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.
The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co (Pinter), London E17.
Brewery (of sorts), no visitors please 11A Uplands Business Park E17 5QJ (Waltham Forest) pinter.co.uk First sold beer: September 2020
The brainchild of two former musical festival promoters, Ralph Broadbent and Alex Dixon, this isn’t a conventional brewery but supplies a hi-tech home beer-making gadget, the Pinter, billed as a ‘Nespresso for beer’, and ingredients packs to use with it.
Technically, it’s not a homebrewing system as there’s no liquid to heat up: instead you use a special ‘fresh press’ concentrate, cold water and yeast in a single 10l vessel which took seven years to develop. This is cunningly designed to accommodate fermentation, conditioning and dispense, typically taking 4-5 days to produce drinkable beer.
Ralph and Alex point to the environmental benefits of their system which they say reduces packaging by 70% and CO2 emissions by 50% compared with bought-in beer. The business is located in the Walthamstow brewing hub of Blackhorse Lane.
I couldn’t get the Mark 1 version supplied as a review sample to work so can’t comment on the results, but I understand others have had better luck. The Pinter 2 was released later in 2021.
Fresh Press packs are created by ex-Camden Town brewer Evangelos Tsionos and are designed to fit through a letterbox.
Closed brewery 5B Elms Industrial Estate, Church Road, Romford RM3 0HU (Havering) First sold beer: May 2021 Ceased brewing: October 2022
Founded by lawyer and homebrewer Rash Singh Mahal with the help of brewer Thomas Newman on an industrial estate in the Ingrebourne valley near Harold Wood, this 8 hl setup was originally planned to launch in 2020 but delayed by the pandemic.
A taproom opened at the brewery in spring 2022 but soon closed due to licensing problems. The brewery itself closed in October 2022.
Prolific Danish nomad brewery Mikkeller, founded by Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, opened its first London bar in October 2018, teaming up with Mikkel’s unlikely childhood hero, 1980s pop idol turned beer connoisseur Rick Astley.
A second London venue, also in partnership with Rick, began as a popup in a former menswear shop in the atmospheric surroundings of Exmouth Market in October 2019. During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns, this was converted into a brewpub, with a bespoke 7.5 hl brewhouse from Premier Stainless in San Diego in pride of place at the rear and fermenters downstairs.
Beers are sold in-house from tank and sometimes kegged for export to Mikkeller outlets elsewhere. Brewers have autonomy to develop their own recipes, mainly producing rotating specials in a wide range of styles, though some recur more frequently than others
Brewery Original site: The Rose and Crown, 71 Torriano Avenue NW5 2SG (Camden) Current site: 87 Randolph Street NW1 0SR (Camden) werewolfbeer.com First sold beer: December 2020 (at original site) Brewing suspended: Early 2021 Brewing resumed: February 2022 (at current site)
This “American brewery in London” (thus the name, a reference to the film An American Werewolf in London) is the brainchild of US expat and former London Brewing head brewer Rich White. Cuckoo brewing started at Little Creatures early in 2020 but plans for a site were disrupted by the lockdowns.
The first commercial beers flowed at the end of the year from a pilot kit installed in the cellar of Kentish Town pub the Rose and Crown, and in 2021 the project successfully crowdfunded for a move to its own arch under the London Overground close to Camden Road, with its own haunted train ride rescued from a derelict theme park.
Follwing a one-off opening for Hallowe’en 2021, installation was completed in early 2022 and brewing commenced at the end of February. The 8 hl brewhouse was previously at the Prince, but new fermenters have beenadded. The taproom opened fully on 1 April.
Brewery moved outside London and later closed Original site: 4 Thrapston Road, Woodford, Kettering NN14 4HY (Northamptonshire, outside London) London site: 7 Almond Road SE16 3LR (Southwark) Later site: 5 Cosy Nook, Thrapston, Kettering NN14 4PS (Northamptonshire, outside London threehillsbrewing.com First sold beer: October 2016 (at original site), September 2020 (at London site) Ceased brewing in London: Spring 2023 Closed: May 2025
Andrew Catherall worked as a brewer in China before founding Three Hills as a small batch nanobrewery in a rural setting at Woodford, Northamptonshire. The brewery’s logo consisted of the Chinese characters for ‘three hills’ (三山).
A longstanding aspiration for a London outlet was realised in 2020 when Affinity moved from a Bermondsey arch to the cellar of the Grosvenor Arms in Brixton, leaving its old kit behind as it waas too tall for the new location.
Three Hills was the arch’s third brewing tenant since 2015 when it was first occupied by Partizan, founded next door. Three Hills used Affinity’s old 10 hl kit, originally at Long Arm in Ealing, though with modifications and the addition of a new set of fermenters.
Interestingly customised piano at Three Hills The Outpost.
The brewery retained its original site, though for some time produced most of its beer in Bermondsey, which also provided a taproom. Late in 2022, it relocated its Northamptonshire activities to a larger site not far away at Thrapston, and began concentrating production there. The brewhouse was moved from Bermondsey to Thrapston in spring 2023 and the arch became just a taproom.
Three Hills went into liquidation in May 2025 and the Bermondsey outlet closed.
Beers were in keg, tank, can, bottle and occasional cask.
Brewery Unit C, 1 Strawberry Vale, Twickenham TW1 4RY (Richmond upon Thames) jawbonebrewing.com First sold beer: December 2020
Energetic former Weird Beard brewer Ben Hughes has found a characterful and attractive location for this solo project, in a working boatyard on the Thames by Swan Island in Twickenham, next to riverside Radnor Gardens. The brewery even occasionally dispatches beer by boat.
The generously sized, steam-heated 30 hl brewhouse was formerly at Wylam and Mad Hatter. Beers to take away have been sold from the opening and a drink-in taproom was added in autumn 2021, with decor that suggests both the industrial heritage and the building’s immediate past as an artist’s studio.
Beers are in keg and 440 ml can, with some cask. Packaging makes use of views of the surroundings.
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. The name refers equally to liquids, brewing, board sports and music: “when something drops it makes a splash,” comments JT.
Brewhouse at Drop Project, Mitcham.
A taproom with views of the brewhouse was initially provided but soon moved to monthly opening. It was closed completely in 2025 to facilitate expansion of the production facilities.
Closed brewery 550 Brixton Station Road SW9 8PF (Lambeth) First sold beer: March 2021 Ceased brewing: November 2023
Passionate homebrewer and hardcore metal singer Alex Hill speculates that he may have set up his 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.
Alex Hill of Dogs Grandard Brewery, Brixton.
By late 2023, however, the brewing equipment had been removed with the brands now cuckoo-brewed elsewhere. The company was finally wound up in May 2024.
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.
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.
