Honey. Wax. Ferment. Mead Making Workshop

This three-hour experience is designed as a shared, small-group immersion rather than a conventional tour. It begins with a guided introduction to a working honey farm (apiary), where you’ll learn how a colony functions, the relationship between queen and workers, and how beekeeping follows the seasons and changes in wind, weather, and floral expression.After being fitted with a beekeeper’s veil, the group is led to the hives for a close, calm encounter where observation is collective and unhurried. Attention is drawn to sound, movement, and scent before guests regroup on the terrace overlooking the dam for a curated honey tasting and morning tea. Different floral expressions are explored together, linking flavour to landscape, season, and weather.From here, the visit shifts from learning to participation. The pace slows and the group is invited into a simple, ancient technique. A freshly removed frame of honey, still warm from the hive, is brought to the table to hold, to feel its weight, and to observe the remarkable structure created by the bees.Using a solid silver spoon, guests collectively break down the comb and then take turns turning the handle of a traditional honey press, watching raw honey slowly flow directly into jars. There is no filtering, blending, heating, or intervention of any kind. Each participant leaves with a small jar of the honey they helped harvest, a physical reminder of having taken part in a rare, tactile moment grounded in place, season, and connection.What remains is just as important. The wax, still rich with residual honey, is gently washed, capturing every last trace. Nothing is wasted. It is this wash that becomes the base of the mead.In the final stage of the workshop, you’ll be guided through the process of fermentation, learning how this lightly honeyed liquid is transformed into mead. The session covers yeast selection, balance, and flavour development, supported by tastings of different styles to give context to the process.Each guest leaves with their own small mead-making kit, including a prepared base drawn from the wax wash. At home, this is activated with the supplied yeast, allowing the fermentation process to begin in your own time. It is a continuation of the experience, extending the life of the hive beyond the visit and completing a cycle where nothing is wasted.At Bowral Honey Farm, every visit includes a short moment of mindfulness among the bees. Drawing on a long tradition of api-therapy, guests are invited to place a hand on the back of a hive and quietly imagine the 50, 000 workers within, moving, communicating, and organising themselves through vibration, scent, and sound.We pause for a brief breathing exercise, closing our eyes and tuning in to the low hum around us. With ten hives arranged in a circle, guests stand at the focal point of the combined life force of more than half a million bees, a moment of stillness within a living system.

Please note: Public dates for this class require at least 4 guests to run. In the unlikely event that we don't reach this number, we'll cancel the class; in this case we'll inform you and allow you to get a refund or reschedule, so please watch your email/SMS one day prior to the class. Everything is supplied for the workshop including ingredients for your first batch and equipment to take home with you. These include a two litre fermenting container, airlock, yeast, yeast nutrients, and recipes. Read more details