When we talk about alcoholic beverages made with honey, the subject is almost always mead, the fermented-honey beverage beloved by vikings that’s currently undergoing an artisan revival across America. But French and Belgian farmhouse breweries have been producing biere de miel – literally “honey beer” – for centuries.
In January, Maine’s Oxbow Brewing released Catalyst, a farmhouse ale brewed with a mix of Belgian saison yeast, lactobacillus and brettanomyces, then aged in barrels for eight months before being bottle fermented with honey. The catalyst for this beer, you might say, was three years ago, when the farm brewery added two beehives to its property. The bees and the wild pasture thrived, and the brewery added three more hives. It hopes to have a total of 10 hives this summer.
Two seasons worth of Oxbow’s wildflower honey goes into a batch of Catalyst, apparent in the floral aroma. It’s a bright and complex beer, with tart lemon and sweet orange, and some barnyard notes of straw and oak, all bound together by a strong, but not overwhelming, sweetness from the honey. It has a pleasingly dry finish, reminiscent of white wine.
Around 3,000 bottles of Catalyst were released this year, according to Oxbow. With plans to expand the apiary operation, that number should rise in the future. For now, look for it in better beer shops and at specialty beer bars.
Oxbow Catalyst farmhouse ale oxbowbeer.com. Around $20 for a 500-milliliter bottle, or $12 on tap in bars.
If you like this, try these other beers made with honey:
Brasserie Dupont Biere de Miel biologique : The Belgian brewery, famed for its saisons, makes an organic “re-creation” of a honey beer produced in the 19th century.
Burial the Keeper’s Veil : Wildflower honey from North Carolina is mixed with seven herbs and flowers, including hibiscus and elderflower, in this saison, which is available in 16-ounce cans.
Dogfish Head Midas Touch : The original entry in the brewery’s Ancient Ales series, this beer was inspired by the remains of beverages found in bronze vessels in King Midas’s tomb. It combines qualities of mead (honey), wine (grapes) and malt (beer) into one intriguing package.