This is more of a story about the brewing of a beer than anything else. My original brew partner (Daniel) has had two children since we first started brewing five years ago, so we rarely get to brew together. This was a rare event to be able to brew alone like we used to.
The brew day started off perfectly, the weather was warm and there bees were flying around. We decided to brew a Saison for the fall to capture the perfect warm fall day. We were mashed in and were cleaning as we went, when Daniel suddenly screamed and found a bee up his pant leg. The bee stung him and I laughed as I asked if he was allergic. He said he wasn't but that all changed quickly...
Fifteen minutes later he turned to me with his face swollen to twice the normal size. He quickly headed over to the drug store for Benadryl. He returned a few minutes later with the pills and took a few, chasing them with a little beer. All seemed fine until he fell out of his chair onto the floor nearly unconscious.
After calling his wife, my girlfriend, and a doctor, we headed over to the ER, but not before I stopped recurring the wort and set up to mash out. After a short wait in the waiting room and 2 hours with a doctor, we found out Daniel had developed a deadly Bee allergy. After a life time of being a hobbyist bee keeper he had lost all resistance to bee stings.
After the ER and a day of panic we returned back to my house to finish the beer. To always remember his near death experience, we added the dead bee to the mash-out and a small amount of honey to the wort.
