The Beehive Cheese Story
In 2005, Tim Welsh had a vision of opening a creamery in the mountains of Utah. He shared that lofty goal with the most passionate, hard-working, positive person he knew his brother in law, Pat Ford. Their shared history of entrepreneurship and deep mutual trust is bedrock to Beehive’s culture of trust, community, and ingenuity.
So how did the creation of award winning, new world cheese derive from a software guy and a real estate salesman? Tim Welsh didn’t set out to create a whole new segment in the cheese industry. With the collapse of the dotcom economy, Tim found himself with a desire to contribute something real and tangible to the foodie community. This hunger grew to become Beehive Cheese.
Pat and Tim had 8 days of cheesemaking experience between them when they filled their vat for the first time. The friends sought help from Western Dairy Center, a leading cheese research institution of the Western U.S. The cheese researchers adopted Beehive as their artisanal interns, and mentored the novice cheese makers with their expertise in cheese crafting.
After learning how to make their base cheese, Promontory, the partners realized pretty quickly that you can’t make great cheese without the best milk. They chose to partner with Wadeland South, a fourth-generation family creamery. The Wade family cares for a healthy and thriving herd of Holstein and Jersey cows. The high butter fat of their milk gives Beehive Cheeses a consistent, rich quality.
From a humble seed, the Beehive Cheese movement began taking root. The cheese makers got crazy and not knowing what they couldn’t do invented a new way of making cheese. Tim had some coffee roasted by his brother in Colorado lying around. In a moment of flavor insight, he combined the rich, bold coffee with bright lavender for an external rub on the cheese. Barely Buzzed was born! The brothers in laws 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. Then not wanting to let its fans down, 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, salt rubbed Seahive, or Red Butte Hatch Chile.
Our tiny creamery at the mouth of the Weber Canyon continues to grow. Pat and Tim have expanded their trust and brought on the next generation of cheesemakers and staff to continue the vision, but still with the commitment to making friends through their craft every day.
