Includes information for Hackney Brewery and Squeeze (40FT).
Bootyard Original 40FT brewery
Bootyard, Abbot Street E8 3DP (Hackney)
40ftbrewery.com
First sold beer: 5 July 2015
Blackhorse Main 40FT brewery
10 Lockwood Way E17 5RB (Waltham Forest)
First sold beer: Early 2021 (as Hackney Brewery)
Brewing suspended: April 2025
Brewing resumed: October 2025 (as 40FT)
Original Hackney brewery
358 Laburnum Street E2 8BB (Hackney)
First sold beer: June 2012 (at original site)
Ceased brewing: Early 2021 when production transferred to Lockwood Way above
Squeeze planned brewpub
130A Kingsland High Road E8 2LQ (Hackney)
First sold beer: December 2020 (as Kraft Dalston, part of German Kraft)
Brewing suspended: December 2024
Brewing expected to be resumed: Early 2026
The brainchild of German-born former London Fields and Truman’s head brewer Ben Ott and three homebrewing business partners, brothers Fredrik and Andreas Pettersson and current chief executive Steve Ryan, this outfit was named after its original home in a converted 40 foot (12.2 m) shipping container.
This is located in a former car park managed by the Bootstrap economic development charity behind Dalston’s Arcola Theatre, where several other small and lively businesses flourish, including a bakery and restaurant. Other containers have since been added, including two converted into a taproom in 2019, which deservedly won a regional SIBA award in 2020. The site is ultimately due for redevelopment but that’s several years away.
The brewery uses a 10 hl kit from Oban Ales, old-fashioned open fermenters and, unusually for a UK brewery, several horizontal lagering tanks: most beers on sale in the taproom are dispensed direct from these. There’s also a pilot kit for small runs.
40FT announced major expansion plans in July 2025, acquiring a bigger production site, with a 20 hl brewhouse, canning line and taproom, at the former Hackney brewery in Walthamstow (see below). The taproom reopened in August, but the resumption of brewing was delayed as some of the kit had been stolen or vandalised while the unit was unoccupied. The brewery was finally back on line in October.
The original Bootyard site remains in operation for now, though the long-term plan is to shift production to Walthamstow and turn this into an expanded taproom.
In September 2025, 40FT became a partner in the reopening of the former Kraft Dalston brewpub under the name Squeeze. This ultra-modern brewpub was created by German Kraft and partners in December 2020 in Dalston’s new Locke ‘aparthotel’. The building changed hands and was rebranded as Staycity Aparthotel in December 2024 and the bar closed as part of the general contraction of German Kraft in London. On reopening it sold beer brewed at other 40FT sites, including an exclusive house brand, though 40FT plants to revive the German-style 5 hl brewhouse behind glass in the basement early in 2026, to take over the house beer and perhaps provide some rotating specials.
They’re also working to revive the currently closed Dalston Roofpark open air venue on top of the Print House building (18 Ashwin Street E8 3DL), round the corner from the original brewery site in the Bootyard. This has long stocked 40FT beer and will now become a 40FT-managed venue.
Unpasteurised and unfiltered beers are brewed for tank, keg and can: originally canning was accomplished using a mobile line but moved in house with the acquisition of the former Hackney site.
Hackney Brewery
First sold beer: June 2012 (at original site)
Ceased brewing: April 2025
Former homebrewers Peter Hills and Jon Swain both worked at Islington pub the Charles Lamb when they decided to join the growing ranks of East London brewers in 2011. They began with a small 8 hl kit which they ended up using twice a day to fill the growing number of fermenters squeezed into their railway arch under the Kingsland viaduct.
In 2015 the brewery expanded into a neighbouring arch and in 2016 was reconfigured following advice from consultants, with a new 20 hl brewhouse fabricated to the bespoke designs of Jon and head brewer Darren Walker. Further tanks were added to raise production to 5,000 hl a year.
With no space to increase production further nor for a taproom, the brewery began looking for a new site. In November 2020, the business moved into an industrial unit in the rapidly growing brewing hotspot of Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, immediately opposite Wild Card. A well-appointed taproom, known as the High Hill Taproom, opened here following the end of the lockdowns in May 2021.
Despite landlords Waltham Forest council’s initial encouragement of small food and drink businesses on the estate, the company struggled to agree repayment terms of post-lockdown arrears. It was forced at the end of March 2025 to close its onsite taproom. Initially it hoped to sustain brewing, but in April confirmed that the brewery was closing too.
In July 2025, as explained above, 40FT acquired the site, soon reopening the taproom and starting work on restoring brewing.
Nearly all Hackney beers were sold in keg and can. Regular cask beers were discontinued early in 2018 though a small amount was still sold to selected pubs and bars.
Updated 16 December 2025.
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