Breweries, bees and Bermondsey: Is this London’s best hotel for beer lovers?

Under the atmospheric railway arches of Bermondsey Beer Mile, south London’s most beer-tastic stretch of independent breweries, tap room bars and artisanal bottle shops, I spent the evening learning about the intricacies of honey beer, brewing techniques, and more history than I could shake a dipper at. A self-proclaimed zythologist, if you please.

“Did you know they found a jar of honey in Tutankhamun’s pyramid?” my tutor (and expert for local brewery Hiver) Floriane told us in her thick French accent. “Yup, over 3,000 years old and still completely edible.”

The act of harvesting honey is positively prehistoric. Ancient bee-keeping has been documented in Egyptian hieroglyphs (3100 BC), pottery…