Murder Hornet
Sometimes you want a light, refreshing Kölsch, or sometimes you want a session IPA so you can reflect on the delicate interplay of floral and tropical elements in the hop bouquet. Or sometimes you want to be smacked so hard with hops that your face swells up. That’s when you want a Murder Hornet.
Murder Hornet is the biggest, meanest IPA we’ve brewed to date, clocking in at 10.2% ABV. Despite the high gravity, this beer is dry as a bone, with the malt getting the heck out of the way of all these hops. We packed the whirlpool to the brim with Nelson Sauvin, Mosaic, and Idaho 7 hops, then dry hopped it with the same. Twice.
As you would expect, the flavor on this beer is all hops. Look for white grape up front from the Nelson Sauvin, quickly followed by a massive swarm of passionfruit and grapefruit. It finishes dry with an intoxicating swirl of tropical fruits and clean ethanol.
This beer is of course named after the Asian giant hornet, dubbed the “murder hornet” by the media. We have received a lot of questions about this invasive species and how it will affect our safety and our local bees, so we’ve compiled the following FAQ to help explain the situation:
Q: What is a murder hornet?
A: The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is the largest known species of hornet with adults reaching 2 inches in length and a 3 inch wingspan. It is native to east Asia.
Q: Are they bees?
A: No, hornets (genus Vespa) are a subcategory of social wasps. Bees, wasps, and ants are linked further up the taxonomic ladder in the order Hymenoptera.
Q: How did they get to Washington?
A: It is not clear how the Asian giant hornets were first introduced to Washington or when. The first specimens in North American were identified in fall of 2019 in British Columbia, and the first in Washington were found near Blaine that December.
Q: Can they be contained?
A: If you’ve watched Jurassic Park, you know how difficult it can be to contain wild animals. The WSDA and the BC Ministry of Agriculture are tracking sightings of the giant hornets, and have traps spread across the Pacific Northwest. Trapped hornets can bee fitted with radio tags, allowing scientists to track them back to their colony so the entire colony can be eliminated. The most recent colony was eliminated in August 2021 and no hornets have been seen since.
Q: Will they kill me?
A: Probably not, but it is possible. While extremely painful, a single sting from an Asian giant hornet does not typically kill an adult human if they are not allergic. The danger comes from multiple stings, for example when disturbing their nest. Asian giant hornets kill 30-50 people per year in Japan and China (primarily as a result of anaphylactic shock), compared to an average of 62 deaths per year from bees and wasps in the United States (source). The sting of an Asian giant hornet is classified as pain level 4—the highest level—on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.
Q: What does their presence mean for our local bee populations?
A: Asian giant hornets eat a variety of medium to large sized insects including honey bees. A female worker will use her large mandibles to snip off the head of a honeybee, then fly the body back to her colony as food for their young. Hornets can massacre an entire hive in a matter of hours, including pulling the pupae from their cells in the comb. Though their stingers can’t penetrate the hornet’s exoskeleton, Japanese honey bees (Apis cerana japonica) can defend their hive through a technique known as “heat-balling”: they swarm the intruder and vibrate their wings to produce heat and CO2. Their higher heat tolerance allow them to survive the climbing temperatures until the hornet eventually dies. Checkout the second half of this video to see heat-balling in action. The western honey bees (Apis mellifera) that live in Washington do not have this defense.
Solitary bees—like the leafcutter bees (Megachile rotundata) and mason bees (Osmia lignaria) raised by Watts Solitary Bees—have a different life cycle and are less impacted by the Asian giant hornets. They do not have a hive, so they don’t present the attractive target of a concentrated food source. Individual bees may still fall prey to the hornets, but the impact on the overall population is negligible.
Q: How do I know if I see one?
A: The easiest way to identify an Asian giant hornet is of course by its size, however there are other large species of wasps in Washington such as the European hornet (Vespa crabro) and cicada killer (Sphecius speciosus). Check out the WSDA Hornet Identification Guide to see a side-by-side comparison.
Q: What do I do if I see one?
A: If you see an Asian giant hornet or have seen evidence of a hive attack, please report it! There are several ways to report suspected sightings in Washington State:
Report using the Hornet Watch Report Form
Email hornets@agr.wa.gov
Call 1-800-443-6684 (The hotline is backed up. Please only call if you do not have access to email. You will get a much quicker response via email.)
Check out the WSDA page for additional information to include in your report.