Dartmoor Brewery’s Three Hares wins Gold with its Unique Taste of Dartmoor Heather Honey

Three Hares was a special beer developed by Mike Lunney, Dartmoor Brewery ‘s Master Brewer for the Plume of Feathers, Princetown Beer Festival in June 2011. The name and pumpclip were thought of and designed by a Plymouth solicitor, Neil Mercer of Enigma. The Three Hares logo was adopted by the Dartmoor tinners but has connections to pagan times, although its first record goes back to an ancient Chinese Dynasty. It was originally considered by some to be symbolic of the resurrection and the forerunner of the Easter Bunny, but later became more sinister and was looked on as the animal form of a witch. The beer originally was going to be flavoured with heather sprigs but worries of a woody taste evolving from this made us consider adding Dartmoor Heather Honey, a sweeter and more palatable alternative. Heather Honey is really delicious and blended  perfectly with our beer, creating a golden brown ale with a rich spicy taste and a hint of apricots. This superb taste won it the Gold Award in the Speciality Beer Class at the SIBA South West Beer Festival in April, and it is now going forward to the National Championships. Unfortunately this unique beer is limited by the amount of Dartmoor Heather Honey we can get, our source being Peter Hunt (www.beesindevon.co.uk) whose hives are on the heather tracts of the eastern moor. Sadly these are diminishing every year with the advance of the bracken, while the bees are having a tough time with worsening summer weather. www.dartmoorbrewery.co.uk Dartmoor Brewery’s Three Hares pumpclip