Business & Tech

Local Honey Adds Sweet Sting to New Beer [VIDEO]

We've heard of honey in tea and on toast, but honey in beer? It's not as uncommon as you might think.

He might already be a plumber, farmer, beekeeper and EMT, but Jeff Mello can now add a new job title to his resume: beer maker. 

That's right. The owner and sole operator ofAquidneck Honey was a main contributor to what is being called "." 

This Veterans Day, Nov. 11, local brewers across the state will celebrate the release of the "11" beer at the Newport Storm brewery in Newport. The "hyperlocal" collaboration beer was created by six Rhode Island brewers, using Rhode Island only products, with the help of one local beekeeper. 

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

It's this "local only product" that made the project so attractive for "The Bee Man" Mello. 

"It's so important to keep the bees alive. That's crucial. I used to say 'No Bees, No Food, No Farms.' Now, it's 'No Bees, No Food, No Brew'," he said with a smile. 

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Mello was approached by Newport Storm to participate in the collaborative, which he gladly accepted by providing the veteran brewers with five gallons of honey made by Rhode Island bees. 

The brew was fermented with a Belgian yeast strain and bottle conditioned with local Aquidneck Honey made right here on Aquidneck Island and other hives throughout the state. The beer has been bottle-conditioning since its Feb. 5 brew date. 

Brewing beer with honey is not new; after all, mead is just a fermented solution of honey and water. 

President Barack Obama himself gave approval to local honey in beer this past St. Patrick's Day, when he served his own White House Honey Ale made with honey from the presidential garden. 

However, unlike Obama, collecting honey is a lot more dangerous for Mello; in fact, a matter of life or death. The beekeeper is highly allergic to his workers. 

"I'm allergic," Mello says. "I have to be extremely careful and exercise caution every day. I didn't know I was allergic when I started." 

Mello wears protective gear every day he visits his hives throughout the state. The former EMT also carries two Epi-Pens on him at all times. 

Selling the honey is also a risky business since there's no guarantee how much honey the bees will make in any given year. 

"It's weather permitted," he said. "There's no way to gauge how much honey they'll make. It all depends on the weather ... You can never just be a beekeeper." 

While Mello's main love and income comes from beekeeping, he also works part-time as a plumber, clerk at Flint Audio-Video in Middletown and farmer, raising his own chickens and ducks. 

"I became a plumber, but I always wanted to be a farmer," Mello says. 

The Portsmouth resident has been keeping bees for more than 17 years and collecting honey for the past 10. It's hard to believe the entire operation began more than 10 years ago with just two hives on Bedlow Avenue in Newport. 

Today, his bees work at 1,039 hives located throughout the state in "almost every city and town," Mello says. Last year, the bees provided Mello with 7,000 pounds of honey, which was later sold in jars, straws, honeycombs and lip balm.

"This year, we'll probably do about 2,200 cases. That's just one-pound jars," Mello says. "Cut comb is very, very popular. We're doing between 2,000 to 2,500 pieces of cut comb this year. We're growing. We're definitely growing. People are very interested in a pure, local product." 

Due to the demand, Mello is now seeking volunteers or interns to help with the business. Any students who wish to work with bees are encouraged to contact him at (401) 862-2171. 

All of the packaging, labeling and product control are still, to this day, completed at Mello's Portsmouth home. Even the lip balm is created using natural ingredients and made in Portsmouth, a skill he learned on his own, according to Mello. 

The full range of products, which might make a unique gift this holiday season, can be viewed and ordered on the Aquidneck Honey Web site

"We're getting about 2,000 hits per month on our Web site and about 80 percent of those are people wanting to buy products,"  Mello says.

What's crucial for Mello is the production control of his honey. Mello uses no smoke on his bees, builds his own hives and adds no chemicals or additives to his honey product, he says. 

"I need to control the quality," he says. "Every step, I make sure the honey has the highest quality. You see all the honey in the supermarket. Not everyone does it 100 percent (natural)." 

Mello is also working on creating an Adopt-a-Hive program. For a fee, residents can protect a hive in their community, he says. 

The '11 beer makes its debut this Friday. Newport Storm '11 will be on sale in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island liquor stores, as well as on draft at each Rhode Island brewer's establishment and select venues around the Ocean State.

A special celebration will be held on Nov. 11 at the Newport Storm brewery. Tickets for this event are going fast, according to Mello. Tickets cost, of course, $11, and can be purchased at www.NewportStorm.com

Mello plans to attend and bring something guests are sure to be "abuzz" about. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here