Brewery
1A Elizabeth Industrial Estate, Juno Way SE14 5RW (Lewisham)
forestroadbrewery.com
First sold beer: October 2021
The outspoken Pete Brown (not to be confused with the like-named beer writer), originally from Massachusetts, began homebrewing when living in New York City. Moving to the UK, he worked at Siren and Camden Town, and first sold his own beer, brewed at Van Eecke (Leroy) in West Flanders, Belgium, early in 2016. It was named after Forest Road in Hackney where Pete was living at the time.
A London taproom opened the following year at Hackney’s Netil Market, and production shifted to Camerons in Hartlepool.
Pete always had an ambition for his own brewery, although the path to achieving this proved unexpectedly tortuous. Three potential sites fell through, the last when a second-hand brewhouse bought from Russian River in Santa Rosa, California, was already on the ship through the Panama Canal. Lockdown then struck and the build on the current site was beset by flooring and utilities problems and a distributor going into administration.
Thanks in part to investment from a friendly diner owner back home, the 60 hl brewhouse was finally commissioned in September 2021, joined by a kegging line from Austrian brewery Schloss Eggenberg. Head brewer is James Garstang, formerly at Camden Town, Partizan, the Kernel and White Rhino in India.
The building, just off the southern end of the Bermondsey ‘mile’, is part of a complex built in 1901 for the Mazawattee Tea Company, sited to take advantage of the Grand Surrey Canal which until the 1960s flowed along what’s now Surrey Canal Road. Several relics are on display, including the bricks of the back bar which were recycled from masonry found on site.
The Netil Market outlet has been retained alongside a taproom at the brewery itself. A pub in Westbourne Park, the Quiet Night Inn, was added in November 2022.
Beers are in keg, bottle and can, with occasional cask.
Updated 22 December 2022.
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