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.
Brewpub no longer brewing 94 Haverstock Hill NW3 2BD First sold beer: July 2016 Ceased brewing: July 2017
Originally named the Load of Hay, this Victorian pub on Haverstock Hill briefly had its own brewhouse for a year from 2016. The pub reopened as the Belrose in July 2018 with a new brewing kit installed, but due to technical problems, beer brewed on this was never sold, and the house beers were commissioned instead from London Beer Lab. The pub closed again in 2019 and was reopened in November as the Haverstock Tavern under new ownership with a connection to Leeds Brewery, but has not resumed its activities as a brewpub.
Beer firm no longer active mothership.beer Active since: September 2018 Ceased trading: by early 2023
This south London-based all-female beer collective began at UBREW in 2018, later cuckoo-brewing at various locations like By the Horns and Missing Link in West Sussex. The project was led by Jane Barnes, formerly a winemaker, and Zoe.
10p for every litre brewed was donated to women’s charities.
There were plans for a physical brewery and taproom but these never came to fruition and the company had ceased trading by early 2023.
Beer firm 3 Creekside SE8 4SA (Lewisham) littlefaithbeer.com Active since: December 2018
A side project of Kernel and ex-Beavertown brewer Alex Woods, this is based at a taproom in Deptford’s vibrant Creekside area, home to various creative and specialist businesses, arts and conservation projects. The beers are brewed at London Brewing and at Franklin’s in Ringmer, East Sussex.
Alex may add his own brewery eventually but there are no immediate plans.
After experimenting at UBREW, North London-based vintage shirt fan Jacob Liddle brewed his first commercial batches at Brum brewery in Birmingham in 2019. Subsequent brews have been at other locations including By the Horns. A standalone brewery remains an aspiration for now.
Based on the edge of the Olympic Park, this is a low alcohol specialist which has won awards for its canned beers. These were previously brewed at Sambrook’s and have since been brewed at SEB in Broadstairs, Kent.
Beer firm Hop Kingdom, 16 Druid Street SE1 2EY (Southwark) hopking.org Active since: September 2017
Ben Hopkinson, formerly at Late Knights (see Southey), and his brother Ludi combine their enthusiasms for both beer and skateboarding by producing their own beer for their indoor skate park Hop Kingdom and Ben’s Beer Rebellion bar. It’s since been distributed elsewhere, brewed at various locations including Hambleton Ales in Yorkshire, UBREW and Fourpure.
Brewery Unit G1 Coldharbour Works, 245A Coldharbour Lane SW9 8RR (Lambeth) friendship-adventure.com First sold beer: April 2021
Homebrewer Ed Pragnell and friends Toby Ejsmond-Frey and Neil Wates began working together in 2017, subsequently cuckoo brewing at Reunion, Signal and elsewhere and developing a joyful sideline promoting comedy events.
They added their own 16 hl facility in Brixton in 2021, appropriately enough in an old grain mill right by the railway near Loughborough Junction station and close to Clarkshaws. There’s a generously proportioned taproom on site.
A percentage of sales was donated to the Baytree Centre, a nearby charity promoting social inclusion for women and girls.
The brewery opened a second, off-site, taproom not far away in Brixton market in September 2023 (5 Market Row SW9 8LB).
Fermenting vessels decorated with beer branding at Friendship Adventure: why don’t more breweries do this?
Beers in keg and can were brewed mainly to session strength.
In June 2024, the business was sold to new owners and rebranded Supercute.
23 openings and revivals, 8 closures and suspensions, net change +15.
By the end of 2017, there were 108 commercial breweries operating in London, including 25 brewpubs. One was part of a national group (N), three were parts of multinationals (M). These breweries were:
Old Street Brewery WC1, Camden, brewpub, in preparation for a move to a standalone site
Other changes
Affinity Brew Co (Five Miles) N22, Haringey, brewpub, expand to standalone site in one of the Bermondsey arches vacated by Partizan. The Tottenham site and kit will be taken on and revived by Hale next year.
Beer Hive (Clarkshaws Brewing, London Beer Lab) SW9, Lambeth. Clarkshaws moves out to re-establish its own brewery nearby, leaving the location as a production site for London Beer Lab.
Brick Brewery SE15, Southwark, relocates production to bigger site in Deptford.
Brixton Brewery SW9, Lambeth, becomes 49% part-owned by Heineken.
Bull N6, Haringey, brewpub, rebrands its brewery to Gorgeous.
Hop Stuff Brewery SE18, Greenwich, moves to a much-expanded site in Plumstead/Thamesmead.
Long Arm Brewery (ETM) W5, Ealing, brewpub, brewing relocated to a purpose-built brewpub in Shoreditch.
Partizan Brewing SE16, Southwark, move to larger Bermondsey arch a short distance away. Affinity occupies one of the former arches, the other will be used by Spartan from next year.
Redchurch Brewery E2, Tower Hamlets, adds a larger production site outside London, converting its original arch into wild and mixed fermentation specialist Redchurch Urban Farmhouse.
For definitions of a London brewery, see the current London breweries page.
Brewpub no longer brewing 2 Greyhound Lane SW16 5SD (Lambeth) First sold beer: October 2016 Ceased brewing: early 2018
This small brewery occupied an outhouse adjacent to the Railway pub by Streatham Common station, though was owned and managed separately from the pub. It made bottled beer for sale in the pub and other local outlets.
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London’s Best Beer
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