Hiver drink their beer save honey bees

Everyone knows that without bees we’d all be in a very difficult place environmentally, and that is one of the reason Hiver has made it their cause from the beginning to help British beekeepers by sponsoring and using their honey within their beer.

For instance if you look at any plate of food we eat, bees have most likely played a big part in either pollinating the many vegetables and fruits we eat directly or pollinating the food for the animals that we then consume. Plus that’s not all bees do for us, as honey and wax are two other important products that come courtesy of bees.

As a lover of bees, honey and beer Hiver is the perfect beer to have. Plus the beauty about Hiver is that all their beer uses honey which they source from three select Bee Keeping farms here within the British Isles.

Thanks to Hiver I was invited down on a press related invite to learn more about their beers as well as bees.

Hiver Urban Experience in Kennington

Discovering about bees and Hiver beer.

Bee Urban

Since 2015 Bee Urban has been looking after honey bees, growing herbs, fruit and vegetables. Their site is in Kennington Park, The Hive is situated behind the cafe and in front of St Agnes church in Kennington Park.

Bee Urban honey bees are a social enterprise that aims to work with communities to improve the environment for the benefit of us all. They focus on responsible urban beekeeping, horticulture and community growing.

The pond and garden area is a space to come and learn about beekeeping, organic gardening and sustainable living, whilst providing nectar and forage for the bees in our apiary. Their cob oven is regularly used for their home made pizza sessions.

Within the workshop educational classes take place from beekeeping demonstrations, gardening and training sessions. Plus there is a small shop within where you can purchase candle-making equipment, honey and so much more.

Hiver

Since 2013 Hiver has been brewing their honey beer with their first beer being their flagship natural blonde beer.

Hiver was born out of an admiration for London’s urban beekeepers and a passion for craft beer. Hannah Rhodes, was the one who was inspired to create a quality beer using honey, following the discovery of the vast array of honey produced in London. The number of bee hives in London has soared in recent years following news that global bee numbers were in rapid decline. Unpasteurised, more textured and flavourful honey is used in the brewing process, contributing to the taste and body of the beer. Since brewing Hiver has gone from strength to strength with listings at Ocado, Marks & Spencers, and a number of independent merchants and pubs.

All of Hiver beers use raw honey which is sourced from independent British beekeepers, in whom they sponsor and run fun experiences at as also helping spread the knowledge about the role of bees and bee keepers are equally as important to them. They also believe that supporting the beekeepers they work with is one of the best ways to support British bees and helps give us all the best insight in how we should help support bee populations by planting for bees. With every web order at Hiver you will receive a free seasonal flower pack of seeds too, to plant and help bees. Plus working towards B-Corp accreditation they pledge to donate 10% of profits to pollinator and green spacing projects.

Hiver uses honey as an integral part of their brewing process, helping to deliver crisp, light tasting beer with a subtle honey aroma and flavour. Hiver never pasteurise their beer either, which means you will always get the freshest, most natural beer in your glass.

Hiver also has gone the extra mile working with local suppliers, from the people that kiln their glass, produce their labels and stamp their business card keeping to a low carbon footprint.

No wonder Hiver has won a number of awards from Britain’s Next Top Supplier to being the only British medal winner at the World Beer Challenge (with two gold medals) in 2018, a recent European Beer Star Gold and an industry award for Corporate Social Responsibility gets Hiver into the Best of British Beers.

So, whether you’re enjoying a pint of Hiver with friends, attending a beekeeping experience or planting their seeds for bees there’s hopefully lots of reasons to feel good about choosing a Hiver.

Drink Hiver, save bees!

Honey bees and Hiver who knew

Hiver Bee Hive Experience in Kennington takes place at Bee Urban in Kennington in who they sponsor.

The experience took me on a journey of discovering where I learnt about bees, their ecological value and the role of honey in the brewing process.

Before I tell you about the experience though did you know that honey bees are the worlds most important pollinator of food crops?. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats. All domestic and imported fruits and vegetables require pollination. Honey bees can also pollinate clover and alfalfa, which are fed to cattle, so there are implications for the meat and dairy industry too. Plus honey is used within a huge range of manufactured food products. In addition, honey bees also play a significant role in the pollination of other important crops such as cotton and flax. There are also a number of valuable non-food products produced by the honey bee, such as beeswax used in cleaning and beauty products. This is why the bee is so important for mother nature and us.

Bee time

Arriving at Bee Urban first thing first to put on a beekeeping outfit. Suited and booted I was ready to learn and get up close and personal with bees inspecting their hives.

Before heading out to the hives with the beekeeper we firstly had a short introduction on bees in where I learnt so many interesting facts.

• honey bees make honey from pollen and nectar collected from flowers
• they live in large colonies with one queen, drones and workers
• a queen mates in flight and bees who mate with her will die afterwards
• Queens can live for several years, but other bees live for only a few weeks or months
• drones are turned out of the hive in autumn and left to die
• bees only attack if threatened and if they sting you they will die

Then it was onto meeting the bees.

It is surprising to see how many layers there are to a bee hive.

Just look at them how beautiful and how busy they are working for the Queen bee.

It was a little scary handling the bee frames as I was not scared of the bees but about dropping the frame. I could feel the vibration of the drone and worker bees through the frame handles, which was an odd sensation.

During the experience the beekeeper also pointed out eggs, told us more about the bees and even found the Queen for us. The Queen is much redder than the other bees and moved a lot faster battling her way through the swarm.

Are you brave enough to face bees?

Beer time

It was then back onto the workshop for a tasting session of Hiver beer and learning about the honeys used within and the beer process.

Hiver uses Urban London, Heather and English Blossom honey within their beer but how is the honey added?

The honey is added during the fermentation and conditioning process of the beer which then in turn makes a medium body and low bitterness beer. The beer remains unpasteurised to enable the subtle flavours to shine through and the honey adds a creamy mouthfeel to create a moreish and refreshing beer.

Starting off the tasting session we started with their Hiver Blonde Beer which is their flagship beer which uses honey from Bee Urban. It has a lovely pale golden colour to it and tastes ever so refreshing, citrussy and has that hint of honey.

Hiver Amber Beer uses darker roasted malts which produce the copper coloured beer. It is a rich, beer with notes of chocolate. The honey used within this beer is Scottish Heather, which looks and tastes a little fudge like but very floral.

Hiver Session IPA is very dark in colour, brown in fact. English Blossom honey is used within this IPA. The beer itself is a little earthy, nutty and bitter but has a nice honey aftertaste with a bit of a peppery finish.

I enjoyed all the beers but for me personally my favourite beer was the Blonde Beer. Why? as it was a more subtle lighter beer than the others.

I learnt so much about bees and Hiver beer that I came away from the Bee Urban with a newfound appreciation for bees, and Hiver very British honey beer.

Watch the start of my journey to the end.

Verdict

The whole experience from start to finish was a great one as not only did I come away learning a lot more about bees that I never knew but to learn about why Hiver uses honey in their beers and how they achieve the process was equally as interesting.

However honey bees are disappearing globally at an alarming rate due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. If these little insects that help provide so much of the food we eat were to vanish, it is scary to think what it would mean for us. So it really has made me question and think a lot more about bees and mother nature as a whole and how we all should change our behaviour from the products we use, the way we travel and what we eat. Why? as to not cause more harm to our planet, animals and plants. As in the end of the day just like the bee, plants and other living species play a vital role in our survival. For example animals help us maintain Earth’s natural environment by predating upon other animals, exhaling carbon dioxide and so much more.

Help the humble bees thrive, buy honey, buy Hiver beer and help support the beekeepers.

If you want to learn more about bees and want to learn more about them and how Hiver beer uses honey within their beer then I highly recommend booking up this experience. As not only will you learn a lot, enjoy honey, great tasting beer by Hiver but you will be helping Bee Urban carry on beekeeping helping the bee world and mother nature.

Hiver Bee Keeping Experience book now

Bee Urban	Hiver
The Hive Kennington Park St Agnes Place SE11 4BE beeurbanlondon@gmail.com	Hiverquarters Taproom and Shop Arch 56 Stanworth Street London SE1 3NY info@hiverbeers.com

The Urban Experience costs £42

What’s included:

• Experience a two hour hands on experience for two
• Learn more about urban beekeeping, the ecological role bees play and the role of honey in the brewing process
• Don on a beekeeping suit, learn about bees and inspect the hive and handle the frames
• Sample Hiver’s range of honey beers with a tutored tasting and food pairing

The experience is available from mid-April to the end of September:

• Saturdays and selected Sundays, between 10am and 5pm.

The experience is held in groups of maximum 10 guests.

This experience is not suitable for anyone under 18 or with a known bee or honey allergy.

Book your experience now

Note: In the case of really wet weather, guests will inspect the exhibition hive, build brood frames and harvest honey instead of the outside hive inspection.