By Jeff Maisey
The St. George Brewing Company in Hampton has long tapped into the flavor of honey and earned national and statewide acclaim in beer competitions with its multi-award winning Honey Meade Lager, now called Honey Lager.
The buzz around honey at the brewery extends to its own beehives and various informative on-site demonstrations of operating a beehive in collaboration with the Colonial Beekeepers Association.
This love of honey is enhanced with the 2025 Hampton Roads Honey Fest. The Saturday, August 23 event will feature honey-brewed beers and meads from 15 regional beverage producers.
To learn more about the event I caught up with Morgan Ringwald of The St. George Brewing Company.
VEER: How many years has St. George hosted this event?
This is just our second year, and we co-host it with Brew & Bottle. We approached it in the first year as kind of an experiment to showcase all-things honey, because it’s such a big part of living in Hampton Roads. From honey-inspired beers, to locally-made mead, to actual workshops with local beekeepers, we set out to celebrate honey. The community turnout was fantastic, and we knew this would be an annual event moving forward.
VEER: What’s new this year?
We’ve got lots of new fun for the whole family! Because this is not just about beer and mead, we wanted to create more activities for all of the non-drinkers … mostly the kids that come. So we’ve got arts and crafts for kids, a scavenger hunt, an “observation hive” with a live bee colony, face painting, and a food truck that’ll be serving some great carnival-type fare. We’ll also have live music with a great local band, Deep Cut. As for the beer, this time around our brewery friends have a better idea of what this festival is about, and they’ve had more time this year to created some truly honey-inspired brews. There will be a lot of variety that you normally wouldn’t get at a typical beer festival.
VEER: Can you share some insights about the educational aspect of the event?
Of course. First off, we have a lot of vendors that are associated with the Colonial Beekeepers Association. They’ll be offering a ton of different samples of local honey, and they always take time to talk to people about how different honeys get their taste. We’ll be leading a session out in the fields behind the brewery, where have our own apiary. We harvest honey to make our Honey Lager (shameless plug), so our beekeeper will lead a session for everyone interested in seeing learning about a working apiary. We’ll also have a mead-making session for aspiring homebrewers, hosted by Brew & Bottle, and we’ll have a session on pest abatement that won’t impact honey bees. Believe me, it’s actually a phenomenal session for those of us who like to spend a lot of time outdoors here in Virginia.
VEER: Honey bees were considered to be declining in recent years. Has the population recovered?
I’m not an expert, but no … honey bee populations have not “recovered”. In fact, honey bee populations in the United States are still experiencing significant declines. While commercial honeybee colonies have recovered somewhat in recent years, they still face substantial losses, and wild bee populations continue to dwindle. Beekeepers in the US have reported high colony loss rates, with some years seeing losses of 40% or more. Bees are absolutely essential to plant life everywhere, and that’s why it’s so important to educate the public about living with honey bees.
VEER: Which breweries are participating this year and what beers are they showcasing?
We’ve got 15 local breweries, listed below. Not all of them have let us know what they’re brewing, some like to keep it a surprise. But in addition to the Honey Lager that we’ll be serving (Please note, we don’t call it Honey MEADE Lager anymore, just HONEY LAGER), we’re looking forward to a buckwheat honey lager with hints of graham cracker and cinnamon from Tradition Brewing, a “Honey I shrunk The Lager” from Elation, a honey walnut brown ale from Caiseal, and a Dragon Nectar honey brown ale from Dragon Run. Again, that’s just a preliminary list. And don’t forget about our meaderies: Breezyhill Meadworks, Silver Hand Meadery and Windchaser Meadery.
Here’s the list of participating beer makers: Brew & Bottle, 1700 Brewing, Tradition Brewing Company, Dragon Run Brewing, Capstan Bar Brewing Company, Gloucester Brewing Company, Oozlefinch Beers & Blending, Post Secondary Brewing, Benchtop Brewing Company, Nansemond Brewing Station, Caiseal Beer & Spirits Co, Big Ugly Brewing, Elation Brewing, Alewerks Brewing Company, and, of course, St. George Brewing Company.
VEER: Do you see honey enhanced beers increasing in popularity with consumers?
You know, that’s a good question … one that I can’t really answer definitively. I know that not many of the bigger national brands offer honey beers; in my experience, it’s more the local craft breweries that brew with honey. But I don’t know many that brew honey beers year-round. I can tell you that our Honey Lager does very well both in the taproom and at retail, and I think that’s because we stand out as one of the few year-round honey beers made here in the Hampton Roads area.
VEER: What makes your Honey Lager a consistent beer competition success?
As I mentioned, it’s a unique beer that not everyone makes. My opinion is that our Honey Lager surprises people tasting it for the first time. When people think “honey”, they thing sweet. But that’s not really what honey does in the brewing process; it’s not there to add sweetness. It’s there for fermentation, and the result is that it actually tones down the sweetness for a crisp, dry-ish lager with just a hint of that sweetness on the back end. It’s a lager that’s both simple and complex in it’s flavors, and I think judges notice that. It’s a really good, well-made beer.
VEER: How popular is it in the taproom as compared to your retail and restaurant distribution sales of the product?
The Honey Lager does incredibly well in the taproom, both draft and package to-go. As we all know, taprooms don’t just get beer-lovers … we get friends of beer-lovers who want something less “craft”. You know, the, “What’s the lightest beer you have?” crowd. We always offer a sample of the Honey Lager because it’s incredibly approachable to just about everyone. It’s always the first keg to blow at beer festivals. We recently redesigned the can label so that it stands out more at retail, so that it’s more obvious to consumers what the beer is about. Since doing that, we’ve seen an incredible uptick in retail sales. I don’t think we want to call it a “flagship” beer, but it’s certainly a best-seller and a brand that we will focus on expanding.