8 Years of Honeycomb Milkshake: Our Flagship Milkshake Pale is Back for 2025!

As a small and fiercely independent brewery, there’s a special place in our hearts for the beers that UnBarred-drinkers have been the most excited about over the years. One particular collaboration with our good pals & stalwarts of the Brighton beer scene, Bison Beer, is just such all-time fan favourite...  

I hope you’re on your best beehive-iour, because honey, Honeycomb Milkshake is back!

There’s not enough room in our little brewery on Elder Place to have Honeycomb Milkshake available all year round, but we plan our tightly-packed brewing schedule to make sure you’re not bereft of this UnBarred Icon for too long. Get it before it buzzes off again until next year!

It’s been the best part of a decade since the creation of Honeycomb Milkshake: in 2017 UnBarred’s Founder, Jordan, Marketing Maestro, Brett and Bison Beer’s co-founder Jack first brewed just 500 litres of the beer, thinking that even if nobody bought any, they could find a good use for it themselves! Flash forward to 2025 and  after completing their 8th annual Honeycomb Milkshake brew this June, we caught up with Jack from Bison and the supplier of the delicious local honey used in the brew, Alistair (a new-comb-er to the collaboration and the co-founder of Hove’s stunning Honey-centric bar and eatery, Apiary) to see what life looks like at the moment for our ‘Partners in Comb’!

Jack says:

It’s now been 10 years since Bison Beer opened for beersness, and we were the first place to sell UnBarred beer! Since then we’ve brewed beers, opened bars and become a proud part of the Brighton & Hove community. When we opened Bison Beach Bar we sold boatloads of another UnBarred Classic: Mango Pale.

8 years ago we had this idea along with team UnBarred to brew a honey beer based on the beer scene’s love of that sweet, sweet nectar – and they’ve been loving it ever since!

At Bison our flagship beer is See Side APA, but we have always loved a good collab - most recently we have teamed up with DEYA to celebrate our 10th birthday with brand new brew Sea Legs. While we’ll have Honeycomb Milkshake at all of our sites across Brighton this summer, we’re buzzing to pour it at our new seafront venue Babble.  

Now, you can’t make Honeycomb Milkshake without honey, and this year we’ve drawn on the hives of local Honey Royalty, Apiary, run by Alistair and Noemi:
 
Alistair Says:  

Apiary opened on Norfolk Square in May last year, and is the culmination of many (many) years working in hospitality & events. Noemi did a beekeeping course at Plumpton during one of the breaks between lockdowns, and decided there & then we were getting bees. Originally, beekeeping was supposed to be a hobby that maybe earned us some pocket money selling jars of honey, but the more we got into it, the more we thought there was an opportunity to combine bees & honey with a cafe/bar/restaurant.  

We were invited along to brew with UnBarred by Brett after having a few drinks at Apiary, and we couldn't turn down the opportunity to be part of the process and to use some of our own honey in the brew! It was really cool to see the team at work, and we can't wait to try this year's finished beer.

In our restaurant we draw inspiration from bees & the hive, we use both our own Sussex honey & international varieties throughout our food & drink. We have an extensive mead list, as well as an eclectic mix of wines & honey-infused beers.

The majority of our hives are located in Peacehaven, and we have recently added a second site up near Wivelsfield Green. Apiary is located just a stones throw from Babble, so take your pick of where to drink Honeycomb Milkshake!