Brewers and Beers

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London brewers

In view of the extensive number of new and planned breweries that have emerged since the guide went to press, I’ve thought it helpful to give a complete list of existing and planned London breweries below. Currently, to my knowledge there are 22 commercial breweries operating in London, including 7 brewpubs, plus 1 beer firm and 1 significant private brewery. 5 breweries are under development, including 1 brewpub, and one plant that will be shared between two different companies. If all the current plans come to fruition and there are no closures of existing breweries, by Spring 2012 there could be 27 London breweries, over three times the eight that remained when Young’s left in 2006 (16/02/12).

• Antic SE5 (Planned pubco microbrewery). Not a brewpub but a freestanding brewery using former Meantime kit, installed next to Antic’s offices in Camberwell and intended initially at least to supply exclusively to the pubco’s pubs. The project is still in the final planning stages with no start date as yet, but former Firkin brewer Stephen Lawson is already in post. (19/08/11)
• Beavertown N1 (Operating brewpub). Logan Plant opened a new US-style brewpub and barbecue restaurant, Duke’s Brew and Que, in De Beauvoir Town on 15 February 2012, initially with a relatively low key launch. (16/02/12)
• Botanist TW9 (Operating brewpub, www.thebotanistkew.com). This popular pub on Kew Green, owned by the small Convivial pubco and run by Mark Wainwright, had a 4hl (2.5 barrel) brewery installed in late August 2011, and beer has been on sale since a launch event on 15 September. Alex and Mat of the Blueball brewery in Runcorn helped get things running, and Mark is now regularly brewing a hoppy pale ale, a bitter, and specialities including a Kölsch-style beer, organic wheat and fruit beers and a porter. Brewery tours and tastings are also available and bespoke beers can be commissioned. The own-brewed beer has proved very popular and there is a possibility Convivial may extend brewing to another site. See also pub review. (22/10/11)
• Brew Wharf SE1 (Operating brewpub, p266, www.brewwharf.com). (07/11)
• Brodie’s E10 (Operating brewpub/microbrewery, p267, www.brodiesbeers.co.uk). Read tasting notes. (07/11)
• By the Horns SW17 (Operating microbrewery, www.bythehorns.co.uk). The very youthful Alex Bull and Chris Mills, only three years out of university, had a 9hl (5.5 barrel) brewhouse, built to their specification by John Trew of Oban Ales, delivered to their building near Wimbledon greyhound stadium  at the beginning of August 2011. Installation was completed in September and the first cask beers, a pale ale and a wheat beer, were delivered to retailers by 7 October. They’ve since been joined by a red ale (4.9%). So far the beers have been cask but bottled and possibly keg beers are planned. (22/10/11).
• Camden Town NW5 (Operating microbrewery, p268, www.camdentownbrewery.com). Continues to grow, expanding its fermentation capacity in summer 2011. In December 2012 the brewery announced its production for the forseeable future would be limited to craft keg and bottled beer. Read tasting notes. (07/11)
• Duchess of Cambridge W6 (Planned brewpub, www.theduchessofcambridgepub.com). Craig Douglas of the Bree Louise reopened the Queen of England/Brook pub in Goldhawk Road as the Duchess of Cambridge on Tuesday 25 October 2011 and it should be equipped with its own brewery by March 2012, supplying both pubs. See also pub review. (29/12/11)
• East London E10 (Operating microbrewery, www.eastlondonbrewing.com). Former research and development chemist Stu Lascelles sold his first beer in mid-September 2011. Currently two cask beers, Pale Ale (4%) and Foundation Bitter (4.2%) are being brewed on a 10 barrel (16hl) plant installed by Dave Porter of PBC at the brewery in Leyton not far from Lee Valley Park. A darker 6% beer is planned, and outlets are listed on the website. (22/09/11)
• Ellenberg’s HA2 (Planned joint microbrewery). Two separate companies, Ellenberg’s and Weird Beard (see below), both set up by award winning homebrewers and London Amateur Brewers members, plan to share a brewhouse in London Underground arches in Harrow. Mike Ellenberg’s intention for the kit is to produce specialist bottle conditioned beers  such as Altbier, smoked wheat beer, black ale and stout. (23/11/11)
• Florence SE24 (Operating brewpub, p270, www.florencehernehill.com). Peter Haydon continues to brew, and beers also available in some other Capital pubco pubs. In July 2011 Greene King announced it had taken over Capital, but I’m hopeful the pubs will keep their distinctiveness.  When it was suggested on Twitter that GK might supplant the microbrewery with its own beers, the management responded “They would have to pry it from our cold dead hands…!”. (07/11)
• Fuller’s W4 (Operating independent, p270, www.fullers.co.uk). Still flourishing: the second Past Masters is a Double Stout* (7.4%) and the latest Brewer’s Reserve**, aged in a whisky cask, is the best yet, certainly in cask form. Read tasting notes. (08/11)
• Hackney E8 (Planned microbrewery, www.hackneybrewery.co.uk). Home brewers Peter Hills and Jon Swain, who both work at excellent Islington gastropub the Charles Lamb N1 (p86), are developing this project and expect to be selling their first beers early in 2012. (07/08/11).
• Ha’penny IG2 (Operating microbrewery, p272, www.hapenny-brewing.co.uk). (07/11)
• Kernel SE1 (Operating microbrewery, p273, thekernelbrewery.com). Kernel’s beers continue to impress. The London 1890 Export Stout was Supreme Champion at the International Beer Challenge in July 2011, and Evin O’Riordan was named as Brewer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers in December. The brewery is working to capacity and may soon need new premises. Read tasting notes. (29/12/11)
• London Brewing N6 (Operating brewpub, www.londonbrewing.com). Based at the reopened Bull at Highgate (see review) with Steve Grey as head brewer, this brewery sold its first beer on 6 September 2011. Regular beers are distinctive bitter Beer Street and an American pale ale, and there are numerous specials. (29/12/11)
• London Fields E8 (Operating microbrewery, www.londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk). The brainchild of Ian Burgess of Climpsons, an independent coffee roaster on Broadway Market, and business partner Jules Whiteway, this became the first commercial brewery in Hackney since the 19th century when it launched on 26 August 2011 with an open bank holiday weekend at the brewery site under the railway arches of the West Anglia line. Well over 1,000 people turned up on the first day and practically everything sold out. Since then the open days have become regular events, listed on the brewery website. London Fields produces hoppy pale ales and real lagers, initially on a small 4hl (2.5 barrel) kit, with an upgrade due in early 2012. (29/12/11)
• Meantime SE10 (Operating microbrewery, p275, www.meantimebrewing.com). The brewery’s ambition for serious commercial growth was further underlined in September 2011 with the appointment of a new Chief Executive, Nick Miller, who previously worked for multinational SAB-Miller as the managing director of its Miller Brands UK subsidiary. Meantime’s founder Alastair Hook acknowledged the change in approach with the adoption of c0nventional marketing techniques and commented: “There is no point in brewing great beer if you don’t have the distribution and marketing in place to get your product and your message to the consumer.” Note that currently the cask but not the keg or bottled version of London Pale Ale is contract brewed at Adnams in Southwold, Suffolk, while further capacity is installed in Greenwich. The arrangement should last no later than May 2012. Read tasting notes. (20/11/11)
• Moncada W10 (Operating microbrewery, p276). The brewery should have started trading by June 2011 but the launch was delayed due to copyright, electricity supply and other issues. The brewery launched to the public at the London Brewers Alliance showcase on 22 October 2011 with a trio of beers in both cask and bottle conditioned form: Blonde (4.2%), Bitter (4.3%) and Amber (a strong bitter, 4.9%). It will shortly be supplying a number of pub outlets. Read tasting notes. (22/10/11).
• Ram SW18 (Private brewery, p277). Brewing continues on site on an occasional basis, as far as I’m aware. See also note on Wells & Young’s below. (09/08/11)
• Redchurch E2 (Operating microbrewery, theredchurchbrewery.com). I spoke to the founders of this Bethnal Green-based brewery back in August 2011 at the launch of a pilot brew: read more here. Since then the production brewhouse from PBC has been successfully installed and the first commercial brew, Bethnal Pale Ale (5.5%), made with US and New Zealand hops, was launched to the trade in mid-September. Hackney Gold (5.5%), Shoreditch Blonde (6%) and Hoxton Stout (6.5%) have since followed: see website for details. (22/10/11)
• Redemption N17 (Operating microbrewery, p278, www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk). Read tasting notes. (07/11)
• Rye Lane SE15 (Planned microbrewery). Tom Reaney is the man behind plans to establish a brewery in Peckham. A pilot brew, Keep Your Peckham Up, appeared at the Peckham Rye Fête on 3 September 2011 and has since popped up at a couple of local beer festivals, though this is being brewed “at a friend’s microbrewery not too far away” (in fact, outside London in the Home Counties). Tom’s plans were set back when a potential site fell through, and he is currently considering further contract brewing.  (29/12/11)
• Sambrook’s SW11 (Operating microbrewery, p279, www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk). The 2011 summer seasonal turned out to be the tasty Pale Ale (4.2%). Read tasting notes. (07/11)
• Stag SW14 (Operating subsidiary of AB InBev, p280). Owners AB InBev announced in May 2011 that “given the very strong performance of Budweiser in the UK,” the planned closure of the plant has been postponed at least until the end of 2014. More news here. (07/11)
• Tap East E20 (Operating brewpub, more details on Westfield website). This craft beer pub in the new Westfield Shopping Centre right by Stratford International Station, a sister business to the Rake and Utobeer in Borough Market, opened on 13 September 2011. Its own 4hl (2.5 barrel) brewery was installed in mid-October and the first beer was sold on 10 November. Beers so far have included 3.8% and 5.6% pale ales and 6.65 and 5% stouts. Head brewer Eddie Baines has long worked for Utobeer and was previously a brewer in Firkin pubs. The beer is sold exclusively in the pub with no other outlets supplied. See pub review. (05/01/12)
• Truman’s E1 (Operating beer firm, p281, www.trumansbeer.co.uk). For Summer 2011, rather than producing a supplementary summer seasonal, regular beer Runner was temporarily withdrawn and replaced with a lighter, hoppier version called Summer Runner (4%), also brewed at Nethergate. The standard Runner recipe was reinstated at the beginning of October, though shortly afterwards production moved to Everards in Leicester. (28/01/12)
• Twickenham TW2 (Operating microbrewery, p283, www.twickenham-fine-ales.co.uk). (07/11)
• Weird Beard HA2 (Planned microbrewery, www.weirdbeardbrewco.com). Home brewers Gregg Irwin and Bryan Spooner aim to work in eclectic styles in cask, bottle and maybe keg, with an emphasis on beer and food matches, using a plant in Harrow shared with Ellenberg’s, a separate company (see above). (23/11/11)
• Zerodegrees SE3 (Operating brewpub, p284, www.zerodegrees.co.uk). Brewer Simon Siemsglüss moved on in July 2011 but has been replaced and the core range continues to be brewed. (22/10/11)

News stories commenting on the resurgence of craft brewing in London and elsewhere appeared around the Great British Beer Festival in early August 2011, among other things quoting me. Read coverage in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard. A good piece by Tom Whipple appeared in The Times 28 July 2011, featuring visits to five London breweries: Camden Town, Kernel, Fuller’s, Meantime and Sambrook’s. Read it here.

Other updates

• Two more Trappist breweries are currently planned, Mont des Cats in northern France and Zundert in the Netherlands. Chimay is currently brewing beer for Mont des Cats. (07/11)
• O’Hanlon’s brewery (p304), latterly in Devon but founded in London, went into administration in March 2011, but has been reconstituted under slightly different ownership arrangements and is brewing as normal. (23/09/11)
• Red Squirrel (p307) moved from Hertford to a new site on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead, 46km/29 miles from London, in May 2011 after merging with a wine wholesaler, CellarMaster. Gary Hayward continues as head brewer and the brewery retains its London LocAle status (01/01/12).
• Wells & Young’s (p316) was originally jointly owned 60:40 by the parent companies Charles Wells and Young’s, who also maintained their own separate pub estates. On 9 August 2011 Young’s announced it was selling its shareholding to Wells to concentrate on its pubs, though the current supply agreements will continue for at least two years. More news here. In 2011 the brewery revived the historic Courage Imperial Russian Stout **(10%) as a limited edition, and also now also owns the rights to veteran Scottish brands McEwan’s and Younger’s (29/12/11)