Our Beers
we do good business
Just like bees as they go from flower to flower, we tread lightly in all areas of our daily business,
Hiver Beers are multi award winning beverages that taste good and do good.
We've 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. Plus a recent European Beer Star Gold and an industry award for Corporate Social Responsibility gets Hiver into the ‘Best of British Beers’.
But best of all, we're bees favourite brew! Here's more about our beers.
Hiver Blonde
Our flagship blonde beer is a fresh & naturally brewed lager with a special ingredient... honey.
This European Beer Star Gold meda winner is a brew we're really proud of, and here's why. We use honey as an ingredient, rather than as an additive or sweetener. This means that much of the natural honey sugar is fermented out so only the aroma and flavour remain, (the same way that the barley sugars are used in brewing). This innovative use of honey in the brew means our blonde beer has a fantastic velvety mouthfeel while also being quite dry on the finish, making it really moreish. It took 6 trial brews to test this theory of fermentation out and get the right balance of our ingredients together. Using a lager yeast means the beer is clean and the flavours can really mesh and mature together. We use our blend of urban and rural honeys in this brew in the way you might use hops for aroma or bitterness in other styles. Combined with our UK cascade hop which brings some citrus to the nose without overpowering the delicate honey esters as well as complementing the urban honey lemony aftertaste.
Hiver Session IPA
Our session IPA took quite a bit of thinking and preparation. It was a great challenge to create a distinctive IPA that we could be proud of whilst ensuring only British ingredients were used and that the hops didn't totally swamp any honey character. We think you'll agree we nailed it!!
Our Session IPA has a real richness in taste with some fudge and bitter notes complementing the hops. This character comes partly from the use of one of the last sources of forage for bees before the winter, Tree Ivy. We work with a Norfolk Beekeeper to source Breckland Forest honey which has quite a marmite flavour to it. Tree Ivy only comes into bloom late in it’s life and needs to be around 15 years mature before pollinators can start frequenting this natural woodland creeper. We then use Pilgrim and Bramling Cross hops to give a woody and earthy nose and mid roasted malts that produce a lovely digestive biscuit flavour alongside the character coming from the honey.
Hiver Amber
Beer derives all of its colour from the malted barley base and in this craft ale, our darker roasted malts produce a copper coloured beer with a rich, chocolatey nose.
The original trial brews for this beer were all about testing Scottish Heather honey, which looks and tastes quite fudge-like and is very different to other UK heather honeys. But once this honey was fermentated, the fudgy flavour had gone and no matter what, we just couldn’t make it work, so it was back to the drawing board. It started to come together when our Beekeeper, David Stott of Tomlow Bees, sent over a sample of late season blossom honey. He describes this as ‘The Worcester sauce of honeys’ due to the late season forage sources of bramble, clover, rosebay, willowherb, heather and ivy, that give a bit of bitterness. It brought out some dried fruit notes in the cereal base that hadn’t been there before and voila! We were on the way to our World Cup winning Amber beer. Admiral and Bramling Cross hops support the fruitiness of the raw Warwickshire blossom honey, and offer a delicate but lingering bitter finish. We hope this beer offers the perfect balance of roasted barley, honey and a refreshing hop finish.
TASTE NOTES
BLONDE
Eye: Golden amber in colour
Nose: Opens with an inviting honey and biscuit aroma
Taste: A flavoursome and easy-drinking beer with medium body and low bitterness. Honey adds a creamy mouthfeel to create a moreish, clean and refreshing blonde beer
Food Pairing: A flavoursome and easy-drinking beer that works perfectly with lemon roast chicken, BBQ wings, manchego cheese, charcuterie and a chilli prawn pho.
SESSION IPA
Eye: Golden amber in colour
Nose: Woody & earthy with honey and bramble top notes
Taste: A digestive biscuit-malt base with a delicate honey aftertaste and a peppery finish.
Food Pairing: Best enjoyed with light and creamy cheese such as goats cheese and dried meats including biltong.
AMBER
Eye: Copper coloured beer
Nose: Rich and chocolatey
Taste: With toasted malts on the palette and bramling cross hops on the nose, this beer is fermented with late season blossom honey to complement the rich bitter-sweet character
Food Pairing: Great with crispy pork belly, fruit loaf, rye breads and mature cheese such as gruyere or emmental.
EXPERIENCE HIVER
There are so many ways you can experience Hiver.
From shopping on our online store, visiting our Bermondsey Street Taproom or joining us on one of our experiences. Thanks for BEEing here!
