On Chase's first week of working here at Wildflower, before lockdowns and all that jazz, Tim Malfroy dropped into the brewery to say g'day (we were just hatching up the initial ideas for Hive: Post Brood). While he was here, he gifted us a jar of propolis from his Warre hives. I wasn't at the time familiar with this product or it's extreme rarity. Propolis is a highly prized product of the beekeeping process and the ~500gm jar that he gave us, from his naturally formed hives, had value exceeding $500... like the truffles of beekeeping. As to what it is, read on below, but the stuff was mesmerising... a completely unique aroma of pine, forest and spice. We knew we had to make a beer with it.

I am going to butcher this so here is a copy-and-paste description of propolis from a 2013 peer reviewed article from Vijay D Wagh in the Advances in Pharmacological Sciences journal.

Propolis is a natural resinous mixture produced by honey bees from substances collected from parts of plants, buds, and exudates. Due to its waxy nature and mechanical properties, bees use propolis in the construction and repair of their hives for sealing openings and cracks and smoothing out the internal walls and as a protective barrier against external invaders like snakes, lizards, and so forth, or against weathering threats like wind and rain. Bees gather propolis from different plants, in the temperate climate zone mainly from poplar. Current antimicrobial applications of propolis include formulations for cold syndrome (upper respiratory tract infections, common cold, and flu-like infections), wound healing, treatment of burns, acne, herpes simplex and genitalis, and neurodermatitis. Worldwide propolis has a tremendous popularity, but in India the studies over propolis have just started, not extensively reported except few regions of India like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujrat, and Madhya Pradesh. 

Wagh is clearly focusing on the medicinal uses of this product, and a quick google search will provide one with a huge array of homeopathic products derived from propolis (venture at your own risk). While these features are certainly interesting and are the large drivers of the value of this product, it was the smell we were most interested in exploring in this beer.

In a very rare move for me, I am going to keep how we made this beer to ourselves for the time being. I will say that it is 5.7% ABV, has its own wort base (ie not Gold) brewed in May 2020 and was aged in puncheon until January 2021 for bottling. Enjoy.

At release, Propolis opens with Beeswax softness, woody brooding dark spice, forest mint and white blossom aromas. Faint honey tones add complexity. Familiar and comfortable. The palate shows resin, propolis derived spice of cardamom, full and flavoursome upfront. Long and energetic with distinctive botanical flavours carrying the palate. Finishing with bitter citrus. Overall a well married myriad of flavours showing more Wildflower signature than Hive, yet unique notes all together from the propolis.

The artwork on the bottle is a photo Chase took while out on a walk around the sandstone heads of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Thanks to Chase for letting us use the image for this beer.

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Each member will receive 1 x 750ml bottle of Propolis as part of their membership.

We have an additional 140 x 750ml bottles and 12 x 1.5 litre magnums available for Collective members to purchase on a first come basis from 11am (Sydney time) on Friday 2 July. There is a limit of 4 bottles per person and 1 magnum per person.