Comb Honey

Comb Honey is the most natural form of honey. It is not only unprocessed: it is completely untouched by human hands. For this reason it is much richer in all the nutrients that are present on the comb and that are extremely important for the diets of bees and humans. It has exceptional antimicrobial properties, because it contains potassium and enzymes that produce small amount of hydrogen peroxide, which kills most pathogenic microorganisms. It is therefore able to combat stomach ulcers. It is also a strong anti-oxidant that removes free radicals responsible for aging, tissue damage and even cancer. Honey in general is a good source of glucose and fructose and is useful for diabetics who are Hypoglycaemic. Comb honey contains higher concentration of bee pollen and propolis with respect to regular raw honey. Bee pollen is considered a super food: it contains proteins, fatty acids, soluble fibre, high concentration of B-complex vitamins and many digestive enzymes. Pollen helps digestion, can be used to reduce the symptoms of hay fever and it is a powerful energy booster.
Chewing Honeycomb during allergy season alleviates runny nose, watery eyes and sneezing. It important to chew it for as long as possible: after 30 mimnnutes allergy symptoms could disappear. Start chewing comb honey a couple of weeks before the start of allergy season to prevent allergy problems. Honey straight from the comb contains all the main amino acids and the necessary B, C, D and E vitamins. It cleans the blood vessels; it can be used to treat athlete’s foot, hangovers, yeast infections, arthritis, insomnia and sore throats. Honey can help losing weight, thanks to its boost to the metabolism and fat fighting action.

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Our Bees

Our bees are a mixture between Italian and Carniolan Honey Bees. They are widely distributed in Canada because of their excellent traits from both strains.

Italian Honey Bees - Apis mellifera ligustica.
They originate from the continental part of Italy south of the Alps. This subspecies has developed surviving the ice-age like the genetically different subspecies in Spain and Sicily. It is the most widely distributed honeybee in the world, as it can adapt to different climates: from subtropical to temperate even if it has shown less adaptability to humid tropical climates. They have evolved in the Mediterranean climate; they can survive hard European winters and the fresh and humid springs of northern climates. They tend to breed until late spring, which increases their honey consumption. Advantages of the Italian honey bee are gentleness, industry, low tendency to swarm, neat comb building, cleanliness, resistance to diseases, prefers to collect flower honey than honey dew. Disadvantages are low vitality, excessive brood rearing: it tends to keep breading late in the fall and overwinter in loose clusters, which require a higher consumption of honey. It is best suitable for regions with long continuous nectar flow, from early spring to late fall.

Carniolan honey bees - Apis Mellifera Carnica
This subspecies of Honeybee originates in the Kranjska region of Slovenia, south of the Austrian Alps and North of the Balkans. It is the second most widespread subspecies of Honeybee. Its main characteristic is the gentleness. It has adapted itself to the availability of nectar with a rapid spring build up and a decrease of brood rearing when the nectar diminishes. It is of the same size as the Italian Honeybee but is has a darker colour, they have a long proboscis, which allows a better nectar collection. Advantages are gentleness, better orientation sense than the Italian bees, better overwintering (colonies reduce greatly in the winter), great adaptability to every climate and to periods without honey, good resistance against diseases. Disadvantages are greater tendency to swarm, less adaptability to warm summers. The mixed traits between these two subspecies allow our bees to be very productive and at the same time to be able to better survive a long and rainy winter without or with scarce nectar flow.

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Our Location

We are mainly located in Delta, BC, part of the greater Vancouver area. We are at the mouth of the Fraser River, very close to the ocean. The climate of this region is characterized by a rainy and mild winter, the temperatures rarely go below -5, but it is very humid. Generally, the nectar flows start around February, drastically decrease towards the end of August and stop at the end of October. The summer is also mild and generally quite sunny; the temperatures rarely go above 30 degrees. It is the typical weather of the west coast with occasional strong wind. The region is characterized by the presence of blueberry farms, and an abundance of wild so that blueberry bushes, so blueberry and blackberry honeys are two of the single varietal honeys that we are able to harvest every year.

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Vegetation trees and flowers

The main nectar flows of our region are Blueberry, Blackberry, Maple, and Himalayan Balsam, but there is a huge variety of nectars and pollen throughout late winter, spring, summer and early fall, thanks to the mildness of the climate. Generally the earliest pollen flows is Alder, its inflorescence can be seen as early as end of January or beginning of February, it produces almost no nectar, but the yellow pollen is extremely precious for spring build up, as pollen is the main nutrition source for larvae and young bees. Another early inflorescence is willow, and soon after a wide variety of flowers start to appear like the crocus, the snowdrop and many others such as the maple. Maple nectar is generally abundant, but is generally entirely consumed by bees for brood rearing, that's why it is rare to extract maple honey. The variety of flowers in the spring provides a diverse and nutritious diet for the bees. Cherry blossoms are one of the most evident signals of the arrival of the spring in our region. Another spring indicator is the Dandelion. This is normally considered a weed, but it produces a very nutritious nectar and pollen available on colder days or early mornings, when the fruit trees (generally preferred) produce no nectar. It now the time also of the salmonberry flowers: dark pink flowers on wild bushed at the edges of the forest. This is not an abundant source, but worth to be mentioned as it can be easily spotted on spring walks on parks and trails. In late April - beginning of May the most abundant flowers are undoubtedly the blueberry, with their tiny white-pinkish bells. As all fruit flowers they result in a delicious honey rich in fructose, which stays liquid for longer time. It is one of the honeys with the best antibacterial properties. Raspberries and strawberries are not very abundant on this side of the Fraser, but certainly present in our honey. In the summer there are so many flowers that it is impossible to list them all: all the grasses, bushes, and trees, from the Mustard to the Swamp Hedge-Nettle. The next big harvest is the Blackberry, which usually flowers in the middle of July (often throughout July). It is a wild bush present almost everywhere in the lower mainland with big white-pink flowers. Blackberry honey is particularly delicious and rich in fructose. In August the nectar flows start to decrease, but there are still a lot of flowers for late harvest or very useful to build up the winter storage. The fireweed is present at higher elevation and flowers throughout August. Another abundant flower is the Himalayan Balsam, it is a white and purple flower, vaguely resembling an orchid, up to a meter tall. It is an invasive species and can be seen everywhere especially on the sides of creeks. It is almost a blessing for beekeepers, and it provides an abundant late nectar perfect to replenish winter stores.

The flowers are normally grouped in a raceme inflorescence containing 2 to 10 flower, which can be either solitary or multiple on the leaf axis. The stalk can be widened close to the flower and are generally divided. They usually have five petals but occasionally they can range from 4 to 6. The number of sepals (the little green leaf below the flower) is the same as the petals. The shape of the flower is tubular similar to a little bell. The color ranges from partially green, white, pink and rarely red. Because of the shape of the flower with its downward facing aspect the pollination can only be accomplished by visiting insects, which in the process of collecting nectar and pollen transport the pollen from one flower to the other. If the flower is not pollinated within 3 days after flower opening, fruit set will not occur For this reason most blueberry farmer need to make sure to have a large abundance of bees and other pollinating insects by the flowering time, which normally occurs between May and June.

The flowering time is between June and August, the plant produces flowers only the second year. The flowers have 5 petals and sepals and over 20 stamen and pistils. Its colour ranges from white to pink and can be found growing wild in abundance on fields, the sides of rivers, roads, etc. They produce plenty of nectar rich in fructose, which attracts large numbers of honeybees and pollinators.

It has a pink and white flower 3 to 4 cm long a$ As for the medicinal properties, the plant has been used in light doses as a diuretic and the flower is believed to treat condition of stress

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Our Philosophy

Our philosophy is to take care of bees while maintaining the balance of nature: the way it has worked for millions of years. The results of this approach are strong bees and a high-quality honey. We don't use any chemicals to treat bees; we only utilize natural approaches. We carefully monitor the parasite levels and only in case of necessity we isolate and remove affected brood. The usage of chemicals in the long run makes parasites stronger (because they develop resistance) and bees weaker. It might be a good solution in the short term, but in the long term, it leads to weaker and weaker strains of bees and ultimately to what is now called colony collapse disorder (CCD). We prefer to stick to nature's way, where the next generation is determined by natural selection, not by chemical selection. We also never feed sugar syrup to our bees, not only because we don't want to contaminate our honey, like that dilute liquid sold for honey in many supermarkets, we don't even feed in the fall in preparation for the winter. We simply don't think it is fair to steal honey from the bees and replace it with sugar. Sugar is only carbohydrates while honey contains also a variety proteins, vitamins, minerals and enzymes. It would be the same as if humans were eating only bread: it has energy but lacks fundamental ingredients: we wouldn't be able to stay healthy on a diet of pure bread; so, how can we expect the bees to be happy with that. Every summer we make sure to leave to each hive more than enough honey to survive through the winter, we harvest less honey, but in the spring our colonies are clearly stronger than those fed on syrup and they don't need any spring feeding for buildup, because they are already numerous and ready to harvest the early nectars. Feeding is a vicious cycle; we want to stay away from it. Another strategy we have is to distribute small apiaries in different location because diseases spread from one hive to the other and if the apiary is big the losses can be huge, that's why many commercial beekeepers are forced to use chemicals and antibiotics to eliminate the pest. We also avoid monoculture farms, because even if the quality of the nectar and pollen is good, it is only one quality. Comparing it again to humans, it would be like eating only one type of food, like chicken for example: it is good and nutritious, but it simply lacks all the nutrients of a complete diet. All these approaches are not profitable in the short term, but in the long term give us stronger bees, better honey and the consciousness that we are contributing to re-establish nature's balance in beekeeping. I know that many beekeepers and people out there are sharing our ideas and I hope through us more and more people will realize the same thing.

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Our History

Our history of wine making dates back to 1077 but that was quite different from wat we do now, although the castles and the cliffs are still there... more or less. More recently, surrounded by the environment of celtic and medieval festivals in modern Cisalpine Gaul, where copious amouts of honeybrews are consumed in festive and ritual settings, we brewed and sold our first metheglin in 1996. Metheglin is mead with herbs and spices. After years of perfecting Mead, Metheglin, Melomel (Mead with fruit), we finally converged on Braggot. The reason is that Braggot is the oldest, the most authentic and it has a superior body (protein content) to complement the floral notes of the honey for optimal drinkability and versatility. After the turn of the millenium, we settled in Vinland (The way Canada was called by ancient Europeans) and we decided to start keeping bees to be able to make Braggot with our own honey. After tasting the honey from our bees we couldn't go back to commercial honey, the taste was something we had never tasted before: something between honey and juice. This was a major turning point: we became purists. Since then we stopped adding anything to flavour the Braggot. We wanted the honey to shine, with all the richness of the nectars, the land and the seasons. We established our business EBapi and Api Crafts in 2006 mainly selling honey and hive products in Vancouver island. In 2011 we moved our operation to the Fraser Valley, mainly Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Langley, Aldergrove reaching all the way to New Westminster. At that point we started doing pollination and selling bees as well, as our operation was expanding beyond our manpower. Our honey, pollen and candles were available at the farmers markets of New Westminster, Port Coquitlam and Maple Ridge. We were also selling at numerous stores After years of building our apiaries and our experience keeping bees we decided to establish our Liquor side of the business in North Vancouver as Braggot Brewing in 2020. We opened our door of our current location at 370 Esplanade East in the summer of 2022 and since then we grew.

More about our Symbol

More that any other drinks our Braggot changes with the seasons and more that any other drinks it reflects the flavour of the land where it is produced, more than beer, more than wine, more than mead. The uniqueness of our Braggot is not determined by our work, not by our efforts, not by how many ours we put into our business, not by the recipe. It is determined by the work of our bees, by what flowers they have visited, but what plats are available at any given moment in their surroundings, which in turn is determined by the weather, the wind, the temperature, and the soil. Water, air, fire and earth.

For these reasons its flavours are inextricable from time and space and uniquely identified by spacetime coordinates. We try to capture this essence in our symbol, which represents the alternating seasons, the passage of time. Same as Braggot, which has been around since before the dawn of civilization, before agriculture, so our symbol distils concepts that have emerged across various civilization since the beginning of recorded history.

Our symbol can be considered a compass, a calendar, a sextant. If you are interested in learning more, keep reading.

The protuberance on top of our symbol represents the North and winter solstice, the one on the right the East and the spring equinox, the one on the bottom represents the South and the summer solstice and the one on the left the West and the fall equinox. The portions of the circle between them represent the various seasons. The major circle is divided in 2 concentric circles. Both are divided in 52 parts, each part corresponds to a week as there are 52 weeks in a year. The symbols reported for each week are taken from what is possibly the oldest or one of the oldest book in the world, a book so old that is not bound: the playing cards.

In fact there are 52 cards in a deck and 52 weeks in a year, there are 4 suits and 4 season, 13 cards per suit and 13 weeks per season. So, if we follow the external circle from the top/winter solstice clockwise till the spring equinox we have the 13 winter weeks from the ace to the king of hearts. There are followed by the 13 weeks of spring represented by the diamonds, then the summer with the clubs and the fall with the spades.

In the inner circle the cards/weeks are arranged by number: 4 aces, then 4 twos, and so on. They form a year cycle composed of 13 cycles of 4 weeks. One cycle of 4 weeks is a lunar cycle (28 days) and in a year there are 13 lunar cycle. In conclusion, depending on how we arrange the playing cards they constitute a solar calendar in the outer circle, or a lunar calendar in the inner circle. The reconciliation between these two calendars are given by the numbers 4, and 13. 4 weeks in a lunar cycle, 4 seasons in a year. 13 weeks in a season, 13 lunar cycles in a year.

The symbols in the playing cards may also be related to the seasons or to the lunar phases. The modern symbols are hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. However, these symbols are a simplification of older symbols still found of playing cards in certain countries. In particular, the hearts were cups, the diamonds were coins, the clubs were actual wooden clubs, and the spades were swords. We consider these symbols to be a representation of the 4 elements: water, earth, wind and fire. In particular, the cups represent water, the coins/diamonds the earth, the clubs wind and the swords fire. This association appears to be rather obvious considering the shape or purpose of the symbols.

Water and earth can be associated with growth, as they both nourish life, form seeds to plants and then to animals. Wind and fire can be associated with destruction, as both elements erode and consume matter. For these reasons we also associate water and earth with the growth of the daylight starting from the winter solstice all the way to the summer solstice, while we associate wind and fire with the decrease of the daylight from the summer solstice back to the winter solstice. In conclusion, we associate water with winter (cups), earth with spring (diamonds), wind with summer (clubs), and fire with fall (spades).

A similar association is done for the lunar phases: the cups represent the time between the new moon and first quarter as the moon grows, the diamonds represent the time between the first quarter and the full moon till the moon reaches the maximum, the clubs represent the time between the full moon and the last quarter as the moon starts decreasing, and the spades represent the time between the last quarter and the new moon as it reaches its minimum again.

The symbols of the suits in our logo are slightly different from the symbols in the playing cards. In particular the cups, or hearts are drawn as drinking horn (cups) with an overflowing drink in the shape of a heart. This big symbol is placed on the right side of the diagram or on the eastern side in the position the sun is during the spring equinox, which is the end of the the winter or in other words the culmination of the hearts/cups. The diamonds or coins are drawn as an octahedron, as the octahedron can be a natural crystal habit of diamond which has a face centred cubic lattice. This octahedron however can represent in general a stone/crystal with very high symmetry, or in other words a perfect idealized stone. The clubs are drawn as the end of the sword with the hilt and the handle, and the spades are drawn as the tip of a pike or a spear.

Contact info and hours of operation

Contact info

604 671 8854
eb@braggottery.com


@braggotbrewing

Hours of operation

Monday closed: beekeeping day
Tuesday: 3pm - 9pm
Wednesday: 3pm - 9pm
Thursday: 1pm - 9pm
Friday: 1pm - 10pm
Saturday: 1pm - 10pm
Sunday: 1pm - 9pm