Who We Are

Beehive Cheese is a family-run creamery that started in 2005 in Northern Utah. We’re known for making hand-crafted cheddar cheeses with unique, flavorful rubs on the 

outside of the cheese wheel. Our goal has always been to make delicious cheese while staying true to our values: quality, authenticity, community, personal initiative, and being pioneers in cheese. 

How We Got Started

Beehive Cheese was founded by Pat Ford and Tim Welsh, two brothers-in-law who didn’t come from a food background. One was in real estate, the other in software. But they shared a dream of contributing to Utah’s food scene. 

With just 8 days of cheesemaking experience, they learned the ropes from experts at the Western Dairy Center and Utah State University.

Our First Big Idea

Pat and Tim quickly learned that great cheese starts with great milk. That led to a long-standing partnership with Gossner Foods, a respected family-run dairy known for high-quality Jersey cow milk. Around that time, Tim had a pioneering idea: what if they rubbed the outside of their cheddar with a mix of coffee and lavender? At the time, nobody was doing this. That experiment became Barely Buzzed, one of our most popular cheeses.

Recognition and Growth

In 2007, Barely Buzzed won Best Flavored Cheddar in America at the American Cheese 

Society (ACS) competition. It won the same award six more times in later years. Over time, Beehive helped reshape how people view flavored and rubbed-rind cheeses. In fact, ACS eventually created a new award category for rubbed-rind cheeses because of the growing interest.

How We Make Cheese Today

We believe that simple, high-quality cheese can be made even better with creative flavors, 

but only when those flavors support and enhance the cheese itself. Some of our other popular cheeses include Seahive (rubbed with honey and salt) and Red Butte Hatch Chile.

Our Values:

• We believe in learning, trying new things, and always improving.

• We take care of our team, our community, and the environment.

• We became B Corp Certified in 2022, showing our commitment to doing business in a way that benefits everyone involved.

What’s New

In 2022, we became one of seven American cheesemakers to become B Corp Certified. This codified our commitment to using our business as a force for g

ood. This means we treat our employees, community, and environment with dignity and respect. The work doesn’t stop there. We’ve also committed to improving in these areas, as well. We believe there’s always room for improvement.  

After nearly 20 years at our original creamery near Ogden, Utah, we needed more space to grow, which was not sustainable in our Uintah creamery. In 2024, we shifted our equipment and production of Promontory into Gossner’s creamery located in Heyburn, Idaho. Once the wheels of cheese are made, they come back to Utah where we age and finish them with our signature rubbed rinds.