Brewery
Original site: 11 Print Village, 58 Chadwick Road SE15 4PU (Southwark)
Second site: 2A-2 Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Road SE15 3SN (Southwark)
Current site (from September 2023): 48 Druid Street SE1 2EZ (Southwark)
kanpai.london
First sold beer: June 2017
The first sake brewery in the UK and one of only seven in Europe was founded by Tom and Lucy Wilson, who named it with the Japanese word for ‘cheers’. Originally Tom and Lucy worked at a very small scale at Peckham’s Print Village, but expanded in August 2018 to an old industrial building complete with taproom in the heart of Peckham’s ‘cultural quarter’ at Copeland Park.
During September 2023, the brewery and taproom relocated an arch on the Bermondsey ‘beer mile’ next to Southwark Brewing, while the previous location in Peckham was taken on by Eko Brewery.
Sake is technically a beer as it’s a fermented alcoholic drink derived from grains, though the process differs from Western brewing in that there’s no malting and mashing. The polished rice is steamed before undergoing a lengthy and complex fermentation using a mould called koji capable of converting starches into sugars as well as yeast to produce the alcohol.
Beers are in keg and bottle: all are high grade junmai sake made entirely from rice and water. Kainpai regularly collaborates with conventional brewers and other producers like Peckham meadery Gosnells.
Updated 18 December 2023.
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