Hawkes Cidery & Taproom, Bermondsey, SE1

One of many similar establishments forming part of the famous Bermondsey Beer Mile, like many of the others this is located in the arches under the railway track, and is of course a brewery tap rather than a pub. The USP here though is that it’s a cidery rather than a brewery, so being a West Country lad I couldn’t miss this one. They seem to have made a bit more effort with the interior design here compared to many of the nearby establishments, with the white corrugated iron cladding to channel away water dripping from above being restricted to the roof only, with the walls being exposed brickwork. That said, most of the walls were dripping wet, so it may be argued that the cladding is a better solution nonetheless. Some very fake “trees” made from a few bits of wood nailed together were something of a feature perhaps, and these had been adorned with strings of exposed filament style light bulbs, as well as some fake foliage. Some of the tables were copper topped and there was also some black padded bench seating, so it definitely felt a little more comfortable that many of the other nearby establishments. Clearly us cider drinkers are a classy lot. A few barrels were dotted around for vertical drinking, and there were a few bits of stencilled brewery artwork on the walls. A few pieces of musical equipment and amps were at the rear, suggesting that there will be some live music later on. Drinks choice was predominantly cider as would be expected, and almost entirely their own. On this occasion the choice was Urban Orchard, Dead & Berried, Doom & Bloom, Soul Trader, Slam Funk, Big Wow, Elephants on Ice, Sucker for Pumpkins, Combined Harvest (a collaboration with the Brick Brewery), Pineapple Punch and Carrot Gold. The only guest was Fine Cider’s Under the Skin, but at the equivalent of £16.23 a pint, I decided to give that one a miss. If cider’s not your thing, the guest beers were Punk IPA or Hazy Jane, although I neglected to note whether these were cask or keg.

Not much to tell, its a railway arch specialising in Cider , I had something called Angry Orchard Understood Motion 03 at 7.3%, its ok.