Brewery
Original site: 5B Wilmer Business Park, Wilmer Place N16 0LW (Hackney)
Second site: 19 Bohemia Place E8 1DU (Hackney)
Current site: 6 Lockwood Industrial Park, Mill Mead Road N17 9QP (Haringey)
pressuredropbrewing.co.uk
First sold beer: 12 January 2013
Former Euston Tap cellarman Graham O’Brien and Sam Smith (no relation to the famous Yorkshire brewing family) are old school friends, and Graham met the third partner in Pressure Drop, Ben Freeman, on an internship at London Fields. They developed their first recipes on a Braumeister pilot brewery in Graham’s garden shed in Stoke Newington in the summer of 2012, but lack of space meant much of the work was done outside – which they quickly realised wasn’t a viable option with winter on its way.
The first commercial brews emerged from a small industrial unit nearby, then in March 2013 they moved to a Hackney railway arch using an 8 hl kit from ABUK. This soon also proved too small, despite the addition of fermenters bought second-hand from Beavertown during one of its various moves.
Over the course of 2017, production was transferred to a new 32 hl Gravity Systems brewhouse, new fermenters and a canning line in a much bigger space with a generous taproom in Tottenham Hale, coincidentally just opposite Beavertown on the same industrial estate. The Hackney arch was restyled as The Experiment bar, operated jointly with Cornwall’s Verdant Brewing. This closed in July 2023 following the expiry of the lease and a failure to renew at an affordable rent.
Pressure Drop brews a variety of contemporary beers in keg and can.
Updated 1 September 2023.
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