NEW - 2024 Queen Bee Honey Blond with Stolen Harvest Meadery

by Christina Owczarek January 30, 2024

Queen Bee

Honey Blond
Meet our 2024 release!

You know her, you love her, and this year you she is coming back lovelier than ever for International Women's Month.

Our 2022 Made in Alberta Award winner, and 2023 Alberta Beverage Award winner will be back on shelves this Spring!

We are SO excited for the next chapter of Queen Bee that is not just and excellent brew, but continues to good work and give back into community through Gems For Gems Canada.

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Our NEW collaboration partner is
Stolen Harvest Meadery

Another women-founded and operated Albertan company who aligns and lives XhAle's values.

Located in scenic Grovedale, Alberta, Stolen Harvest Meadery is hand carved from the Alberta boreal forest: it is ten acres of a rural oasis.

There are hand planted gardens with a wide variety of vegetables and numerous heritage garlics growing.

There is a fruit forest as well as a newly planted orchard (2018) with Saskatoons, haskaps, and prairie cherries.

Each spring, the fields come alive with a symphony of wildflowers. Some, such as dandelions and wild roses, are lovingly harvested each year in anticipation of the moment when water, yeast, and local raw wildflower honey come together and magic unfolds.

The property is adjacent to a larger forest where mother nature provides a bounty wild edibles, some of which make it into our micro-batch hand crafted meads.

Read more about Stolen Harvest's Accolades here.

- YOUR HOSTS at Stolen Harvest -

Kristeva - is a well-traveled anthropologist with a sense of adventure and a bland food phobia. She spent many years wandering the globe in search of foreign cultures and culinary adventures. She is the author of Chicken Poop for the Soul: in search of food sovereignty. The story of her self-sufficient journey towards independence by learning how to hunt, gather, and raise all her own food. What started as an experiment for a book quickly became a passion and a way of life for her. She enjoys taking wine-lovers outside their comfort zone by introducing them to her wildly inspired meads.

Eric - An experienced forager, Eric can teach you how to find wild edibles even in your front lawn—a skill that gets put to use when searching for wild foraged flavours for their mead. From the sea-scapes of his family summer retreat in Cape Breton to the wilderness of Northern Ontario where he spent six months living alone in the wilderness, he has gathered from nature a variety of wild edibles. He has worked in the food industry for more than 20 years in both the role of chef and butcher. His newest passion is charcuterie and pairing his creations with Stolen Harvest Meads.

Christina visited Kristeva and Eric early December 2023 to personally connect, spend time, and intentionally create Queen Bee 2024. We are over the moon to work on this project together, and can't wait to do even more!

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About Queen Bee Honey Blond 2024

6.3% - 24 IBU – FG 1.014

A diverse food pairing beer, complex but not mystifying, pairs well with roast turkey, crème brulé and bad ass b*tches

Tasting notes include: Spring blossom floral, honeysuckle sweetness, ripe bartlett pear, light mandarin zest, back-end white pepper spice, medium body, dry finish with a brilliant white head.

The Queen Bee is the reason the hive survives. This Queen Bee pays tribute to all Queens - those who have gone before us, doing the hard work of opening doors, and those who will come after us paving more paths.

Uniquely using sunflower and blueberry blossom honey from Stolen Harvest Meadery and French hops, Queen Bee Belgian Blond is a complex balance of berry blossom floral, ripe palm fruit, zestiness and balanced honey sweetness that finishes perfectly dry with a hint of spice.

As a female and queer owned brewery, we donate partial proceeds to Gems For Gems Canada - committed to ending the cycle of domestic violence by focusing on the economic recovery and empowerment of survivors.

Find it on shelves in Spring 2024!