Saturday Farmers’ Market Vendor Feature: Humblebee Meadery
This week we are featuring Humblebee Meadery, a third-year vendor at our market! Humblebee Meadery has a hot take on the worlds’ oldest alcohol, bringing unique, refreshing flavours across BC. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with the owners, Jeff Gillham and Pierre Vacheresse, to find out more.
How long has Humblebee Meadery been around? How did you get started?
We started up 5 years ago. I have always been into craft beer and wine, but I didn’t want to be the guy with sh*tty homebrew so I thought I would try something different and started experimenting with some old mead recipes. I tried to make them more in line with the craft beer and cider I loved. People ended up really liking my mead, including my business partner, Pierre, who saw potential to make my homebrew more than a hobby. We found a small shared operating space four years ago and have been growing from there.
What are the three most important things you think people should know about Humblebee Meadery ?
- Our mead is dry.
- We brew using beer and cider techniques.
- Our mead is now available in kegs!
For people who don’t know, what is mead? What is the process for making it?
Traditional mead is a honey-based, wine-like alcohol. It is typically very sweet with 13-15% alcohol and no carbonation.
Our mead is a bit different, we brew more in the way of a cider or beer. It is around 5.5% alcohol and we use beer yeast, and less honey for fermentation to keep it refreshing. We also carbonante our products.
How do you source your ingredients? Do you have any specific criteria?
As we are still a small company we are still looking for partnerships with local farmers. We do use 100% Canadian honey from Manitoba, we work specifically with this farmer so we can guarantee consistent polled blend for brewing.
Do you have dish pairing reccomendations for your different mead flavours?
Our flavours drastically different from each other, here is what I like for each:
- Champion of the Sun:Saffron and Orange-Pairs with spicy food, paella, and BBQ
- The Bee’s Knees: Green Tea and Kaffier Lime- Pairs with sushi, salad, and Thai Curries
- Monkberry Moon Delight: Lingonberry and Elderberry- Pairs with charcuterie, Thanksgiving dinner, and Smoked Salmon
- It’s Business Time: Hibiscus and Lavender- Pairs with tacos,creme brulee, and duck confit
If you only could have one of your meads for the rest of your life which one would it be?
- Pierre- Champion of the Sun
- Jeff- The Bee’s Knees
Why did you choose to come to the UBC Saturday Market specifically?
We initially heard about the UBC market through other vendors and stumbled on the site. It was great to have help from the market to help us set-up initially. As we have continued to grow it has become one of our staple markets:)
Where else can customers find you? And is there anything else you want them to know?
We are at the entire Vancouver market circuit, as the Squamish market, and we sell at various businesses around BC. You can find the closest location to you on our website!
We are also now selling full kegs of the flavour we created this spring, It’s Business Time (Hibiscus and Lavender).
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