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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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Affinity Brew Co (Grosvenor Arms)

Brew Co, London SW9

Brewpub no longer
Original site: Five Miles, 39B Markfield Road N15 4QA (Haringey)
Second site: 7 Almond Road SE16 3LR (Southwark)
Final site: Grosvenor Arms, 17 Sidney Road SW9 0TP (Lambeth)
affinitybrewco.com
First sold beer: 10 December 2016 (at original site)
Ceased : by March 2024

Founded by Steve Grae, ex-Brew by Numbers, and Ben Duckworth, this socially conscious brewery began with Anspach & Hobday’s old 4 hl kit in two half-sized shipping containers in the yard of Five Miles, a bar and venue in a former industrial building in Tottenham. Rapidly running short of space, it relocated in October 2017 to one of two small adjacent arches previously occupied by Partizan. The brewery’s previous home in Tottenham was eventually taken over by Hale (see Exale).

The arch was open as a taproom selling stock brewed in Tottenham before a 10 hl kit, originally at Long Arm in Ealing, came online early in 2018, the year the brewery began running the remarkably successful Cask festival in March. Steve and head brewer Stirling Mitchell also used a home-made grist case and old school open fermenters formerly at Pressure Drop. The brewery’s distinctive visual style was created by artist Tida Bradshaw.

During summer 2020, the brewery moved to the cellar of the Grosvenor Arms pub in Brixton. This was once a large pub with a ballroom noted for punk gigs in the 1970s and 1980s, but was closed in 2014 with its interior ripped out in preparation for conversion into a convenience store and flats. A campaign to protect it as an Asset of Community Value only partly succeeded when the Planning Inspectorate overruled Lambeth council in restricting the designation to the ground floor only, allowing flats above. Now much reduced in space, the pub was reopened in March 2019 by the owners of another nearby beer-friendly pub, the Priory Arms in Stockwell.

When found itself struggling following the loss of its taproom business in the 2020 lockdowns, the management of the Grosvenor invited the brewery to relocate to the cellar of the pub, which effectively became a brewpub. The brewhouse was too tall for the cellar so was sold to Three Hills brewery, the new occupants of the arch. A new brewhouse, sourced from Ryedale, had the same capacity but made use of unusual square-shaped vessels in more cellar-friendly dimensions.

An additional bottle shop outlet opened in Crystal Palace (22 Church Road SE22 2ET) in summer 2020 but closed in summer 2023. Ben moved on in 2021 and is no longer based in London.

Sadly, the new arrangements didn’t restore the brewery to long-term viability. By March 2024 had ceased and the company was in the process of being wound up. The pub continues as a noteworthy beer venue.

The unusual kit at Affinity’s Grosvenor Arms site.

Beers were in cask, keg and 440 ml cans filled by hand and sealed using a self-built seamer. Cask beers were sold mainly in the Grosvenor and its sister pubs while keg and cans were distributed more widely.

Updated 13 April 2024.

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