Brewery launches pub for hedgehogs

07-Feb-2020 - Last updated on 07-Feb-2020 at 15:29 GMT

Going the whole hog: Camden Town Brewery launches a new lager and a hedgehog pub you can set up in your garden

Camden Town Brewery is providing a safe place for some prickly creatures to hibernate this winter as it offers hog-sized pub, the Hibernation Arms.

The London-based brewery has launched a hideaway for hedgehogs to raise awareness of the plight the spiny mammal faces – which coincides with the unveiling of the brewer’s new Hells in Hibernation lager.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society chief executive Fay Vass said: “The funds and awareness that this collaboration raises will help us, help hedgehogs.”

Help hedgehogs hibernate

The change in environment has seen animals such as hedgehogs arrive much later in the year, meaning they’re not able to eat enough to sleep through the cold winter months.

And in urban areas, loss of habitat, dangerous roads, a lack of access to areas, house pets such as cats and pesticides have all limited hedgehogs’ ability to find a safe space to hibernate during the season.

Vass continued: “Hedgehog populations have declined by half in rural areas and by a third in urban ones in the past 20 years so they need all the help they can get.”

Therefore, the brewery is supporting the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) by donating a portion of the money made from every can of Hells in Hibernation lager sold towards helping hedgehogs hibernate this winter.

And you can buy your own Hibernation Arms pub to help hedgehogs by creating a safe place for them to hibernate in your beer garden.

Safe space

Camden Town Brewery founder Jasper Cuppaidge said: “Hells in Hibernation gives our classic Hells Lager recipe a fresh new taste for winter. It’s unfiltered and brewed with hops that are high in alpha acids, so they bring out that piney resin and citrus bitterness that you might find when taking a breath of fresh air on a winter’s walk in the woods.

“As the changes in our environment are having an increasingly negative impact on the wildlife around us, we’re having to be more aware of how we can all do our bit to help.

“Our partnership with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society has taught us how we can all do our bit – whether it’s educating us on what to do when we find a hedgehog in need, or creating a safe space, like the Hibernation Arms, in your garden at home.”