Promoting an international beer culture that recognises and celebrates beers of quality, distinctiveness and local character, brewed with care and passion.
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.
Brewery 8 Willow Business Centre, 17 Willow Lane, Mitcham CR4 4NX (Merton) www.drop-project.co.uk First sold beer: March 2021
Two former members of the Gipsy Hill team, John “JT” Taylor and Joe Simo, got together with friend Will Skipsey to launch this eco-conscious enterprise in October 2019, originally cuckoo brewing at Missing Link in West Sussex before commissioning their own brewhouse on a Mitcham industrial estate.
As much as possible is recycled and they’ve committed to planting a tree for every brew and for every 100 pints sold on site. There’s a taproom with views of the impressive 30 hl brewhouse, though this is currently only open for special events. The name refers equally to liquids, brewing, board sports and music: “when something drops it makes a splash,” comments JT.
Beer firm, suspended brewery 550 Brixton Station Road SW9 8PF (Lambeth) dogsgrandadbrewery.co.uk First sold beer: March 2021 Brewing suspended: November 2023
Passionate homebrewer and hardcore metal singer Alex Hill speculates that he may have set up this railway arch brewery “for the cheapest price ever” as he installed and built much of it himself.
A 10 hl brewhouse from Latimer Ales, Chinese-built fermenters, a canning line and even a reverse osmosis filter were carefully shoehorned into a small arch a few doors down from Brixton Brewery, with the kit proudly bearing the house colour and brand, and a small taproom at the front.
By late 2023, the brewing equipment had been removed with the brands now cuckoo-brewed elsewhere.
Brewery 647 Portslade Road SW8 3DH (Wandsworth) distortionbrewing.co.uk First sold beer: February 2019 (at original site)
Inspired by a road trip to the US West Coast in 2007, Andy North began developing recipes in his garage, eventually taking on an arch under Wandsworth Road Overground station in his native Battersea in 2020.
A taproom and tank bar takes up the fron half the space, with the 10hl Chinese-built brewhouse and fermenters behind a parade of serving tanks.
Beers in tank and keg are currently sold in house with some kegs sold elsewhere and future plans for canning.
London’s 140 breweries and flourishing beer scene are celebrated this autumn in the long-awaited third edition of my award-winning guidebook London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, published by CAMRA books. The fully updated and revised essential guide to London beer launches on 18 November with a special event at the impressive new Sambrook’s taproom on the historic Ram brewery site in Wandsworth, with an exclusive collaboration brew created with London beer hero John Hatch.
Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, London is once again one of the best beer cities in the world. From traditional pubs serving top quality cask ale to the latest on-trend bottle shop-bars and funky brewery taprooms in railway arches, London is now bursting with great beer and this book will direct you to the very best.
The book includes:
Profiles of all 140 London breweries including beer and taproom details
Detailed reviews of 180+ additional pubs, bars, shops, restaurants and other outlets with an outstanding beer offer
London beer style guide with recommendations and tasting notes
Background features exploring London’s rich brewing history and modern beer scene
Colour illustrations and detailed maps throughout.
Previous editions in 2011 and 2015 were hailed as “probably the best book about beer in London” by the Londonist website, praised as “meticulously researched and open-minded” by The Independent and described as “a joy to read” by veteran beer writer Roger Protz. Both editions won me the annual Best Beer and Travel Writing award from the British Guild of Beer Writers.
It’s been a particularly long process this time round, including walking the equivalent of London to Glasgow and beyond, but I’m glad to say the finished book represents an industry is such great shape given the challenges of the past 18 months, with brewery numbers doubling since the last edition. And I’m excited and proud to be launching it at Sambrook’s and working with John Hatch on a tie-in beer. The revival of commercial brewing in such grand style on arguably the most important brewery heritage site in Britain is one of the great success stories of the last few years.
Tickets for the event are free but should be booked in advance as numbers are limited. Tie-in beer London X Ale, a 5.5% ABV pale mild of the type made in the capital in the 1880s, will be available in a limited edition nine-gallon batch.
I’m pleased to announce that, following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, my programme of beer tours has resumed from September 2021 onwards.
In another sign that London’s beer scene is getting back to something like a (new) normal, the long-awaited 3rd edition of my book London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars is at last being prepared for press and should be on sale by the end of October 2021.
Following the lockdowns, I checked all the text again and visited numerous new places to make sure the book was as up-to-date as possible. I’m glad to say that, so far, the closures have been relatively limited and new places have continued to open. Over 140 breweries will be featured, and I’ll be updating my online brewery pages over the next couple of months.
On the tour front, I’m now managing the flagship Saturday Bermondsey Microbrewery Experience myself in partnership with its originators, UK Brewery Tours, so have added it to my Beer Tours pages. There are also more dates in the diary for my established brewery and pub heritage tours.
The past 18 months have been an exceptionally difficult and disruptive time for everyone of course, but brewing and hospitality have faced particular challenges. It’s great to be able to get out there once again and discover a beer scene that’s as vibrant as ever.
Update September 2021: In the event, publication was further delayed beyond March 2021 due to the ongoing lockdowns. It’s now been confirmed for October 2021: see the main London page.
Following discussions with the publisher, CAMRA Books, I’m sorry to announce that the long-awaited new edition of my book London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, won’t now be published on 21 May 2020 as planned. Instead, we’ve agreed to delay publication to March 2021, allowing plenty of time for everyday life in London to return to some semblance of normality.
There’s little sense in launching a new guide to beer, pubs
and bars when all the pubs and bars are still shut, many breweries are
mothballed and nobody can go out. We couldn’t hold launch events, and we’d lose
the initial momentum of sales if people can’t put the book to use immediately,
as well as the important market of visitors to London. While the authorities
are now discussing a phased ending of the lockdown, it’s still not clear when
this will happen, and likely that pubs and bars will be among the last
businesses to reopen.
It’s gutting to have to do this, especially as I know many
people were looking forward to the new edition. I’d been working on the project
in earnest for over a year, and our editor, project manager, designer and
cartographer had also worked hard for many months. The book was in the final
stages of page makeup as the first restrictions were introduced. But of course
the top priority in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic is to protect our health.
I’m painfully aware of the impact of the current situation
on the industry of which I’m a very small part. It’s been amazing to see so
many people rally round and find innovative ways to cling on to at least some
business, with the shift to home deliveries and schemes like vouchers for
future discounts. Much of the London brewing scene is very firmly rooted in
local communities and that really counts at a time like this, so it’s
heartening that beer businesses are now involved in more general community
initiatives too.
CAMRA, which publishes the book, has also taken the initiative with its Pulling Together campaign in partnership with independent brewers’ organisation SIBA and online platform Crowdfunder. It’s launched an online pub, the Red (On)Lion, compiled lists of businesses offering special services, including home delivery, and supported a national Pay it Forward scheme enabling customers to pay in advance for goods and services for the future. See camra.org.uk/pullingtogether for more.
Hop Burns & Black Deptford, one of the businesses making a success of home delivery.
Despite such initiatives and the various government support
schemes and rent deferrals put in place by some landlords, some businesses will
inevitably find it hard to survive the lockdown or regain their previous
momentum when they reopen. And it’s impossible to compensate for the loss of
social opportunities resulting from the current closures. So it’ll soon be more
important than ever before to get out and about and support all those great
breweries, pubs, bars, shops and other outlets.
The book has always been a champion of our wonderful
industry, and when it’s finally published, I’ll return to the task with renewed
enthusiasm. With more time for additions and revisions, the new edition will be
as current as possible. And we’ll have a packed programme of events, tours, tastings
and signings to underline the message.
In the meantime, please support your local independent beer businesses as best you can by using the various home delivery schemes now in operation. As well as the resources on the CAMRA site, Beer Guide London (beerguideldn.com) has a useful list specifically for London on its news page, so there’s absolutely no reason to buy beer from supermarkets. Please stay well and safe, and we’ll share a beer when all this is over.
Note this is an archive page for content about previous editions of my London guidebook London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars.Information about the most recent edition.
London’s Best Beer second edition
The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars by Des de Moor, 2nd edn 2015
Best beer and travel writing 2015 — British Guild of Beer Writers Gold Award
The 2nd edition of my award-winning book, The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer Pubs and Bars, was published by CAMRA Books on 2 July 2015.
“Probably the best book about beer in London” — Londonist “A joy to read and will be my constant companion” — Roger Protz “If you live in London and like beer, get a copy” — Boak & Bailey “Meticulously researched and open-minded” — Independent “A detailed and accessible treasure-chest of information” — Jeff Evans “Rarely does a book appear that stands so much above other books as this guide” — PINT Magazine
London is once again one of the best beer cities in the world, and London’s Best Beer sets out to provide the complete and indispensable guide to its beery treasures. Historically a brewing colossus and long renowned for its great pubs, this great city has in a matter of years reclaimed its status as a world class centre for making beer as well as drinking it. The book directs both the beer beginner and the connoisseur to the best places in which to experience London’s miraculous local beer renaissance alongside brewing excellence from the rest of the UK and, indeed, the world. Importantly, it also details London’s growing band of brewers and sets the contemporary beer scene in the context of the city’s rich culture, history and brewing heritage.
This fully illustrated full colour volume includes:
260 detailed listings of recommended places to drink and buy beer, including specialist pubs and bars, brewpubs, brewery taprooms and bottle shops, with over 100 additional ‘try also’ mentions
a complete directory of over 70 London breweries plus non-brewing beer firms with brief notes on beer ranges, plus selected brewer interviews and extended features on key producers
London beer styles guide with recommendations and tasting notes
Background notes on the history and heritage of London brewing
Extensive maps and transport details
The beer scene in London has changed so much since the first edition of this book was published in July 2011 that this edition is pretty much an entirely new book. Of the 252 places to drink listed in 2011, only 100 are still listed in 2015, some of these under different names and/or new management; all have been revisited and their details checked and revised. Everything else has been heavily revised or rewitten afresh, with much new material, so if you bought the first book, I strongly recommend you upgrade to this one!
“Probably the best book about beer in London…This is not merely a guide on where to drink, it’s a guide on how to, and why Londoners drink like they do.” — Will Noble, Londonist. Read full review.
“A superb book, beautifully designed…The book is a joy to read and will be my constant companion on visits to the capital.” — Roger Protz, Publican’s Morning Advertiser. Read full review.
“More than just a list…packed full of interesting essays…If you live in London and like beer, you should certainly get a copy.” — Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog. Read full review.
“There’s a lot of good beer to be found [in London], particularly if you’ve got something as meticulously researched and open-minded as de Moor’s new book to hand.” — Will Hawkes, Independent. Read full article.
“A thorough and considerate job…delivering a detailed and accessible treasure-chest of information that is far more than just a list of places to drink…impressively designed to pack in a wealth of detail without bamboozling the reader.” — Jeff Evans, Inside Beer. Read full review.
“I don’t believe a more comprehensive and easy to use guide has ever been written for any city on any subject anywhere. In short, this guide definitely raises the…what’s the word?” — Alec Latham, Mostly about beer. Read full review.
“Rarely does a book appear that stands out so much above other books as [this guide]…I travel to London every year and I thought I knew what was happening on its beer scene. Apparently not. But now I do, thanks to Des de Moor’s new book.” — Theo Flissebaalje, PINT Magazine (Netherlands).
Past launch and promotional events
25 June 2015 Official launch, signing and London beer tasting at Blackwells Bookshop, Holborn
3 July 2015 Signing at Truman’s Brewery yard party
8 July 2015 Signing and London beer tasting at Chelmsford Summer Beer and Cider Festival
9 July 2015 Signing at Ealing Beer Festival
11 July 2015 London brewers tap takeover signing at the Cock Tavern
12 July 2015 Berliner Weiss-Off sour beer festival signing at Mother Kellys
26 July 2015 Food and beer safari and signings at Borough Market Food Meets Beer Festival
Tim Skelton’s Beer in the Netherlands, the essential English language guide to one of the most interesting and dynamic beer scenes in the world, is now in its second edition — with a little input from me as I edited the text.
The growth of Dutch craft brewing in recent years has been spectacular: from a mere 40 breweries in 2002, the country now boasts around 350. More importantly, between them they offer a dazzling range of styles to equal any in the world — astonishingly for an industry which not so long ago was known only for producing lakes of indifferent pale lager and perhaps a bokbier or two in the autumn.
Tim’s comprehensive new guide provides personal reviews not only of all those breweries but the same number again of beer companies without brewhouses, with notes on thousands of beers and more than 550 specialist cafés and take home suppliers. It covers the scene from Aachen to Zwolle and many off-the-beaten-track places between. Like its predecessor, it should become the trusted companion of many a beer explorer, including visitors from the UK taking advantage of the new direct Eurostar connection.
British-born Dutchman Tim has lived in the Netherlands since 1989 and become an award-winning beer and travel writer and global expert on Dutch beer culture. He’s also the author of Around Amsterdam in 80 Beers (Cogan & Mater) and Luxembourg: The Bradt Guide (Bradt Travel Guides).
I’m particularly delighted to have been involved in this project as Tim’s book is part of a family that I like to think includes my own London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars. Our common spiritual ancestor is Tim Webb’s benchmark Good Beer Guide Belgium, first published in 1992 and now co-compiled with Joe Stange, which I regard as an exemplary work and was the model for my book. The Belgian guide began by covering the Netherlands too, but as the beer scene in both countries grew beyond the confines of a single volume, Tim W concentrated on Belgium, while Tim S, who had contributed to Tim W’s guide, developed a new work covering the northern neighbour.
You can buy copies of the latest Beer in the Netherlands at Beer Inn-Print.
Closed brewery Nine Elms SW8 (Wandsworth) First sold beer: 1998 Ceased brewing: by end 2005
Tim Haggard left his job as City accountant in 1997 with plans to set up a brewery with his brother Andrew, but the opportunity soon arose to take over and refurbish a Fulham pub, the Imperial Arms at 577 Kings Road SW6 2EH. The Haggards added a brewery in 1998, with an 8 hl kit overseen by Andrew, but although the intention was to brew mainly for the pub, the facility was on a separate site across the river in Battersea. It made a single cask beer, Haggards Horny Ale.
The pub had considerable success selling vodka jelly shots, originally from a third party supplier, but when this went out of business, the Haggards began making the product themselves at the brewery under the name Bad Jelly. Despite controversy about the jellies’ alleged appeal to children and the involvement of the Portman Group, this side of the business grew and eclipsed the brewing activities.
The pub was sold in 2005 and the brewery closed. The pub has had several changes of ownership since and is currently closed.
Closed brewery Lakeside Drive, Park Royal NW10 7HQ (Ealing) guinness.com First sold beer: 1936 (at this site) Ceased brewing: 2005 (at this site, still brewing outside London)
Guinness is of course an Irish brewery but its early history was strongly shaped by London brewing at a time when Britain ruled Ireland. Arthur Guinness had a share in a brewery in Leixlip/Léim an Bhradáin, County Kildare, from around 1755, and in 1759 set up his own brewery in the Irish capital, Dublin/Baile Átha Cliath, famously taking out a 9,000 year lease on a site at St James’s Gate where the brewery still operates today.
Originally the simple ale styles of the day were brewed, but in 1778, Guinness began producing porter in direct competition with imported London beers which were gaining in popularity in Dublin. It was likely not the first Irish brewery to do so but ultimately the most successful.
By the mid-19th century Guinness was one of the biggest brewers in the British Isles, successfully transforming porter and stout (the latter originally simply a stronger porter), into something characteristically Irish. The fame of Irish stout, and of Guinness in particular, spread across the world with the Irish diaspora, making it one of the first global brands, and by 1914 St James’s Gate was producing an astonishing 4.34 million hl a year.
By the 1930s, with Dublin now the capital of an independent state and English porter heading inexorably towards extinction, mainland Britain was one of Guinness’s most important export markets. While customers in the northwest and Scotland were easily reached by ship from Dublin, the south of England was less accessible, so, having considered and rejected a Manchester site, Guinness added a satellite brewery in London.
The location chosen was Park Royal in Willesden, a former Royal Agricultural Society showground in the western suburbs on the A40 trunk road which was then being redeveloped as an industrial zone. Guinness built a massive state-of-the-art facility with a capacity of more than 715,000 hl a year, designed in art deco style by George Gilbert Scott, noted for Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern) among other buildings, and Alexander Gibb. Centered on three interconnected 30 m-high blocks, and with extensive private railway sidings, it won praise from renowned architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner as an antidote to ‘the exuberance of contemporary bypass Art Deco’.
For a while after it opened in 1936, it restored to London the long-lost distinction of being home to the biggest brewery in the world. It turned out to be last new brewery in the capital before the arrival of modern microbrewing in the late 1970s.
Originally Park Royal brewed only Guinness Extra Stout, then at around 5.5%, in draught and bottle-conditioned form. Following various flavour matching and blending trials with Dublin-brewed Guinness, the company ceased shipping the latter to London, with southeast England entirely supplied from Park Royal from 1938. The draught stout was pasteurised and pressurised by the 1950s, but bottled Guinness remained a live product until 1994.
Unlike other historic industrial British brewers, Guinness never pursued a policy of acquiring a pub estate, instead relying on the distinctiveness of its beer and the strength of its brand to ensure it became a ‘must-stock’ in pubs owned by other brewers. For decades it often strengthened its partnerships with potential competitors by selling its beer in bulk for other brewers to bottle for sale in their own outlets.
Park Royal’s output peaked at 3.3 million hl a year in 1972, but it continued to produce substantial quantities for many more decades. In 1978 a new lager plant opened, primarily to brew Harp Lager (around 3.5%), a brand it launched in Ireland in 1960, brewed at the Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk, and began marketing in the UK in partnership with Courage and Scottish & Newcastle the following year. Harp was first brewed at Park Royal in the early 1960s, while a dedicated brewery intended for it was under construction at Courage’s Alton site. In the 1980s the Park Royal lager facility also brewed a licensed version of Alsatian lager Kronenbourg 1664, early low alcohol lager Kaliber (0.5%) and a long-forgotten Guinness Bitter. In 1998 most lager production was contracted to Camerons in Hartlepool and the plant closed the next year.
Where are they now?
In 1997, Guinness merged with hotel, catering and spirits group Grand Metropolitan, which had sold off its own brewing interests in Watney (see Stag Brewery) six years previously, to form Diageo, one of the biggest drinks companies in the world. In 2005, with improvements at St James’s Gate, the London plant was deemed surplus to capacity and worth more as development land. It was summarily closed, with Guinness production for the UK market centralised in Dublin.
Draught, canned and bottled Guinness, now known as Guinness Original (4.2%), are of course still brewed in Dublin. Harp has disappeared from the mainland UK but is still available in Northern Ireland, also brewed in Dublin, as is Kaliber.
Despite its importance, the Park Royal brewery buildings were entirely demolished, among some controversy, in 2006. Following an application from the 20th Century Society, English Heritage (now succeeded by Historic England) recommended the building for listing, but this was overruled by the government.
Diageo retained its global headquarters in a more recent office block on the site at 1 Lakeside Drive NW10 7HQ until 2021, but has since relocated to a central London address.
Meanwhile, Guinness is set to return to brewing in London on a much smaller scale by the end of 2024 with the opening of Guinness at Old Brewers Yard in Covent Garden.
Things to see
This must be one of the most thoroughly effaced large breweries in London, entirely replaced by homes, business parks and green space. The original layout has been completely lost and it’s now very hard to work out the footprint, though the long, narrow lake that functions as a centrepiece of the new development more-or-less marks the western boundary. There aren’t even any street or business names to recall the earlier use.
This pioneering new book explains what makes cask beer so special, and explores its past, present and future. Order now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
London’s Best Beer
The fully updated 3rd edition of my essential award-winning guide to London’s vibrant beer scene is available now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
