Beer, Bees, and Me

It all started with my mother.

Yes, I’ve already told you about a few of her sayings: “Take tea and see” when you have an unsolvable problem, and “salt water cures everything” for everything that tea doesn’t help, I guess. But I probably (definitely) never told you about my mother and beer.

My mother liked Schlitz—“the beer that made Milwaukee famous.” She also didn’t like to waste things. Somehow, those two things came together in a beauty routine that required my assistance.

She used beer to set her hair in curlers.

Here’s where the young Queen Bee was introduced to beer: my job was to dip a comb into a glass of leftover flat beer, comb a section of my mother’s hair, then roll and pin a curler in place. According to her instructions, of course.

Dip, comb, roll, pin. Repeat. GROSS!

This was before Body on Tap, the shampoo advertised as being made with one-third real Budweiser beer. My mother didn’t need any of that. She’d already found another use for what she had in the house, saving money and avoiding another product and bottle—all while getting her hair done.

Me? I wanted her to buy the shampoo. I wasn’t thinking about being green. I was thinking about getting through the curlers.

From curlers to bubbles

Years later, when I started making soap and discovered beer soaps, the idea didn’t seem quite so strange. I’d already seen beer put to work outside a glass.

Replacing the plain water in a soap recipe with properly prepared, flat beer can give handmade soap lather a boost, thanks to the sugars in the beer. So yes, there was a reason for it beyond a clever name.

For years, I made Stoutfull with Bridge and Tunnel Brewery’s oatmeal stout, and our bars made with Old Lime Gose became a best seller. I’d met one of the owners at my kids’ school and discovered we were both mothers of twins. They were getting their tasting room started around the same time I was starting Backyard Bees. So we had twins and new businesses in common—and beer gave us a way to collaborate.

But Bridge and Tunnel made award-winning beer. Sometimes it did feel a little wasteful to put such a good beer into a bar of soap.

Which brings me to my own honey…

Good beer in soap. Good honey in beer?

In the first Nassau County 516 Day, Oyster Bay Brewing Company asked Backyard Bees to collaborate on a special Honey Ale. I supplied the local honey, and Backyard Bees was on the label and everything! That was exciting. My bees’ work had found its way into a local beer, and we were featured in the news.

But wait a minute! If putting good beer into soap seemed wasteful, wasn’t putting good honey into beer the same sort of thing?

LOL. Honey is for mead, isn’t it?

Apparently, I had questions for myself, too.

This year, I opted out of repeating the promotion and focused instead on The North Shore Honey Table for Nassau County 516 Day. Different ways of sharing local honey, and a choice about where to put my time and energy.

Hops and honey—no beer required

Beer soaps have appeared here and there. Quality ingredients can make a good product even better. But what stayed with me was the hops.

Beer gave me a starting point, but hops and honey found a lasting place in what I make. Both are ingredients in Southern Sexy Body Polish and Honey + Hops soap—no beer required.

Southern Sexy Body Polish combines finely ground hops and brewer’s grains with Backyard Bees honey, fine Dead Sea salt, and a blend of oils. The scent of patchouli and lime makes for an exfoliation experience unlike other body scrubs.

Honey + Hops takes another route. I infuse dried hops from upstate New York into olive oil, then use that oil in a handmade soap with honey and a softly sweet, fresh scent of citrus and herbs. This small-batch soap is often sold out.

And here’s the Bee-hind the Scenes connection: hops have a place in beekeeping, too. Beta acids derived from hops are used in treatments such as HopGuard to control Varroa mites, the tiny parasites that cause enormous trouble for honey bees.

Don’t you love it? Hops. The same plant finds its way into beer, body care, and treatments that help protect honey bees. My mother would probably have appreciated that.

And now, a run with a beekeeper.

So how did running get into this story?

Well, Garvies Point Brewery has Thursday night runs starting October 1, and I’m excited about another opportunity to multitask through another season. The NYS Summer Run Series kept me going from June through August, and now I have Thursday night runs to motivate me this fall.

A run, some company, and a place to gather afterward sounds like a good combination to me. As I said when I saw the Instagram post: “Sign me up!”

Wanna talk beer and bees and hops and running?

On Sunday, October 11, you’ll find Backyard Bees at the Garvies Point Brewery Fall Market, from noon to 5 p.m. Come browse the local makers, say hello, and see what the bees and I have been making. I promise to bring some Southern Sexy Body Polish.

I’m pretty sure my mother never imagined that setting her hair with leftover Schlitz would lead to a story about soap, honey ale, bees, and running.

But here we are.

More Bee-hind the Scenes

Salt Water Cures Everything (Or So My Mother Said) — The family story behind one of Backyard Bees’ best-selling soaps.
Lemon Bomb Is a Terrible Name — The story behind a lip balm that grew into something bigger.

Want to join us on Thursday nights? Check Garvies Point Brewery’s events page for Run Club details. See you there!