Breweries
Nano brews and tap: 41 Nursery Road SW9 8BP (Lambeth)
Production brewery: 283 Belinda Road SW9 7DT (Lambeth)
londonbeerlab.com
First sold beer: December 2013 (Nano brews), February 2015 (production brewery)
This interesting combination of a brewing school, production brewery and taproom is the brainchild of French-born Bruno Alajouanine and Irishman Karl Durand O’Connor, who met playing football when they both had jobs in the City. It opened in 2013 primarily as a teaching facility in an arch tucked away behind Brixton town centre on Nursery Road, with an assortment of small homebrew kits such as 20 l Braumeisters. The owners also brewed for sale from an on-site shop and a few local outlets, an arrangement that initially confused HMRC.
Early in 2015, London Beer Lab launched a partnership with Clarkshaws, whose 8 hl kit was moved to an arch on the other side of Brixton at Belinda Road, close to Loughborough Junction. The idea was to open a shared brewery complete with taproom and shop known as the Beer Hive, used by both partners and available to other brewers too. Sadly, this didn’t work out and in 2017, Clarkshaws sold its kit and downsized to its present location around the corner.
London Beer Lab continues to operate at both sites, using Belinda Road as a production facility currently closed to the public, with a new 24 hl brewhouse from Oban Ales which also hosts occasional cuckoos, and a 5 hl pilot kit added in 2021. The original site at Nursery Road continues to offer brewing tuition on an upstairs mezzanine, with various 20 l homebrew kits and a 2 hl pilot kit for specials and experiments. Downstairs is a taproom and bottle shop also selling brewing supplies.
In August 2019, the brewery partnered with restaurant the Tapas Room to launch a beer and tapas matching outlet, Taps and Tapas, in Tooting. This struggled during the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns and closed in August 2021.
Draught beers are in keg and can, with occasional cask and bottles. Specials brewed at the Nursery Road site are usually identified as ‘nano’ on lists and packaging. Various cuckoo brews and commissioned beers are also produced.
Updated 14 December 2021.
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