Includes information for current brewery. For more about the history of the current site, and the non-commercial Ram Brewery active 2007-21, see Young & Co’s Brewery (Ram Brewery).
Brewery
Original site: 1 Yelverton Road SW11 3QG (Wandsworth)
Current site: 1 Bellwether Lane SW18 1UD (Wandsworth)
sambrooksbrewery.co.uk
First sold beer: November 2008
Disappointed by the lack of locally brewed beer following the closure of Young’s at Wandsworth’s historic Ram brewery, city accountant Duncan Sambrook determined to do something about it. He created Sambrook’s with the help of veteran David Welsh, formerly of Ringwood brewery in Hampshire, becoming an early contributor to the current wave of London breweries. They installed a 33 hl Canadian-built brewhouse in a former photography studio not far from the river Thames in what was then one of the less sought-after areas of Battersea.
The brewery subsequently expanded into neighbouring units, and in 2013 co-founded a packaging facility, South Eastern Bottling (SEB) in Broadstairs, Kent, in partnership with two other breweries, Gadd’s and Westerham.
Sambrook’s owes at least some of its success to filling the niche left by Young’s, so there was a certain poetry to the announcement in 2019 that the business was relocating to the redeveloped Ram brewery site. The move was delayed by the Covid lockdowns among other issues, but Sambrook’s finally began brewing on the site in April 2021, beginning with its flagship Wandle Ale, finally brewed within a few metres of the river after which it’s named.
The brewery now occupies part of the heritage buildings, in a former cooperage which was also once used as a porter tun room. Adjacent in more heritage buildings are an extensive taproom as well as the visitor centre which documents the history of brewing on the site and houses remaining beam engines and coppers.
John Hatch, a former Young’s employee who kept brewing going on the site on a non-commercial basis during the lengthy closure period, now works for Sambrook’s. He continues to brew on his ‘nanobrewery’, now located on a mezzanine above the main brewhouse, and also leads tours of the visitor centre.
Sambrook’s beers are widely distributed in cask, keg, bottle and can, the last two packaged at SEB. Ram Brewery beers are normally in cask, with occasional hand bottling, for sale in the taproom and at special events.
More about the history of the site.
Updated 28 May 2024.
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