models a
- 48:30little different than most breweries as in your tap room is
- 48:34kind of the primary business, right, with distribution kind of
- 48:37being secondary. And, and I've been in there and
- 48:39I see that because that place is awesome.
- 48:41We've talked about it, how cool it is and we'll talk some more
- 48:44about the stuff you've got on the menu, but talk about that a
- 48:46little bit. What was that mindset or was
- 48:48that an easy decision? We're just going to build this
- 48:51Tapper amount. We're going to let people come
- 48:52here. That's going to be the business.
- 48:54Well, it was something for us to where, you know, we had so much
- 48:59experience in the hospitality industry.
- 49:03I mean, we were servers and bartenders our entire adult
- 49:07life, you know, So it was one of those things that we were just
- 49:10so familiar with. And we just love East Nashville
- 49:16and Nashville so much that we really wanted a community hub
- 49:22and nobody, especially when we first started and still today,
- 49:28so many people don't know what need is or they came across one
- 49:32that they didn't like. So we wanted to focus more so on
- 49:37the tasting room to get people in here and to educate and to
- 49:42change their minds about what Mead is capable.
- 49:44Of. Because you know, it's one of
- 49:47those things where, you know, the, the bars and restaurants
- 49:50around town, they're like, we love that you're local and we
- 49:53think this is really cool. We just don't know how easy it's
- 49:56going to be to sell this product to our guests, you know, which I
- 50:01totally get. You know, when I was working
- 50:03over at pharmacy, it was very cutthroat on what made it on to
- 50:08the draft list. You know, if it wasn't going to
- 50:10move and everybody wasn't into it, you were never going to make
- 50:13the draft list over there, you know?
- 50:15So in that experience of seeing how difficult that was, we
- 50:20really thought that, you know, if we build a community and we
- 50:25focus more on the tasting room and the vibe here and getting
- 50:29people in here. Because obviously if somebody
- 50:31comes in and they've never had me before and right now we have
- 50:35like 13 different Meads on tap, it's way easier for us to
- 50:40educate and to find something that you like versus it being
- 50:44somewhere at a bar or a restaurant where they're like,
- 50:47I've never had me before or I came across one I didn't like.
- 50:50I'm just going to get a beer I usually get.
- 50:52So that was one of the main driving factors for that for us.
- 50:56And I will say, if I could go back, I would do it again for
- 51:01sure because it has definitely worked out for us teaching the
- 51:06the public about what we're doing here.
- 51:08The next big project is going to be sort of adding in a larger
- 51:15like distribution model. We're looking into contract
- 51:18brewing right now, obviously because we can't, I can't make
- 51:21super large scale things here. I, I can barely keep up with
- 51:24what's going on in the tasting room and membership needs and
- 51:27whatnot. So, so yeah, we're looking into
- 51:29contract brewing and we've we've got some other irons in the fire
- 51:33trying to increase our storage capacity here, which will give
- 51:36us a an opportunity to make Lil batch on like a more larger
- 51:40scale. So we can at least try to get it
- 51:42out into the market more. Because that's, you know, like,
- 51:45like we were saying earlier, that's the most approachable
- 51:47one, It's the most affordable. It's basically the same price as
- 51:51any other 6% beer that you're going to be able to find out
- 51:53there. So, so yeah, we're really,
- 51:56really, really, really hopeful that we're going to be able to
- 51:58launch that as soon as possible because that's going to be
- 52:01that's going to be really fun and like, you know, being able
- 52:03to see it out in restaurants and whatnot, especially like on tap.
- 52:07And it's just something that's like, it's so cool and unique
- 52:11and fun and you know, it's like, it's me that basically is like
- 52:15honey, honey wine, seltzer spritzer vibe.
- 52:20Yeah, and people, like you said, when it's hot like this, people
- 52:22want stuff that's refreshing. Well, let me get that.
- 52:24Let me try that and maybe try something new.
- 52:27Yeah. Let's talk more about your Tatra
- 52:29because your menu in there is phenomenal.
- 52:31So you mentioned that meat is versatile.
- 52:34You guys not just serve meat and sell meat by the drink in there,
- 52:37you make cocktails with it. Not to mention you've got I
- 52:41don't know how many local beers in there.
- 52:43I looked at your menu every. I think 99% of it is from
- 52:46Nashville. I mean, it's it's right here.
- 52:48Oh yeah, spirits, I think wine you got, you got everybody
- 52:52covered when they come in there. Yep, Yep.
- 52:55Something for everybody for sure.
- 52:57We're lucky enough to have an amazing bar director that is
- 53:03really good at taking a classic cocktail and slightly modifying
- 53:08it with Mead or with honey simple syrup, which for any
- 53:14bartenders at home listening right now, instead of making
- 53:19regular simple syrup, take 5050 honey and basic batch and make
- 53:26your simple syrup out of that and it will elevate your
- 53:31cocktails to the next level. I'm gonna write that down.
- 53:35I'm ready to. I love old fashioned so I'm
- 53:37picking up an old fashioned right now.
- 53:39Yes, yes. So we, that's one of the things
- 53:43that, you know, we, we want something for everybody and
- 53:46we're constantly evolving that program, you know, of how do we
- 53:51make sure that we've got something for everybody while
- 53:53still sneaking honey or Mead into those beverages, You know,
- 53:58to give our own little spin on it for sure, because for the
- 54:01longest time we only had Mead. But now we have our beer
- 54:04license, our liquor license, you know, So we got something for
- 54:08everybody, no doubt. It's awesome.
- 54:10And you mentioned the back patio, man, we sat out there
- 54:14coming this fall. I'm sure that thing and I'm sure
- 54:17when the weather is nice, that place is packed.
- 54:19I've seen, I've not been there at night, but I've seen pictures
- 54:21of it and there there's a nightlife at your place.
- 54:24It's really nice, yeah. The live music we really love.
- 54:29Every Sunday we do trivia. It's Tuesday night here right
- 54:34now, so we do open mic night. So every single Tuesday night we
- 54:38do open mic night where local artists come and play some of
- 54:42their new songs and that kind of stuff, which is really cool.
- 54:46Every other Fridays we have fire performing back out on the back
- 54:49patio every other week. Yeah, we do market takeovers.
- 54:54So we'll have like vendors and farmers from the farmers markets
- 54:58and pop ups come on the weekends and fully take over the space.
- 55:03And every square inch of the whole property is taken over by
- 55:06vendors selling goods and whatnot, which is such a cool
- 55:10experience. We love any, any opportunity we
- 55:13can get to connect and share our space with the community.
- 55:18We're all over it for sure. And we briefly mentioned
- 55:22earlier, we have a permanent food truck parked out front
- 55:27called Bad Luck Burger Club. And if you haven't ever heard of
- 55:30them, I mean, it is next level smash burgers.
- 55:35We have to limit ourselves to like 3A week.
- 55:38You know, it's like you can't have more than three burgers a
- 55:40week, you know? So we got to limit ourselves,
- 55:43got to stay strong. Absolutely.
- 55:45Oh that's awesome the word appiary.
- 55:47Until I started doing research for you guys, I didn't never
- 55:50heard of an appiary and put a meaning to the word appiary.
- 55:55It's just a place where bees are kept.
- 55:58So like an aviary is like got something to do with birds.
- 56:03Yeah. Apiary is bees.
- 56:05Yeah. So it's like it's literally just
- 56:06a yard with bees in it. Yep.
- 56:09So that's, I mean it's simple as that.
- 56:12We used to have have our hives in East Nashville.
- 56:16Now we've moved them outside of town a little bit and we
- 56:20primarily source our, you know, our Arby's now are in Ashland
- 56:25City and Whites Creek. So a little bit outside of town.
- 56:30Nothing too crazy like 30 minutes outside of town, but it
- 56:34makes a big difference because it got to the point where when
- 56:36we had a pretty good sized yard in East Nashville, it got to the
- 56:42point where when we would go there to check on the bees, the
- 56:44neighbors would come up to us and say, are we doing something
- 56:48wrong? The bees are chasing us around
- 56:51our yard now. It's like, that is not your
- 56:55fault. That is our fault.
- 56:56We have too many bees in your backyard.
- 56:59We need to get them out of here, you know?
- 57:01That's funny, I get. This one guy.
- 57:05Go ahead. No doubt, please.
- 57:06He literally said, he said literally if I'm sitting on my
- 57:09tractor, they chase me around the yard the whole time I'm
- 57:12mowing the yard. Wow.
- 57:15Oh man, we got to get these bees out of here with a quickness.
- 57:19So they do naturally grow and the Kylie's aren't naturally
- 57:22grown on their own and then they have to be separated.
- 57:24So it was kind of one of my questions or what do you do?
- 57:27You have to go in there, find a queen and pull them, take them
- 57:30somewhere else or. Yep, exactly.
- 57:32So you basically you'll split them and you, you have to, you
- 57:38have to split them so they're far enough apart from each
- 57:41other, because the, the, the bees that you take out of the
- 57:46hive will fly back into the old one too.
- 57:49So you have to make sure you get enough bees into the split with
- 57:53the old queen so that you don't like lose a ton of bees because
- 57:57they'll they'll go back to their old hive unless unless you move
- 58:01them to like a completely separate yard, they'll go back
- 58:05to the old hive. Well, and that brings up a very
- 58:09interesting conversation that we have with with die hard vegans
- 58:16that that don't want to consume honey because it's a, you know,
- 58:21it's an animal by product. But if a bee, if a if a hive
- 58:27runs out of space, right? So if the worker bees run out of
- 58:33space to put nectar and convert into honey, or if the queen runs
- 58:39out of space to lay eggs, essentially they will swarm and
- 58:45leave. So it is crucial for the
- 58:49beekeeper to come in and monitor the hive, especially during key
- 58:55times of the year where we we call it the nectar flow.
- 59:00So in spring and in early fall, we'll have big nectar flows
- 59:05where all of a sudden tons of flowers are blooming at the same
- 59:09time and those bees are gathering tons of nectar.
- 59:13Well, if that hive that you have set up for them runs out of
- 59:16space, they're out. They'll take as much of that
- 59:21honey as they can and they'll go look for a new location.
- 59:24So as far as long term keeping bees in a hive, it's crucial for
- 59:30you to monitor and to pull honey at key times of the year or
- 59:35you'll lose them. If someone decided they wanted
- 59:38to start a bee colony, is that something novice could do to
- 59:41start with? I know bee populations are down
- 59:44right? That's a problem.
- 59:45Yes. So the best way I can say it is
- 59:49we love that people are interested in being a beekeeper.
- 59:55We think that it's crucial that we have more beekeepers and not
- 59:59be Havers, you know, where there is a lot to learn and a lot of
- 1:00:06it, you just gotta do it by doing it, you know?
- 1:00:10But we highly recommend linking up with your closest beekeeping
- 1:00:16association. Vast majority of them are free
- 1:00:21or very inexpensive to be a part of and they are a wealth of
- 1:00:27information and a lot of these beekeeping associations, they
- 1:00:31have mentorship programs and they have constant advice.
- 1:00:37And you know, a lot of beekeepers are are definitely
- 1:00:43older in the spectrum of age. So it's one of those things
- 1:00:47where the, the best way for them to teach is in person and, and
- 1:00:53in the hives, you know, these, these old boys and girls,
- 1:00:57they're not making YouTube videos, you know, So it's
- 1:01:01crucial for your specific area to find beekeepers that have
- 1:01:06been doing it for years and they've seen the, the climate
- 1:01:11change effects happening in their area, you know, so that
- 1:01:16way you can go into this with a community behind you that if you
- 1:01:23have an issue, you can reach out and have a mentor or have a
- 1:01:28community that can help you or give you advice.
- 1:01:32Because no matter how much you learn, beekeeping is constantly
- 1:01:36evolving due to climate change and is very specific to your
- 1:01:42area because your area will have more pests or a nectar flow at a
- 1:01:48different time of year. All these different kind of
- 1:01:51things that are specific to your area that a beekeeper that's
- 1:01:53been doing it for 20 years, he'll teach you in a week
- 1:01:57instead of you having to spend 2 years losing hives trying to
- 1:02:02figure out why you lost bees in July every year.
- 1:02:05You know, So we are extremely connected with TBA, the
- 1:02:11Tennessee Beekeepers Association and NABA, the Nashville Area
- 1:02:16Beekeepers Association, where, you know, we do all kinds of
- 1:02:19seminars and speeches and are constantly donating our time and
- 1:02:25product and anything we can do to help these organizations.
- 1:02:28Because they are really cool ways for new and ongoing
- 1:02:33beekeepers to have a local community to kind of source
- 1:02:37knowledge and supplies from. You know, because a lot of times
- 1:02:40a new beekeeper, they'll just search online for equipment and
- 1:02:45they'll get raked over the coals, you know, by a random
- 1:02:49company charging three times as much as they should.
- 1:02:52When the local beekeeper will tell you, Oh no, this is the guy
- 1:02:55or this is the website you go to get your supplies, you know, and
- 1:02:59this is a you know a good source for you to source live bees from
- 1:03:04as well. You know, we full transparency.
- 1:03:08We started a new yard and, you know, we wanted to try out a new
- 1:03:15source for live bees of nukes to try and start, you know, this
- 1:03:21new yard. And by the end of the year, we
- 1:03:23lost the entire yard because, because this was not a, a good
- 1:03:29place to source, source live bees from.
- 1:03:32And we learned our lesson and now we told everybody about it.
- 1:03:35And and you know, now that'll help other beekeepers to make
- 1:03:39sure that they don't source their nukes from this place, you
- 1:03:42know, so that kind of stuff that you know, that kind of knowledge
- 1:03:45is invaluable when it comes to the starting up.
- 1:03:50I think this. Is going to go down as the most
- 1:03:51educational podcast we've. Done so far and I love it.
- 1:03:54I mean, you guys really, you guys really?
- 1:03:56Have a great background on this. I mean, it's fantastic, it
- 1:03:59really is. And other than just researching
- 1:04:01and going into this, we do nothing.
- 1:04:03I mean, we've had the me and we knew what bees were and we knew
- 1:04:05what honey were, but how to make it, how it goes together,
- 1:04:08completely foreign to us. We warn people all the time.
- 1:04:11If you stand at our bar for too long, we're just going to end up
- 1:04:15educating you about bees. You know if you're not, they're
- 1:04:17interested in bees. Don't stand at our bar for too
- 1:04:20long. Don't go to a table and hang
- 1:04:22out. You know if if.
- 1:04:23If you don't want to get stung, leave these guys right away.
- 1:04:27I love I live even the decor in the tap room like the tables
- 1:04:30have got the hives kind of hives but the cells, what do you call
- 1:04:34them? Kind of ingrained.
- 1:04:35Yeah. Yeah, there's Honeycombs.
- 1:04:37Yeah, Honeycombs. And it's just kind of all over
- 1:04:39the place. And the, the theme is there
- 1:04:41throughout, which is awesome. Is there anything Steve and I
- 1:04:44can do? And I know bees need to be
- 1:04:46protected and, and again, populations are down.
- 1:04:48What can we do for, for conservation or just making sure
- 1:04:52the bees survive? Can we plant things?
- 1:04:54Can we leave them alone? What's What's the thing?
- 1:04:57Yeah, if you, you know, let your yard overgrow a little bit each
- 1:05:00year, like if you if you see Clover growing, let it grow for
- 1:05:05an extra week or two. That will help the bees a lot.
- 1:05:07I mean, honestly, there's a really cool, I can't remember if
- 1:05:12they're a nonprofit or not, but it's called the Pollinator
- 1:05:14Protection Program. They do a lot for like
- 1:05:20beekeeping awareness and pollinator awareness in general.
- 1:05:23Because it's not, it's not just honey bees that need help, it's
- 1:05:27pollinators as a whole. So they do a really good job of
- 1:05:32raising awareness and raising money to help different like
- 1:05:36global and the programs and stuff that try to try to help
- 1:05:39save pollinators in general, right?
- 1:05:42So, you know, if you're going to plant pollinators, try to make
- 1:05:47sure that they're native pollinators.
- 1:05:50And the biggest one is stop using pesticides in any way,
- 1:05:57shape or form on your property that you can get your hand.
- 1:06:02Like, just don't do it. the United States is one of the only
- 1:06:06countries in the world where it's allowed for pesticides to
- 1:06:10have a toxin called neonictinoid in the pesticide.
- 1:06:15And they claim that it's fine on bees.
- 1:06:19It is not. And an interesting thing for
- 1:06:23people to know is wherever you place a hive, on average they
- 1:06:29will source nectar from a three mile radius, but they are
- 1:06:34capable of harvesting within a 10 mile radius.
- 1:06:40So you can imagine how difficult it is for a beekeeper to place a
- 1:06:45hive and to be concerned about anyone within a 10 mile radius
- 1:06:51spring pesticides on their yard. Ross and I have had on multiple
- 1:06:57occasions where we have had and when we used to have hives in
- 1:07:02East Nashville where we had a a total loss of a hive because
- 1:07:07they came across a pesticide, brought it into the hive and
- 1:07:11killed the whole hive. And at that point, all of the
- 1:07:16the bees obviously are dead and any of the byproduct that we
- 1:07:20would have been able to harvest from that hive is all going to
- 1:07:24the fire. So the honey, the wax, the
- 1:07:27boxes, it's all useless. We have to burn it all.
- 1:07:32So that's one of those things that people don't realize how
- 1:07:35far bees harvest. And even if one yard within that
- 1:07:4210 mile radius covers their yard in pesticides, you could kill,
- 1:07:47you know, a beehive 7 miles away from your house.
- 1:07:51That's incredible. That's all right.
- 1:07:52So pesticides don't use any, Steve.
- 1:07:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell him every time I go over.
- 1:07:58Get out of here. Steve, don't blame me.
- 1:08:01I'm not doing it. I told you I was gonna throw it
- 1:08:04out. I'll go over the Knicks.
- 1:08:04I'm throwing it out. Yeah, I'm not doing that.
- 1:08:07I promise. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:08:09That's that's the biggest one for sure, you know, because
- 1:08:13planting native pollinators, that's great.
- 1:08:16But when it comes to that kind of stuff, that's just something
- 1:08:19that the bees are never going to be able to adapt to.
- 1:08:22You know, there's nothing we can do as beekeepers to teach them
- 1:08:26to stay away from a flower that got sprayed by pesticides
- 1:08:30because they just don't know, you know?
- 1:08:32Something that works very well instead of pesticides is vinegar
- 1:08:39and salt mixture and Dawn dish soap.
- 1:08:43You mix all three of those together and put them in like
- 1:08:45you can even put it in a spray bottle and the the soap helps
- 1:08:50the vinegar and salt stay on the the plant.
- 1:08:54You spray the plant with it and it will be dead the next day.
- 1:08:59And it's like an all natural and like, I mean, like the Dawn soap
- 1:09:02will kind of wash away over time.
- 1:09:04But it works so well and it doesn't hurt bees, it doesn't
- 1:09:09hurt pollinators. You're basically like pickling
- 1:09:13the plants and especially like when it's hot like this outside,
- 1:09:16you can roast the whole, the whole driveway full of weeds in
- 1:09:20like hours just by doing that. Yeah, OK.
- 1:09:24Definitely good information. Very good.
- 1:09:26Information. Is it normal?
- 1:09:28Is it OK if one person drinks a whole bottle of this?
- 1:09:30Is that pretty normal? Oh, you bet.
- 1:09:33You bet. Yeah, it's.
- 1:09:35Getting done I don't. Wasn't sure if that was a normal
- 1:09:37thing or out there and I don't know why I got the glass but
- 1:09:42anyway. You're going to.
- 1:09:44It's like the equivalent of like. 2. 2 1/2 beers maybe?
- 1:09:48Yeah, and you're going to, you're going to clean your house
- 1:09:50after this, you know, there you go.
- 1:09:52You got a significant other. They're going to be stoned.
- 1:09:55They're like, why are you so happy and cleaning the house in
- 1:09:57the middle of the night, You know, like, oh, I just drank a
- 1:10:00bottle of meat all. Right going I'm mixing up a
- 1:10:04mixture of vinegar and dawn and salt and put that out tomorrow.
- 1:10:09And she was like, what the hell are you doing?
- 1:10:13Yeah, it's going to get to the point where you're talking to
- 1:10:15bees in your yard. Hello.
- 1:10:18What can I do for you? You know that's funny.
- 1:10:21So funny. Bobby, here's Bobby, here's a
- 1:10:24little Susie, you know. Yep.
- 1:10:27Sorry, name went up. There you go.
- 1:10:28Whenever we put bees in a new location, it is amazing the
- 1:10:33phone calls we get from the owners of the properties you
- 1:10:37know of. Oh, I just love how many bees
- 1:10:39are in my yard and I just want to take care of them and I put
- 1:10:42out some water for. Them and this.
- 1:10:44And that, you know, somebody that would normally look at a
- 1:10:47bee and not think twice now it's like all their little best
- 1:10:50friends, you know, they're. Helping nurture them, you know,
- 1:10:53and help them kind of keep them, keep them alive. 100%.
- 1:10:58Hey, for the record, when I'm sitting on my porch and I see
- 1:11:00bees, I just let them fly around, you know?
- 1:11:02I'm good. Yeah, I'm good.
- 1:11:05Love it. Other than I'm pretty much that
- 1:11:07way with most bugs out there. Unless it's a mosquito.
- 1:11:09Otherwise, you know, let them be.
- 1:11:10Just let them be. Yeah, there you go.
- 1:11:12Yeah, not having mosquitoes. I don't care what they do for
- 1:11:16the environment. I'm out.
- 1:11:19I'm out not having them. Yeah, probably.
- 1:11:22I don't. I don't think if a mosquito
- 1:11:24Conservatory thing exists, but I'm not supporting it or
- 1:11:28conservation thing exists, I'm not supporting.
- 1:11:33They're on your own. I think the meat has kicked in.
- 1:11:39Did you ever hear of. Yeah, did you ever hear that
- 1:11:42time where, where Bill Gates was in this big convention and he
- 1:11:47was doing a speech about mosquitoes spreading malaria?
- 1:11:52And he released thousands of mosquitoes into the crowd at
- 1:11:56this convention, telling these people it shouldn't just be poor
- 1:11:59people that, you know, get, you know, get bit by mosquitoes and
- 1:12:03get malaria, Which of course he afterwards, he told everybody we
- 1:12:07made sure all the mosquitoes don't have malaria, you know,
- 1:12:10But that was like one of those crazy things where it was like,
- 1:12:13goodness, Bill, you went wild. Yeah, Really.
- 1:12:16What a major point, yeah. Right.
- 1:12:20Yeah, I'm sure everybody went home after that.
- 1:12:21And they're like, all right, We, we got to help Bill get rid of
- 1:12:25mosquitoes for malaria, Yes. Whatever he needs.
- 1:12:30Yeah. Guys, is there anything we
- 1:12:32didn't cover that you guys would love to talk about, about your
- 1:12:34business or just getting the word out there about you guys?
- 1:12:38What do you think, Ross? I'm, I'm sure as soon as we're
- 1:12:41done with the podcast, I'll think of like 100 things.
- 1:12:44Well, that's OK, I can help you along here.
- 1:12:46Where do people find you? Where do, where do we go online
- 1:12:49to find you? First off, for people that are
- 1:12:50interested, all the all the socials and all that good stuff.
- 1:12:54So we're on everything, every social media platform we're
- 1:12:58involved in, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube,
- 1:13:04Twitter, you know, we've got our website, we're constantly
- 1:13:10updating everything. If you want the most up to
- 1:13:26So always feel free to reach out our Google listing honey Tree
- 1:13:32Meadery, the phone number, if you call that number, it goes
- 1:13:35straight to our cell phones. So reach out.
- 1:13:38We're here for you 100%. The website is the best way to
- 1:13:43get into the the Bottle club memberships and to sign up for
- 1:13:48our Mead making classes and tours and all that kind of stuff
- 1:13:52that we're doing here. So I would say Instagram and our
- 1:13:56website are the are the best for sure.
- 1:13:58You can buy meat. You can buy meat on your website
- 1:14:01too. You can order on there too.
- 1:14:03You bet, You bet and. Your location.
- 1:14:06Let's talk about where your location is.
- 1:14:08So we're in East Nashville at 918 Woodland St.
- 1:14:12We're open seven days a week. The food truck Bad Luck Burger
- 1:14:16Club is open seven days a week as well.
- 1:14:19So we are a neighborhood staple for sure.
- 1:14:23You guys and even on social media, you guys have a huge
- 1:14:25following on that you really do like there's I've missed the
- 1:14:27boat on on Mead and I apologize, but I am on this boat now I.
- 1:14:33Oh, you're you're stuck with us now.
- 1:14:34Bro man I am a part of this when I stopped in last fall.
- 1:14:38Like I'm SO I am in SO. That's awesome.
- 1:14:42Good to have you in the fam. Years.
- 1:14:45Well, awesome guys. We appreciate it.
- 1:14:47You know, since we've been talking about Bee so much, I
- 1:14:49would have to say we wrap it up and say that's the buzz from
- 1:14:54Ross and Drew from Honey Stream eatery.
- 1:14:56How's that? Love it.
- 1:14:58We appreciate being on here so much.
- 1:15:02Thanks for helping us get the word out and we're here for you
- 1:15:05boys. Yeah, and likewise me.
- 1:15:07You guys ever want to come on or promote something?
- 1:15:09Just feel free, man. You guys, you guys rock and we
- 1:15:12we love having you on our little.
- 1:15:14Yeah. Cool man.
- 1:15:16Excellent. That sounds great.
- 1:15:18Great, we will be we will be back there soon.
- 1:15:20We we definitely enjoyed the Honey Tree meatery and we got to
- 1:15:24get back there soon. So guys, Drew and Ross from
- 1:15:28Honey Tree meatery get there, try their stuff.
- 1:15:30It's fantastic. We appreciate it today for Scott
- 1:15:34Turon. I'm Steve Sullivan, and this has
- 1:15:36been the Brewery Underground podcast.
- 1:15:39Here here. The.