The Beehive Cheese Story

 

When Beehive Cheese strides into the party, heads turn. Holstering their phones, guests turn to their friends. “Who is that cheese?”

This is not the cheese you grew up on—it’s in a league of its own, a flavor that transports you somewhere new where a spirited conversation can begin. This is a humble cheddar elevated to artisanal greatness through the art of the rubbed rind. Our cheese brings people together and sharing it freely has been linked to an increase in the quality and quantity of friendships—that’s pretty much a fact.

So how did the creation of award winning, first of its kind rubbed rind cheese derive from a software guy and a real estate salesman? Well, they say in order to break the rules you need to know them first…

Pat Ford and Tim Welsh together

Determined to contribute to the local Utah foodie community, best friends and brothers-in-law Pat and Tim sought help from Western Dairy Center, a leading cheese research institution of the western U.S. Seeing the determination of these friends, the cheese researchers quickly adopted them as their artisanal interns and mentored the novice cheesemakers with their expertise in cheese crafting. By the time the friends filled their vat for the first time, they had 8 days of cheesemaking experience between them.

 

Beehive–the name they adopted for their company– realized pretty quick that you can’t make great cheese without the best milk. They chose to partner with Wadeland South, a fourth-generation family creamery. Wadeland takes great care of their healthy and thriving herd of Holstein and Jersey cows, which greatly impressed Beehive. Wadeland was the obvious choice. The high butter fat of their milk gives Beehive Cheeses its consistent, rich quality.

Beehive Cheese employees in a group holding awards

Finally, it was time to break some of those long standing cheese traditions.

Tim had some coffee roasted by his brother in Colorado lying around. In a moment of flavor insight, he combined the rich, roasty coffee with bright lavender for an external rub he put on a wheel of their base cheddar  Promontory and thus Barely Buzzed was born! They took their new creation to the national American Cheese Society competition and turned heads. In its first year of creation, Barely Buzzed pulled ahead in its category and won Best Flavored Cheddar in America. Not wanting to disappoint, Barely Buzzed took first place another four times in the years to come.

This commitment and a willingness to try new things catapulted the cheesemakers to the national spotlight. Beehive continues to be among the nation’s leading creameries producing award-winning cheeses like our honey and salt rubbed Seahive, or cajun spice rubbed Big John’s Cajun.

Our tiny creamery at the mouth of the Weber Canyon continues to grow. Pat and Tim have brought on the next generation of cheesemakers and staff to continue their vision and commitment to making friends through cheese every day.