A Few Beers, A Lot of Honey & One Long Friendship

The story behind Fat Head Honey x Jukes Ale Works

Long before Stout Barrel Aged Honey, there was Junkstock, wildflower honey, and a friendship just starting to take shape.

Some collaborations start with a meeting.

Ours started with a guy asking about wildflower honey at Junkstock.

Years ago, while I was still living in South Carolina, Kyle stopped by our booth looking for honey for mead.

After that, he became one of those people who would swing by every Junkstock just to say hi — and usually leave with a bucket or two of wildflower honey that we had hauled roughly 1,500 miles back with us.

Then, lo and behold, I eventually ended up back in my home state.

Somewhere between those buckets of honey, Junkstock weekends and a whole lot of “what if we tried this?” conversations, a friendship formed with Kyle, his wife Stacy, and the Jukes family.

And then things started getting weird.

In a very good way.

BEFORE THERE WAS A BREWERY, THERE WAS HONEY

When Kyle and I first met, Jukes Ale Works wasn’t yet the brewery people know today.

Watching the Jukes family build their brewery not far down the road from Junkstock has been one of those really cool small-business things to witness over the years.

And through all of it, honey kept finding its way into the story.

Sometimes literally by the bucket.

Fat Head honey bucket sitting in the brewery

THEN THINGS GOT WEIRD. IN A GOOD WAY.

Once Jukes was up and brewing, there were plenty of reasons to keep playing.

Honey went into beer.

We showed up for brew days.

We tasted things.

We traded ideas.

We put people in bee costumes.

And at one point, we literally hung Kyle from the brewery ceiling dressed like a bee and swung him through the place.

Some collaborations involve strategy meetings. Ours involved suspending the head brewer from the ceiling dressed as a bee.

Somewhere along the way, “collaboration” stopped sounding formal and started looking a lot more like this.

“Brian, absolutely in his element.” 😂

One of our favorite collab days: brewing Bees, Love & Hopiness with the Jukes crew and the Junkstock gang.

A FEW OF THE ONES WE REMEMBER

There have been a lot of them over the years.

Enough, apparently, that neither Kyle nor I can remember all of them without digging through old photos and notes. 😂

A few favorites:

Waggle Dance Wheat — released on my birthday one year, which obviously made it extra memorable.

Beast Keeper — a very not-shy Triple IPA brewed with a whole pile of hops and our wildflower honey. Good. Strong. 😆

Bees, Love & Hoppiness — a honey wheat ale brewed with Jukes, Junkstock, and Fat Head Honey. It even became the official beer of Junkstock for a spell, which felt especially fitting considering that’s where this whole friendship started.

Honey Barrel Aged Samsquanch — an American barleywine aged 17 months in one of the honey whiskey barrels we sent Jukes after we’d finished aging honey in it.

And then there were beers like Dear Departed Brother Dave, another one that spent time in one of our used honey barrels.

There have been plenty more.

Some brewed with our honey. Some aged in barrels that had already held our honey. Some involving bee costumes and questionable decision-making.

You get the idea.

Canning Line in action, Bees, Love & Hoppiness headed Junkstock!

“Waggle Dance Wheat happened to make its debut on my birthday. Rough assignment, but somebody had to taste it.” 😂

THE BARRELS STARTED TRAVELING TOO

After we emptied our Bourbon Barrel Aged Honey, the barrels headed to Jukes for their next life: beer.

One of my favorite parts of all this is that it didn’t just go one direction.

After we finished aging our Bourbon Barrel Aged Honey, we sent those used barrels Jukes’ way so they could age beer in them.

So whatever the honey had left behind in the wood got another life.

Honey into barrel.

Barrel to brewery.

Beer back into barrel.

Very normal behavior.

AND THEN IT GOT PERSONAL

Eventually we figured they should meet a few of the employees responsible for all that honey. The bees of course.

At some point, Kyle and Stacy came out to the bee yards to see where all this honey actually starts.

Which only seemed fair.

If you’re going to keep putting someone’s honey into beer, you should probably meet a few of the employees responsible for making it.

The Jukes family has always been incredibly kind to us, and somewhere in all the buckets, brew days and barrel swaps, this stopped being about business and just became friendship.

One of my favorite little full-circle details:

The Jukes family gifted us a bottle of the mead Kyle had made with our honey so we could have it on our wedding day.

Which is pretty wild considering the whole thing started with him asking about wildflower honey at Junkstock years earlier.

Years later, the Jukes family saved us a bottle of that mead so we could have it on our wedding day.

THIS TIME, THE BEER CAME BACK TO THE HONEY

Filling the freshly dumped stout barrel from Jukes Ale Works with Fat Head Honey.

THIS TIME, THE BEER CAME BACK TO THE HONEY

Which brings us to the newest experiment.

This time, instead of our honey going into one of their beers, we got our hands on one of Jukes’ emptied barrels and filled it with honey.

But naturally, this wasn’t just any barrel.

It originally held Saxton’s River Maple Liqueur. Jukes then filled it with Giving Trees, an imperial stout aged for 17 months in that barrel and finished on Mexican espresso coffee from Rally Coffee Co., maple syrup, and candy cap mushrooms.

Yes. Candy cap mushrooms.

And fun little full-circle side note: Kyle is actually the person who first taught us about candy cap mushrooms. Mind blown at the time. 😂 And now they somehow found their way into one of our own favorite strange little honey experiments too.

After Jukes emptied the stout, the barrel came to us.

And we filled it with honey.

So the abridged résumé looks something like this:

Maple liqueur
↓
17-month barrel-aged imperial stout
↓
Coffee + maple + candy cap mushrooms
↓
Fat Head Honey

This barrel has lived a life.

Our honey spent months soaking up everything that barrel had collected along the way.

And eventually, out came our newest experiment:

STOUT BARREL AGED HONEY

The finished honey is darker, richer and a little roasty, with all those layers from the barrel sitting quietly underneath the honey itself.

And after all these years of hauling buckets, trading barrels, showing up for brew days and dreaming up odd little projects together, there was only one place that felt right to introduce it.

Fall Junkstock.

Because that’s where this whole thing started.

BACK WHERE IT STARTED

Years ago, Kyle found us at Junkstock looking for wildflower honey.

This fall, we’re heading back to Junkstock with a honey aged in a barrel that once held one of his stouts.

Funny how these things work out.

Jukes usually keeps Junkstock well supplied with its event beers, we’ll have the Fat Head Honey Bus pouring samples, and somewhere in the middle of all that will be a jar that carries a little bit of this whole ridiculous story.

A lot has happened since those first buckets made the 1,500-mile ride.

We’re pretty glad Kyle stopped by.

For the record: this was the world’s hottest honey. Kyle survived.