Brewery
Unit 11, 160 Hamilton Road SE27 9SF (Lambeth)
gipsyhillbrewing.com
First sold beer: July 2014
One of London’s biggest independent breweries, Gipsy Hill has a target to grow output to 24,000 hl in the next few years. Its footprint on the industrial estate in the like-named neighbourhood it calls home has grown from one to six units.
The credit lies with the three characters shown on the logo: founders Charlie Shaw (ex-Five Points), former City worker Sam McMeekin and head brewer Simon Wood, recruited from Dorset’s Piddle brewery. The first kit was a relatively generous 25 hl Malrex and the company was soon adding extra fermenters and warehousing.
Disaster struck in 2016 when the brewing floor began to collapse, but this proved a turning point with investment in a new high-quality floor and an upgrade the following year to a 60 hl brewhouse with a pilot kit and a canning line. A dedicated taproom opened in 2018 across the yard from the brewery itself. The brewery’s pub the Douglas Fir, on the other side of Crystal Palace Park, opened as a popup in a former shop in 2016 but soon became permanent.
In April 2021, Gipsy Hill became London’s first employee-owned brewery.
Beers are in keg and can, with some hand bottling for barrel-aged specials and occasional one-off casks.
Updated 10 December 2021.
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