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Guest Post: Beyond Bermondsey: South London Breweries to Visit

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We’ve got Mark Whittaker guiding us around South London breweries in this guest post! Mark is a silver-haired South Londoner and fan of the occasional beer. He writes an infrequent blog about his even less frequent homebrewing over at https://beerfrominthegarage.wordpress.com/. Full disclosure: he also works part-time for London Beer Lab. Find him on Twitter: @Mark__Whittaker

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Bruno at the London Beer Lab taproom

Bored of Bermondsey? Try this alternative South London brewery tour (Warning: it’s a bit longer than a mile so may occasionally involve some transport).

It’s been 2 years now since The Kernel Brewery made the controversial (but some say justified) decision to stop opening its brewery taproom on Saturdays. But, if anything, the famed Bermondsey Beer Mile that it helped start has only grown in popularity. Weekend craft beer pilgrims making the trek between the likes of Brew By Numbers, Fourpure, Southwark, Ansbach & Hobday and Partizan, and also the UBrew and the EeBria taprooms, can regular expect fresh, high quality and often exclusive brews. Opening times have been extended but with success comes crowds. At some taprooms you’ll often have to queue upwards of half an hour to get served on a Saturday afternoon and don’t expect anywhere to sit down. Plus, once you’ve done The Mile a few times, you might want to expand your drinking to some of London’s other 70+ breweries.

Our tour of just some of South London’s finest starts under the shadow of the Crystal Palace Tower. 5 minutes’ walk from Gipsy Hill station (direct trains from London Bridge and Victoria) is the Hamilton Road Industrial Estate, although when you get there the first sign you’ll notice is not for this neighbourhood’s eponymous brewery, but The London Beer Factory.

Founded in early 2014 by brothers Ed and Sim Cotton, The London Beer Factory has always committed to producing beer with character, unique flavours, engaging aromas, brimming with personality and distinctive qualities. With a core range of 5 beers, plus an alternating monthly Pilot Range, they recently launched the UK’s first 360 degree opening cans, and their Beer Cab is a regular feature at many London beer events. Their tap room and bottle shop is open every Saturday, but check the website for current times, plus details of occasional events (including regular live rugby match screenings).

If you walk out of The London Beer Factory and glance left, you will now see the Gipsy Hill Brewing Company, who, in this writer’s opinion, are currently making some of the best beer in London. Going from strength to strength, and with a core range of beers all under 5%, Gipsy Hill focus on beers with big taste that you can still drink by the pint. Their tap room bar is currently closed due to brewery expansion but their bottle shop is open every Saturday, 1pm – 6pm. Check back for details on the reopening in the spring – in the meantime, lots of Gipsy Hill events are happening at their micropub, the Douglas Fir, on the other side of Crystal Palace, but unfortunately, that’s in the wrong direction for this tour.

Next, you’re heading to Herne Hill – either a mile and a half walk, or you can hop on either 3 or 322 bus (check TFL for times and directions) – for Bullfinch Brewery. After originally starting out sharing a Bermondsey railway arch with Mssrs Ansbach & Hobday, the Bullfinch soon flew a few miles south to set up it’s on brewery, with a historic 5 barrel kit originally built by Charles Wells no less. With a tap room in the adjacent arch open Thursday through Friday (4pm – 10pm), Saturday & Sunday (midday – 10pm), there are usually 12 different beers on tap, from the Bullfinch’s core range, some experimental and exclusive brew that you’ll only find here, plus the occasional guest.

Resist the temptation to stay at Bullfinch for the rest of the day and it’s a short hop around the corner to the Canopy Beer Co, tucked in the Bath Factory Estate, one of the most welcoming tap rooms in the city. If it’s sunny, be sure to try the Champion Kolsch or Sunray Pale, otherwise head indoors for a Milkwood Amber or Full Moon Porter. Canopy is open Wednesday through Friday (5-11pm), Saturday (12-11pm) and Sunday (12-10pm).

You have a choice again next for either bus, train or your own two feet to take you the mile to Brixton for, wait for it… Brixton Brewery! Founded in 2013, BB is a family-run, community business with a core range of beers brewed in small batches. The tap room is usually open every Saturday, 12-6pm (but they recommend you check the website or Twitter first), and they also offer tours and tastings (see website for details).

For your final tap room of the day, turn left out of Brixton Brewery and along Brixton Station Road past POP! Brixton and the Brixton branch of the Craft Beer Co. until you hit Brixton Road. Take a left here then right over Brixton Road, through the alley known as Dorrell Place (by the M&S) and onto Nursery Road. Head left and then tucked in behind the railway bridge on your immediate right, you’ll find London Beer Lab at Arch 41.

London Beer Lab has been running beer making workshops and selling homebrew supplies here since 2012. In 2015 they started brewing commercially (under another railway arch off Coldharbour Lane), with plans to expand production in 2017. The Nursery Road taproom is also undergoing something of a revamp, with upwards of 10 beers soon to be on tap from across their range, with a few seasonals and some small batch brews made in the upstairs workshop, plus an extensive bottleshop of beers from around the world. Current opening times are Thursday 5.30pm – 7.30pm, Friday 2pm – 8pm, Saturday 12 – 8pm and Sunday 12 – 7pm.

That concludes our short tour, although the beer doesn’t have to stop there. Within a mile or two of Brixton if you head in a variety of directions there are ever more breweries and taprooms. How about north towards Elephant & Castle for Orbit Beers, or south west to Tooting for By The Horns then Wandsworth Common for Belleville? Or head east to Peckham for Brick Brewery and Bianca Road Brew Co. Or maybe save those for another tour. There are plenty more beer miles in London than just Bermondsey’s!

 

Guest Post: London Brewers’ Market Summer 2016 Mini-Review

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Guest post: Rebecca Pate is a Canadian based in East London with a passion for great beer. Her blog, Brewing East, focuses on industry events, independent breweries and London’s evolving drinking culture. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

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On Saturday the 23 July 2016, the London Brewers’ Market was once again in full force, bringing 27 local breweries to the Old Spitalfields Market in East London. Drinkers survived unseasonably warm temperatures with a cold beer in hand, sampling a variety of examples and styles from breweries both familiar and new. It comes as no surprise that IPAs were prevalent, offering the perfect refreshing bitterness to temper the rising mercury as the afternoon progressed. Cans were king- from the new 360° designs to the 500ml tallboys- and there were some specific beers that were causing a buzz.

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Although impossible to sample everything proffered at the Brewers’ Market, I was earnest to discover the crème de la crème to ensure that even if you missed a beer on the day, you can keep your eyes peeled for it in the coming months.

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Read my overview of the Brewer’s Market and the beers on Brewing East.

Guest Post from Will Hawkes: Why Small Breweries Matter

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Will Hawkes is a freelance journalist and the organiser of London Beer City (@londonbeercity), a week-long celebration of good beer from London and further afield. He’s also the author of Craft Beer London (@craftbeerlondon), a guide to the city’s best pubs, bars and breweries. You can follow him on Twitter at @Will_Hawkes.

It’s hard to avoid the heritage of brewing in this city. A 10-minute stroll from Spitalfields will take you past a number of pubs lavishly decorated in Trumans’ colours, while in other parts of London you can easily spot adverts, pub signs and related, faded ephemera devoted to breweries long-gone and recently-departed. Until the last few years, it must be said, this constant reminder of past glories was rather dispiriting, but things have changed. London’s brewing tradition has been revived – and in some style, too.

The Five Points Brewing CompanyBrixton BreweryBeavertown's Gamma RayPartizan Brewing

But while it’s tempting to draw a direct link between that tradition and what’s happening now, it wouldn’t be entirely honest. Much of the current impetus comes from across the Atlantic rather than the past: plenty of stouts and porters are being brewed, but hoppy pale ales in the American style are a lot more popular. One of the most well-known of the new generation of London brewers told me recently that 75 to 80 per cent of the beer he sells is pale and hoppy.

And there’s another important difference with that 18th/19th century heyday, too. This new movement is not about great brewing families. Ordinary Londoners now are probably more entrepreneurial than at any time in this city’s history. You may have heard about the ‘Flat White Economy’, a term which describes the recent rush of new media, internet and creative businesses in East London, which are soon to be powering the British economy. I think London’s brewing revival, with its creativity and focus on flavour, fits into that bracket.

The beauty of all this, of course, is that its about relatively ordinary people taking things into their own hands. Not just brewers but bakers, cheese makers and distillers, too. Today’s fashion is for the small-batch, homespun, craft product. The humbler the origins, the smaller the producer, the better.

It’s easy to be cynical about this, but consider the alternative. I’ve heard plenty of people say that they don’t care who makes their beer as long as it tastes good. On the most basic level, that’s hard to criticise: but given the context of the past 50 years, during which huge brewing concerns did their best to wipe out smaller rivals and produce beer so inoffensive it became an offense against beer, it seems a little naive. Beer drinkers need small producers, who have the agility and courage to produce more interesting, flavoursome beer than their bigger rivals. When it comes to beer, small really is beautiful.

Guest Post from Matthew Curtis: Five Breweries Not To Be Overlooked At The Next London Brewers’ Market

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Matthew Curtis is a London-based beer writer and writes about beer on his blog, Total Ales. He the co-author of Craft Beer: The 100 Best Breweries in the world, and is currently working on a new book, Beer & Craft: Britains Best Bars and Breweries. Photos from this article are from Dianne Tanner.

London Brewers’ Market returns to the Old Spitalfields Market on Saturday the 28th of March and with it a host of London’s brightest and best breweries. There’ll be gallons of what is some of the very best beer being brewed in the capital right now, to both drink in the market itself and to take home to enjoy later on. With almost eighty breweries in the city, creating beer from the traditional to the innovative, it can be difficult to know what to try next. As a result much of our attention is focused on a handful of larger and more successful breweries simply because their presence is more widely felt. Here, I’ve chosen a handful of breweries, some new and some with a couple of years already under their belts, that are not to be missed at the Market this March.

Orbit Beers – South London’s Orbit bounced onto the scene in 2014 with a range of beers inspired by both music and travel. You can always guarantee that a great record is spinning in this brewery when its beers are being created. The beers span from the traditional to the modern, both the Neu Altbier and Nico Kölsch are extremely accomplished recreations of classic German styles. These beers are subtle and nuanced with a depth of flavour that makes them both incredibly drinkable. On the other hand, Ivo is a pale ale that favours juicy, citrus forward, new world hop varieties and has more than a nod towards the modern pale ales of the United States. As well as these dialled in core brews look out for Orbit’s specials such as Leaf, a smoked Alt. I expect big things from this brewery in 2015.

One Mile End at London Brewers' Market

One Mile End – Orbit aren’t the only new brewery on the scene worth shouting about. One Mile End are already making waves with the forward thinking brews that emerge from beneath its brewpub, The White Hart in Whitechapel. As well as American influenced beers such as the jammy, hop packed Snakecharmer IPA this brewery is already bowling people over with a range of whisky barrel aged stouts and porters. Another beer to watch out for is its farmhouse pilsner, an unusual fusion of two styles that somehow just clicks. Make sure you visit these guys early, as their specials are certain to sell out fast.

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Brixton Brewery – The first thing you’ll notice about Brixton Brewery are the eye-catching labels that are as vibrant as Brixton itself. You may also notice that each of this brewery’s beers take their names from some of the South London borough’s landmarks. You’ve got Effra Ale, a traditional amber ale named after the River Effra that flows beneath Brixton’s concrete and the pithy, grapefruit-tinged Electric IPA named after the famous street that sits just behind the station. One Brixton beer not to be missed is the zingy Atlantic Pale Ale which uses both North American and Australian hop varieties to produce a beer that’s packed with flavours of lemon zest and mango.

Redchurch Brewery at London Brewers' Market

Redchurch Brewery – When it comes to bold, envelope pushing beers in London you might first think of The Kernel, Partizan or perhaps even Brodie’s but one name that also deserves the same high praise is Bethnal Green’s Redchurch Brewery. Take for instance its Old Ford Export Stout, it’s as dark as midnight and packed with huge aromas of liquorice, pine resin and grapefruit zest. In my opinion it’s one of the best beers the city of London has to offer its beer drinking public and is one of several brilliant beers this brewery has to offer. Another beer not to miss is the dank and resinous Great Eastern IPA that actually coats your mouth with hoppy goodness as you drink it. If you’re lucky you may even get to try its new Wild Isolation sour, a beer that was the result of a happy accident and will have you heading back to the bar for more.

Rocky Head Brewery – It’s hard to believe that the Rocky Head Brewery has been brewing its American inspired beers since 2012 and that they haven’t made more of an impact in this time. Despite this, they seem happy with their lot and those that know these beers know just how good they are. Just ask anyone who has tried its eponymous Pale Ale, packed with flavours of citrus and tropical fruit, you’re certain receive almost universal praise. You’ll be doing yourself an injustice if you don’t head to their stand at the London Brewers’ Market, make sure you seek out their Imitera IPA, you won’t be disappointed.

There are of course plenty of other fantastic breweries appearing at the London Brewers’ Market but if you’re seeking something new, different, or a little bit special then you’ll surely find it at the stands of these five fantastic breweries. Do yourself a favour and head down to the Old Spitalfields Market on March the 28th and make sure you take an extra big bag to bring plenty of the city’s best beer back home with you.

Guest Post from Peter McKerry: Made in Hackney–London Brewers’ Market

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Peter McKerry is a London-based beer geek whose blog, Drunken Cinema, is soon to be reborn with a fancy-pants new website: Brew Geekery. The revamped blog will continue to document Peter’s increasing obsession with beer, and will feature beer and event reviews as well as commentary on the beery issues of the day. You can follow him on Twitter at @PJMcKerry.

London Brewers' Market

Hackney is synonymous with craft beer in London and is well represented at the London Brewers’ Market this Easter, with beers from Hackney Brewery and the event’s organisers, The Five Points Brewing Co.

I was living in Hackney when the craft beer revolution started to gather pace; it was an exciting time as new breweries seemed to be popping up every other day, and all within walking distance from my house. As well as Hackney Brewery and Five Points, other notable breweries from the borough include London Fields, Howling Hops – based in the Cock Tavern brewpub on Mare Street – and Pressure Drop; and while Beavertown is now based in Tottenham, it started life in the cellars of Duke’s Brew & Que in Haggerston.

Hackney has a rich brewing history too, with Truman’s, originally established in 1666 and closing in 1989, being re-established in 2010, emblematic of the wider London beer renaissance. And there are yet more breweries on Hackney’s borders, such as Crate Brewery in Hackney Wick (officially within the boundaries of Tower Hamlets) and One Mile End in, well, Mile End.

Given the plethora of breweries in Hackney, it’s no surprise that there are plenty of places selling Hackney-made beer. For take-away there is the Stoke Newington branch of Borough Wines on Church Street, Noble Fine Liquor on Broadway Market and Clapton Craft on Lower Clapton Road. The pubs are too many to mention, but personal favourites of mine are the Railway Tavern and Ale House on St. Jude’s Street in Dalston, the Jolly Butcher’s on Stoke Newington Road and the aforementioned Cock Tavern on Mare Street. Hell, Hackney’s so craft you can even drink good beer at the cinema: the Rio in Dalston stocks beers from Hackney Brewery, and the Hackney Picturehouse has beers from Beavertown, Bear Hug Brewing, London Fields and Crate.

But back to London Brewers’ Market. We don’t have a definitive tap or bottle list of what’s on offer, but below are my top five Hackney-brewed beers (in no particular order), including two that we may get to scoop on 28 March. It won’t escape your attention that I have a predilection for hoppy pales and IPAs…

1. Pressure Drop Pale Fire – a gorgeously bitter pale ale which, while the hop profile may alter occasionally, remains a fruity, zesty thirst-quencher of a beer, and recently made The Beer O’Clock Show’s top ten UK pale ales.

Hook Island Red in malt

2. Five Points Hook Island Red – a delicious red rye beer packed with US hops, it’s fruity and earthy with a hint of spice, and one that I particularly enjoy on cask. At 6%, you get significant bang for your buck.

Jon at Hackney Brewery

3. Hackney Brewery Amarillo Citra Pale – a veritable “Juicy Banger” of a beer. Although better known for cask ales, Hackney has recently introduced a keg range, and I stumbled across this gem at The Barge House alongside the Regent’s Canal.

4. London Fields Shoreditch Triangle IPA – at 6%, this is a dangerously sessionable IPA with a beautiful caramel malt backbone rounded by a juicy bitterness that has you downing it in no time.

5. Five Points IPA – with a tropical fruit punch that hits you as soon as you pop the cap on your bottle or are handed a pint (which is probably a silly idea given that it comes in at 7.5%), some have compared it favourably to Magic Rock’s Cannonball – but that’s for you to decide…

If you prefer less “hop-forward” beers, Hackney also does a golden ale and a best bitter, while Five Points’ Railway Porter is a fine take on the style. Either way, I’ll see you at the market. Bunny ears optional.