Honey is to be used in a new seasonal ale in Jersey

Paul Hurley created the beer with honey

Honey produced within a mile of Jersey Brewery, at Bob Tompkins' hives in Swiss Valley is being used in a new beer produced by the Liberation Group.

Blonde is being launched as a new seasonal ale in Jersey and the rest of the Channel Islands.

The beer in Jersey will use the Swiss Valley honey, but beer in Guernsey and Alderney will feature honey from Guernsey keeper Michael Deane.

Mr Tompkins says his bees produce a delicately flavoured honey.

The honey gets its flavour from the sweet chestnut, apple blossom and blackberry that grows around Swiss Valley and the Longueville area.

This one is very light and summery and is made with virtually all lager ingredients. Paul Hurley, Head Brewer

Bob Tompkins is a Jersey bee keeper whose honey went into the Blonde beer from Jersey Brewery.

He said: "Swiss Valley is a really good forage area, it is a very flavoursome honey they produce, it has a good bouquet to it.

"It is a positive note and it is good that honey is being used in such an unusual way, it brings the product to the fore," said Bob.

The beer used hops you would normally associate with lager alongside the locally produced honey.

Paul Hurley is the Head Brewer at the Jersey Brewery and he said that honey is a nice summery ingredient.

"This one is very light and summery and is made with virtually all lager ingredients.

"We've got lager malt, tettnang and sarts hops which come from the continent and we've also added some honey to the coffer," said Paul.

The beer uses lager malt, tettnang and honey

Even though it makes use of lager ingredients it is still an ale. Paul said this comes from the fact that it uses an ale yeast.

Paul said: "It's all lager ingredients but it is brewed with an ale yeast because we are an ale brewery, we wanted to make it as light and summery as possible so we've used lager ingredients."

He said that it was nice to be able to do something for local bee keepers who have been having a "rough ride of it recently".

"Other beers produce with honey, we've never done it ourselves so we thought it would be nice, it is light and doesn't overpower the product, It adds something a bit extra," said Paul.