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Des de Moor
Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
Accredited Beer Sommelier
Writer of "Probably the best book about beer in London" - Londonist
"A necessity if you're a beer geek travelling to London town" - Beer Advocate
"A joy to read" - Roger Protz
"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
Des de Moor

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SALT London (Ossett Brewery)

SALT London, London SE!8

Includes information for Hop Stuff Brewery

Brewery moved outside London, planned
Unit 9, 35 White Hart Avenue SE28 0GU (Greenwich)
First sold beer: August 2018 (as Hop Stuff)
October 2018 (SALT Beer Factory at Shipley, Yorkshire)
Brewing suspended: April 2019
Brewing restarted: December 2019
Brewing suspended: March 2020
Brewing restarted: December 2021 (as SALT London)
Ceased brewing in London: May 2023

Hop Stuff Brewery
Original site: 7 Gunnery Terrace SE18 6SW (Greenwich)
First sold beer: November 2013 (at original site)

London regained one of its larger craft brewers in December 2021 when Yorkshire brewer SALT Beer Factory bought the former Hop Stuff brewery in Thamesmead and its associated bars in Woolwich and Deptford from multinational Molson Coors. By early December the bars had already been rebranded and test brews and flavour matching had commenced, with commercial brewing restarted by March 2022.

SALT is a contemporary craft-slanted offshoot of Ossett Brewery. This began behind a pub in Ossett, Yorkshire, in 1998 before expanding to a much more substantial facility in a nearby industrial unit in June 2005. The original SALT Beer Factory opened in 2018 as a ‘craft’-focused in one of the historic buildings on the World Heritage Site at Saltaire near Bradford, and quickly established a good reputation. It was looking to expand its business in London and the south of England, so the Hop Stuff deal seemed a good fit.

SALT continued to brew on its original site but planned to transfer production of its biggest-selling core brands, notably Jute Session IPA and Huckabuck NEIPA, to London. The five-vessel 70 hl brewhouse was designed to be steam-heated: the steam plant was never commissioned under Hop Stuff or Coors, with a temporary generator used instead, but was finally commissioned under SALT’s ownership.

The revival proved short-lived, as following a failure to agree a new lease on the property, brewing ceased in May 2023, with production once again concentrated in Yorkshire. SALT continues to operate the former Hop Stuff bars and there are long-term plans to revive London brewing on a small scale by converting one of them into a brewpub.

Brewhouse at SALT London.

Hop Stuff Brewery

Hop Stuff was created by ex-City worker James Yeomans, who learned to brew at Grainstore in Rutland, with his wife Emma. It grew largely through crowdfunding, with 71 investors securing the first facility, a 16 hl kit from Oban Ales, in a listed former warehouse on what was then the newly redeveloped Woolwich Arsenal complex.

An ad-hoc taproom at the brewery was succeeded in late 2015 by a on another part of the Arsenal site. Further crowdfunding in 2017 financed an ambitious upgrade to a much bigger site on former arsenal land near Belmarsh prison in Thamesmead, increasing capacity to a potential 15,000 hl a year. Two more bars were added, in Deptford in December 2017 and outside London in Ashford, Kent in May 2018, with still more crowdfunding.

The business began to unravel in 2019, with production abruptly halted in April when staff were locked out by the landlord following problems with duty and rent payments. In July, James announced a pre-pack administration deal selling the business to US-Canadian group Molson Coors, owner of Carling and Sharp’s, which became the last of the major multinationals active in the UK to buy into a new London brewery – unfortunately with the loss of over £1.5 million to around 1,000 crowdfunding investors. James oversaw the transition but left before production restarted in December.

In the event, Coors managed 25 brews before the Covid-19 lockdowns struck in March 2020 and the brewery was mothballed. It was put on the market in August 2021 and subsequently bought by SALT as explained above. Coors retained the Hop Stuff brands with the possibility they could be brewed elsewhere, but they seem to have been quietly forgotten.

Updated 18 December 2023.

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4 comments to SALT London (Ossett Brewery)

  • Daniel O'Loghlen

    Hi Des, I was invested ( both emotionally and financially ) and knew James & Emma from the early dsys and am very sad at its demise. I do look out for news but it seems the brewing has been halted and website in permanent static mode for a year now

    . Any idea if Coors will reinvigorate it as promised or have they cut their losses?

  • Des

    Hi Daniel. Not sure about the current status though I’m guessing even the best-laid plans would have been disrupted by current circumstances. I’ll be updating my info about all the London breweries over the next few months for the now-delayed book and will keep a particular eye on this one.

  • Bryan Betts

    Hi Des, it’s in the news today that Yorkshire’s Salt Beer Factory has taken over the brewery site & 2 taprooms (Woolwich & Deptford, I believe), and will launch them as Salt London. Cheers, Bryan

  • Des

    Hi Bryan. I’ve since been to see SALT at the brewery and have updated the page accordingly. All very positive.

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