A buzzing taproom on the Bermondsey Beer Mile – the home of honey beer, brewed with British honey and devoted, sweetly, to the wellbeing of the bees
Hiver Taproom posts a strong 4.6 across more than two hundred reviews and holds a sweet distinction on the Bermondsey Beer Mile: it is the home of the honey beer. The Prat’s naming desk found a lovely hive of meaning humming inside the name.
The Bermondsey Beer Mile
Hiver sits in a railway arch on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, at the foot of the Maltby Street Market – in the heart of the district’s celebrated run of arch-breweries. Proper Bermondsey territory, no disclaimer needed.
The hive in the name
“Hiver” hums with the bee. The name plays on the hive – the home of the bees, the buzzing community of the honey-makers – and it suits the brewery perfectly, for Hiver is devoted to honey beer, brewing every one of its beers with real honey. The honey is integral to the brew, not an afterthought, and it is all sourced from independent British beekeepers. The name is a small, sweet pun: the hive, the honey, the bee, all folded into a single buzzing word for a brewery built on the bees’ own golden gift.
The honey beer
The Prat’s history desk savours the ancientness of the idea. Honey-based drinks are among the oldest in the world – mead, the honey wine, was drunk by the ancients and the Vikings long before hops came to beer. Hiver, founded in 2013 after its founder went to a honey tasting in Bermondsey, brings honey back into brewing, crafting a range of honey beers – Blonde, Amber, a Session IPA – and a honey cider besides, all built on that sweet golden ingredient. It is a genuinely distinctive stop on a Beer Mile full of hops: the brewery that reaches, instead, for the honey.
For the wellbeing of the bees
The Prat’s favourite thing is the conscience of it. Hiver does not merely use honey; it gives back to the bees, directing a portion of its proceeds to bee conservation, running beekeeping experiences and honey-harvesting workshops, and making the wellbeing of the bees a core part of its ethos. In an age when the bees, on whom so much of our food depends, are in real trouble, there is something genuinely admirable in a brewery that celebrates and protects them. It is honey beer with a conscience – a sweet drink that does a little good. The strong 4.6 across two hundred reviews suggests the bees are well served.
Verdict
A 4.6 across two hundred-plus reviews is a strong score, and Hiver earns it as a genuinely distinctive, conscientious brewery. It is the home of honey beer on the Bermondsey Beer Mile – brewing every beer with British honey, giving back to bee conservation – under a name that hums, sweetly, with the hive.
Go for the honey beers, the buzzing arch and the sweet conscience of the place, and raise a glass at Hiver. On a Beer Mile full of hops, a brewery built on honey and devoted to the bees is a genuinely different, and genuinely good, stop – so drink to the bees.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
