Prince William and Kate Middleton Pull Pints, Try Brewing at Bermondsey Beer Mile

The Prince and Princess of Wales descended on London's Bermondsey Beer Mile today, pulling pints, climbing into a brewhouse kettle, and getting an honest introduction to what hops smell like before fermentation works its magic.

Their first stop was Southwark Brewing Company, founded in 2014 by Peter Jackson, 66, who built the operation from a homebrew kit in his garage up to a 10-barrel system under the railway arches. One of the original five craft producers on the Mile, Southwark has become exactly the kind of grassroots-turned-serious operation the Beer Mile is known for. The royals were handed pints to pour, then taken up a ladder to the brewhouse kettle. William, wearing black rubber gloves, tipped in hops and was immediately hit with the aroma. "It smells like horse feed as you're doing it. There's a real mixture of smells," he said. Jackson, deadpan, replied: "Yes. It's good that it changes by the time it gets to your glass." Kate followed him up the ladder, paused at the top and asked "What am I doing?" before getting to work stirring the kettle herself.

From Southwark Brewing they moved on to Fabal Beerhall, the newest venture from Hiver Beers, an independent, female-owned brewer founded by Hannah Rhodes that sources only British ingredients. William made clear where his allegiances lie. "I'm a cider man, I like cider. I grew up on cider in the West Country," he announced, sampling a half pint from the taps. Kate, placing her hand on his knee, asked "You like your cider, don't you?" as he nodded along. The Princess declined alcohol tasting at Fabal, telling Rhodes directly: "Since my diagnosis, I haven't had much alcohol. It's something I have to be a lot more conscious of now." Rhodes offered her a soft drink and said simply, "Fair enough."

Gabriel Unger, the CEO described as having placed the first order from the royal visitors, was not short of praise for the couple's performance. "Taste test: very good," he declared, adding they would "pass their trial shift" without difficulty and could have a job if they wanted one. "It's completely surreal," he said. "Catherine in particular had done a brilliant job."

The Bermondsey Beer Mile is roughly two miles of Southwark arches that now houses more than 20 independent breweries, taprooms, and bottle shops. The area has been a brewing center since the 17th century, and the modern craft wave traces directly to 2009, when The Kernel Brewery set up beneath arches near London Bridge and triggered the cluster of artisan producers that followed.

The Beer Mile visit was the middle chapter of a packed day. The royals started the morning at Borough Market, where they pulled on aprons to chop cheese at Trethowan Brothers, pipe meringue at Humble Crumble, and work the coffee bar at Change Please, where Kate made William a cappuccino. They finished the day traveling by speedboat to the RNLI Tower lifeboat station, the busiest in the UK since opening in 2023, to learn about the crew's life-saving operations on the Thames.

For Peter Jackson, watching two future monarchs climb his brewhouse ladder and get the full sensory experience of a hop addition, the day must have looked a long way from that garage kit in 2014.