Promoting an international beer culture that recognises and celebrates beers of quality, distinctiveness and local character, brewed with care and passion.
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Brewery Original site: 11 Print Village, 58 Chadwick Road SE15 4PU (Southwark) Second site: 2A-2 Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Road SE15 3SN (Southwark) Current site (from September 2023): 48 Druid Street SE1 2EZ (Southwark) kanpai.london First sold beer: June 2017
The first sake brewery in the UK and one of only seven in Europe was founded by Tom and Lucy Wilson, who named it with the Japanese word for ‘cheers’. Originally Tom and Lucy worked at a very small scale at Peckham’s Print Village, but expanded in August 2018 to an old industrial building complete with taproom in the heart of Peckham’s ‘cultural quarter’ at Copeland Park.
During September 2023, the brewery and taproom relocated an arch on the Bermondsey ‘beer mile’ next to Southwark Brewing, while the previous location in Peckham was taken on by Eko Brewery.
Sake is technically a beer as it’s a fermented alcoholic drink derived from grains, though the process differs from Western brewing in that there’s no malting and mashing. The polished rice is steamed before undergoing a lengthy and complex fermentation using a mould called koji capable of converting starches into sugars as well as yeast to produce the alcohol.
Tom Wilson of Kanpai with fermenters,
Beers are in keg and bottle: all are high grade junmai sake made entirely from rice and water. Kainpai regularly collaborates with conventional brewers and other producers like Peckham meadery Gosnells.
Brewpub, brewing currently suspended 1 Lewis Cubitt Walk N1C 4DL (Camden) babelbeerhouse.com First sold beer: 5 May 2019 (as Little Creatures Regents Canal) Brewing suspended: August 2022 Brewing resumed: March 2023 Brewing suspended again: December 2023
This substantial brewpub in the Kings Cross redevelopment opened in May 2019 as the London outpost of Australia’s Little Creatures, founded in Fremantle in 2000 as a pioneering and influential craft brewery, although part of Japanese brewer Kirin’s Lion Group since 2012 and now allocated to its Lion Little World subsidiary.
Veteran Lion brewer Laura Smith, originally from New Zealand, was the inaugural head brewer, presiding over a neat 5 hl steam-heated Lehui brewhouse from China visible through glass in one corner. Brewing was suspended during the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns and Laura returned to the southern hemisphere in 2021, though production resumed when the pub reopened in the spring of that year.
Brewing was suspended in August 2022, when Lion Little World sold all its UK breweries, including Fourpure in London and Magic Rock in Huddersfield. The new owner is Odyssey Inns, founded by Stephen Cox, a co-founder of Utopian Brewing in Crediton, Devon, who has stepped down from his role there to run the new group. In October the bar was renamed Babel Beer House, with Little Creatures brands no longer stocked.
The brewhouse remained in place and the new owners resumed production in March 2023. At least one own-brewed ‘tank’ beer was usually available, fermented in and dispensed from the line of cylindro-conical vessels behind the bar under blanket carbon dioxide pressure. Other beers sold were usually sourced from sister breweries Fourpure and Magic Rock or third parties.
Laura Smith inaugural brewer at Little Creatures Regents Canal.
By December 2023 brewing had been suspended again, and in March 2024 management of the site was transferred to a new company, Perfect Hive. It remains to be seen whether production will be revived.
Closed brewery Pinner HA5 (Hillingdon) First sold beer: 23 February 2019 Ceased brewing: by March 2023
German-born former marketing specialist Larissa Graeber and her husband Grant, who came to the UK as an officer with the US Navy based in Northwood, originally planned a brewery in central London with a 16 hl kit bought secondhand from Darkwave brewery in Bristol. When this fell through, they decided to convert their garden “summerhouse” in London’s far-flung northwest into a 2.5 hl facility with five fermenters from Elite Stainless Fabrications. Beers in keg and bottle were sold locally.
The bigger kit was placed in storage with plans to use it once a suitable site has been found. Progress was slowed by the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns but two possible brewpub/taproom sites were under consideration in late 2021.
Sadly none of these plans came to fruition and in March 2023 the company submitted a voluntary application to wind itself up.
Brewery, likely no longer brewing in London Hare Wines, 24 Rigg Approach E10 7QN (Waltham Forest) magicspellsbrewery.co.uk First sold beer: June 2017 Brewing ceased in London: by July 2021
This brewing offshoot of Leyton-based drinks wholesaler Hare Wines started when owner Jas Hare noticed both the quality and booming popularity of the London-brewed beers he was selling. Brewing began in 2015 on a small scale in Epping, focusing initially on own-label brews for restaurants and similar businesses, with the Magic Spells brand launched in 2017.
Initial commercial brews were at Red Fox in Coggeshall, but the brewer there, Glenn Ackerman, later joined the Magic Spells team, commissioning a small 5 hl kit in a space adjacent to the wholesale warehouse, also used for events. The kit was mainly used for trial brews, ‘brewer for the day’ events and a summer taproom, while more commercial runs were at Firebrand in Cornwall under Glenn’s supervision.
Following the 2020 lockdowns, Magic Spells gave up its events and brewing space in Leyton and relocated all brewing. I’ve been unable to confirm the current location but it’s likely to be outside London. The wholesale drinks warehouse remains open and now has a retail side too.
Nodding in their name to local heroes the Kinks, the Hillbillies are also a quartet, though currently still holding their day jobs and working on the brewery part-time. Homebrewers Martin Hodgson and Pete Syratt began the project by experimenting at UBREW but by late 2016 were registered commercially, working on a small scale at Pete’s home and selling very locally, including at the Alexandra Palace Farmers’ Market.
They moved up a notch in February 2017, taking an upstairs space at 24 Avenue Mews, a small street just behind the main Muswell Hill junction that’s also home to several other craft businesses. Here they worked on a big homebrew-style setup making 130 l batches. A taproom opened a few doors down in April 2018.
In October 2019, the brewery upgraded to a more professional capacity with the former Hale 5 hl kit (previously used by Affinity and Anspach & Hobday) on the ground floor of another unit in the mews.
The taproom at Muswell Hillbilly’s pretty Muswell Hill mews
Beers are mainly cask and
bottle-conditioned, with some kegging, and often use local ingredients: some of
the hops is grown by the Hillbillies and their friends in gardens and
allotments.
Brewery, no visitors please Bromley BR1 4HE (Bromley) mutineers.beer First sold beer: October 2018
Inspired by an “experience day” at London Fields, engineer Rob Vote began homebrewing with friends Gareth Bathers, Lee Hayes and Joe Miles. They later graduated to small-scale commercial brewing using a 1 hl three-tier kit at a private address.
Beers in cask and bottle are mainly at session strengths, sold through local outlets.
Brewery 3 Cromwell Industrial Estate, Staffa Road E10 7QZ (Waltham Forest) neckstamper.com First sold beer: January 2017
Another member of the Lea Bridge brewery cluster, Neckstamper boasts a 16 hl Dave Porter kit in a small industrial unit, with a taproom right next to the brewing floor. Founder and long-time homebrewer Adam Jefferies began as a mechanical engineer working in Formula 1 racing but switched to banking before embarking on professional brewing after a short course.
The curious name is from an obsolete London slang term for 18th century potboys who delivered beer from pubs to private estates; beer names make similar use of archaic drink-related slang.
Adam Jefferies of Neckstamper Brewing.
Beers are packaged in keg as well as in cans using a mobile line.
Brewery T6 Leyton Industrial Village, Argall Avenue E10 7QP (Waltham Forest) nirvanabrewery.com First sold beer: May 2017
Founded by Steve Dass and Becky Kean, this operation in a modern industrial unit at Lea Bridge specialises in low alcohol beers. Everything is properly brewed and fermented from traditional ingredients but using reduced amounts of malt and controlling mashing temperatures and fermentation carefully to reduce the strength.
The brewery is equiped with a 16 hl brewhouse plus a pilot kit. A taproom is open for occasional events.
Head brewer Steve Hunt, formerly at 360 Degree in Uckfield, moved on in 2021, replaced by Chris Matthewman, ex-Brixton.
Beers are mainly bottled, with some kegs and cans. Core beers are no more than 0.5% ABV while specials made on the pilot kit occasionally creep up to 1.2%.
Closed brewery, beer firm 44 Church Street, Twickenham TW1 3NT (Richmond upon Thames) ricardoscellar.co.uk First sold beer: January 2018 Ceased brewing: March 2020
For a while this was probably London’s smallest commercial brewery, occupying a corner of a shop unit shared with a delicatessen and a record dealer in Twickenham’s historic Church Street. A 20 l Braumeister homebrewing kit was used for monthly open brewdays and private bookings, the brainchild of former Heineken employee Guy Hutchinson and retailer Ricardo Garcia. Some of the results were sold in the shop in plastic bottles.
Activities had to stop during the lockdowns, and are unlikely to restart as Guy has now fully retired and moved out of London.
Ricardo, meanwhile, continues to commission beers under the Ricardo’s Cellar brand for sale in the shop. Previously these have been brewed at Belleville and Twickenham and are currently supplied by Hepworth in West Sussex.
Brewpub 106 Northfield Avenue W13 9RT (Ealing) markopaulo.co.uk First sold beer: 2 December 2016 Brewing suspended: September 2021 Brewing resumed: June 2023
Closed production brewery Ealing Brewing Brewery 4 The Ham, Brentford TW8 8HE (Hounslow) First sold beer: 2 November 2019 Ceased brewing: June 2023
The Owl and the Pussycat opened in December 2016 as the first London micropub north of the river and the UK’s first only micro-brewpub. The custom-built 2 hl brewery, named Marko Paulo after the two ex-teachers who founded it, Paul Nock and head brewer Mark Yarnell, was neatly wedged into a small room at the back.
Despite its size, its success far exceeded expectations, and in 2019 the operation expanded to an industrial unit in Brentford under the name Ealing Brewing. This was equipped with a 6 hl kit and four fermentation tanks formerly at the Gene Pool brewery in Hull, alongside a 40 l pilot kit, with a taproom added in November.
The Owl and the Pussycat continued brewing for a while, producing small runs of specials, but following the challenges of the Covid-19 lockdowns, all production moved to the Brentford site by September 2021. The original site continued as a micropub with a wide range of the beers available.
Following the taproom closure in June 2022, there were rumours that the Ealing brewery had closed, and though these turned out to be premature, by June 2023 the Brentford site had been sold and brewing revived on a small scale at the Owl and Pussycat under the original Marko Paulo name.
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