This place is a must-stop. Please read on, knowing we are just regular people from out of town (and as another plus, this review is being posted two months after we stopped by, having gone to Denver to see Paul Simon's last tour in the closest venue to where we live--I happened to look at one of the bottles tonight and asked if we left a review).
We were only in town for a brief time, arriving after normal business hours. A few days out, we reached out to Deb, and she said she would make an exception to meet us after she closed for the day (don't know if that will work for everyone but she was SO accommodating) for a tasting.... little did we know, this was a SERIOUS tasting!
Queen Bee Brews is in a strip/warehouse north of downtown Denver, a place in which you wouldn't suspect top-notch mead to be created. Deb greeted and seated us, and started the tasting off with their most straightforward mead.... Now, it's a treat to be in ANY establishment that has more than one mead, and especially meads that aren't so cloyingly sweet, so I was really excited being a home brewer and having tried my hand at making both still and sparkling varieties. I was completely blown away by everything! And if you've never had mead, YOU SHOULD WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HERE! DON'T TRY THAT MASS-PRODUCED, SYRUPY-SWEET VERSION OF THIS AMAZING DRINK!
Queen Bee's use of unique honeys, creative blendings and the sheer variety of choices made our visit one we'll never forget, and we have to thank Deb for letting us taste some of the newest mead in production, taking us back into the "cellar" for a behind-the-scenes look (again, the home brewer in me was completely geeking out by the charts on the wall listing honeys, yeasts, gravities and acidities, a real hallmark of the seriousness of their craft). We agree with other Yelp reviewers in that we had a hard time choosing, but couldn't leave without three bottles of what we considered their finest: "Ida" (raspberry mead), "Pomona" (a cyser, honey and apple juice), and last but certainly not least, "Coffea", a mead made from COFFEE BLOSSOM HONEY! Wow.... this last one we are saving for when we know we will be returning to Denver and have time to stop by and can replace the precious bottle we have! Until then, don't touch it, don't even look at it! It cannot be drunk!
Seriously folks, make time to stop by this place (during business hours preferably so she doesn't have to deal with home brew nerds like me when she could be away from work) and taste the amazing things they have going on! If for some reason you are disappointed, then you shouldn't be in the business of expanding your palate, should go to the nearest convenience store and buy your usual 24-pack of Bud Dry. If not, you'll thank all the other folks with positive reviews about Queen Bee Brews for encouraging you to stop by and taste something totally unique and distinctive to Denver.
Deb, when will you be distributing?!?! Not soon enough, that Coffea is begging to be opened!
- Corbin read more