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Brewery now brewing outside London A007 The Chocolate Factory, 5 Clarendon Road N22 6XJ (Haringey) earthale.com First sold beer: July 2015 Ceased brewing in London: November 2021
This project was the brainchild of professional chef Alex Lewis, a specialist in foraged ingredients who began brewing commercially on a very small scale at home for a series of beer and food matching dinners he hosted at various south London venues in 2015.
All aboard the beer bus: the former Earth Tap in Wood Green.
Following a period of cuckoo brewing, Alex opened a taproom in the unusual location of a disused double-decker bus shared with a daytime café in Blue House Yard, Wood Green. He found space for his own brewery a short walk from the bus in July 2018, in the former Barratt’s biscuit factory, then known as the Chocolate Factory. A 200 l kit was used as a stopgap until April 2019 when beer began flowing from a more professional 10 hl brewhouse.
Alex had to quit the Chocolate Factory in November 2021 as it was due for demolition and redevelopment. He found a new site outside London at a vineyard near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The demands of relocation made it impractical to continue with the bus too, so sadly London lost one of its most interesting breweries and quirkiest beer venues.
While most recent brewery start-ups in London are the work of enterprising homebrewers, Portobello was an initiative from the established industry. Back in 2006, Rob Jenkins, formerly at Whitbread, Brakspear, Young’s and Wells, was in discussion with other now-redundant Young’s employees John Hatch and Derek Prentice about setting up a successor to the Wandsworth brewery, but things worked out differently and he ended up creating Portobello with head brewer Farooq Khalid. In 2013 they were joined by Joe Laventure, previously with Whitbread and Budvar UK.
The brewery began with a relatively generous 30 hl kit in an industrial unit on an estate between Wormwood Scrubs and Eurostar’s North Pole depot. In 2014, the original kit was replaced with a larger 50 hl model, with fermentation capacity extended several times. The brewery expanded to the next-door unit in 2021, with plans to increase annual production to 10,000 hl and to open a long-desired taproom in 2022.
Though an arrangement with Remarkable Pubs in 2018 to take over the microbrewery at the George and Dragon in Acton was abandoned soon after it launched, in 2019 the company gained its own first pub, the King and Co in Clapham. It soon added the Hack and Hop in the City of London, though this has since closed for redevelopment. The pub estate increased abrubtly to 15 sites in November 2020 following a deal with property company Downing, adding numerous pubs formerly managed by the Antic group.
Portobello’s substantial unit by the Eurostar depot.
Beers “brewed the West Way” are in cask, keg, can and bottle, widely sold through pub chains and supermarkets. The original vision was to produce mainly cask, but although still important this is now only 30% of the business, with 60% of production craft lager in keg and can. The brewery cans and bottles offsite, mainly at Marston’s in Burton upon Trent, but this may change with the additional space.
Brewery 6 Vulcan Business Centre, Vulcan Way, New Addington, Croydon CR0 9UG (Croydon) thecronx.com First sold beer: 6 August 2012
Drinks wholesaler Mark Russell and city worker-turned-brewer Simon Dale founded the Cronx as the first standalone brewery in Croydon since Page and Overton closed in 1954, operating from a 20 hl plant in an industrial estate in New Addington. Fermentation capacity has increased several times and Simon has moved on, but Mark remains as managing director.
The name jokingly blends the name of an equally outlying New York City borough with Croydon’s postcode.
The production site, while open for pre-arranged collection, is unsuitable for a regular taproom. In October 2016, the brewery opened an off-site taproom as one of inaugural businesses at the Boxpark next door to East Croydon station, but a combination of circumstances led to them giving up the lease on this in September 2021. A new taproom finally opened in central Croydon (71 High Street CR0 1QE) in May 2023.
Beers are mainly in keg, with some available in cask, can, bottle, minikeg and bag-in-box,.
A rather simplified diagram of the brewing process at the former Cronx Bar.
Beer firm, former brewpub, no longer brewing 7 Queens Yard, White Post Lane E9 5EN (Tower Hamlets) cratebrewery.com First sold beer: 18 July 2012 Brewing ceased: July 2020
Opened just in time for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by New Zealanders Tom and Jess Seaton, of the Counter Café nearby, and friend and brewer Neil Hinchley, this brewpub in the White Building, a former sweet factory beside the River Lea Navigation, was the first new brewing initiative in the post-industrial arts and media colony at Hackney Wick.
At first, beers were brewed on an 8 hl kit from AB-UK behind glass in the bar, but in summer 2014, a new 16 hl brewhouse formerly at Ascot Ales was installed together with a pilot kit in a newly renovated location across the yard known as the Brew-Shed. In 2018, the business, by then producing around 10,000 hl a year under the guidance of head brewer Calum Bennett, secured a lease on the entire White Building and crowdfunded for a major refurbishment and expansion. The plan was to revive brewing in the pub itself, making limited edition specials alongside the core brands from the production brewery.
Unfortunately, these plans were severely disrupted by the Covid-19 lockdowns and in July 2020 the brewing side of the business was forced into administration. The Brew-Shed facility was bought by Truman’s, now Big Penny, and subsequently closed. All Crate-branded beers are now cuckoo-brewed outside London.
The original brewpub is still open as a bar and restaurant. The original brewing kit remained in place for some time with a professed intention to revive it, but had been removed by early 2023.
Crate seen across the canal from the Lea Valley Path.
At its peak, Crate brewed contemporary-style ales and lagers in keg, bottle and can which were relatively widely available, including in major supermarkets. It also produced some cask, mainly for sale in the brewpub.
Brewery Original site: 8 Tyrrell Trading Estate, Tyrrell Road SE22 9NA (Southwark) Second site: 283 Belinda Road SW9 7DT (Lambeth) Current site: 497 Ridgway Road SW9 7EX (Lambeth) clarkshaws.co.uk First sold beer: 29 September 2013 (at original site)
Self-styled “beer imps” Ian Clark and Lucy Grimshaw’s enterprise began in a small industrial unit in East Dulwich. It expanded in early 2015 to a railway arch near Loughborough Junction in partnership with the London Beer Lab, with the intention of sharing the 8 hl kit with other small brewers.
Lucy and Ian of Clarkshaws.
This didn’t work out, and Lucy and Ian took the unusual decision to downscale rather than attempt to expand, figuring that a smaller brewery selling mainly through an on-site taproom would suit them better both financially and in lifestyle terms. They completed the move to their current home, in another arch close to Loughborough Junction station, in October 2017, installing a compact 1.5 hl brewhouse and three small but high-spec cylindroconical fermenters, with the old kit going to Southey.
For a while they supplemented their capacity by cuckoo brewing at Bexley in response to the occasional big order, with their own fermenter kept on the site, but this arrangement had ceased by the end of 2019.
The brewery works hard to reduce its environmental impact and makes a point of using UK ingredients even for its hop-forward beers. Its products are all unfined and vegan friendly, packaged in cask, keg and minikeg and hand bottled. They’re mainly sold directly through the taproom and on market stalls.
Brewery Arch 1127 Bath Factory Estate, 41 Norwood Road SE24 9AJ (Southwark) birdhouselondon.com First sold beer (as Canopy): 30 October 2014 Brewing suspended: November 2022 Brewing resumed (as Bird House): March 2024
Small independent hospitality group Bird House was founded by Frazer Timmerman, formerly at London Fields and Truman’s, with Wil Fuller, who previously worked for several pub groups. Its first site, opened in 2019, was The Hawks Nest, a railway arch bar in Shepherds Bush. This was followed by two venues in Peckham, also in arches.
In 2023, the group acquired the site and equipment of the former and much-loved Canopy brewery, located alongside various mechanics in a railway arch under the Thameslink line near Herne Hill station and Brockwell Park. Restoring production and refurbishing the taproom took longer than expected, but was finally completed by the end of March 2024 when the arch reopened under the name Bird House Brewery.
The head brewer is Heriot-Watt-trained William Hiscocks, who initially plans to brew mainly for the company’s own outlets, though with the possibility of expansion to supply third parties too: the brewery plans to extend into the next-door arch late in 2024.
Beers are in tank and keg though cask may appear among the changing specials. A canning line should follow once space is available.
Canopy was founded by Estelle and Matt Theobalds after the birth of their first child prompted a lifestyle change, beginning with 6.5 hl kit from a brewery in Wakefield that never got off the ground.
Canopy Brewing, London SE24
The installation evolved through various often home-built additions until it was capable of producing 18 hl, with a canning line added to coincide with a rebrand in autumn 2018. An atmospheric taproom was much appreciated locally.
Production was around 60% keg, 40% canned, with a small amount of cask and minikeg.
The brewery sadly announced its closure in November 2022, stating that “the current economic situation makes our position untenable. We are choosing to close in order that we have control over the process…We have tried, without being afraid of failing.” Brewing had already ceased by the time the closure was announced, though trading of existing stock continued until the end of December.
Camden Town Brewery, London NW5 and Enfield (London) EN3
Formerly Horseshoe Brewery, McLaughlins.
Breweries Original site: Horseshoe, 28 Heath Street NW3 6TE (Camden) Arch 55 brewery and beer hall: 55 Wilkin Street Mews NW5 3NN (Camden) Production brewery: Morson Road, Enfield EN3 4TJ (Enfield) camdentownbrewery.com First sold beer: May 2006 (as McLaughlins)
Now one of London’s biggest breweries, Camden Town began with a single vessel in the cellar of Hampstead pub the Horseshoe: look carefully and you’ll see a horseshoe still appears on the logo. The first brews bore the name McLaughlins, from a long-closed brewery in Rockhampton, Queensland, once owned by founder Jasper Cuppaidge’s family.
Struck by the popularity of his beer among pub customers, Jasper found investment to expand with the help of friends and family, including his father-in-law, prominent advertising executive John Hegarty, and pub and bar group Barworks (see Saint Monday Brewery). The expanded brewery was relaunched in June 2010 using a 20 hl computerised brewhouse from BrauKon, Germany, installed under two railway arches by Kentish Town West station. The site has expanded several times since and now occupies an entire run of arches.
Camden Town’s ‘Big Brewery’ makes no secret of its flagship brand.
In May 2013, Camden Town became the first new London brewery, and one of the first microbreweries in Britain, to invest in a canning line. By 2014 growth in demand had necessitated contract brewing some of the beer in Belgium. In February 2015 the brewery launched a crowd funding campaign to raise £1.5 million with the intention of expanding to a new site.
Then just before Christmas 2015, Camden Town announced it had been bought by the world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, in a deal thought to be worth £85 million, the second multinational acquisition of a London craft brewer following Meantime. Crowdfunders were offered what was reported as a 70% premium to sell back shares. Initially, the business continued to operate as a separate company within the group, with Jasper as chief executive.
AB InBev’s involvement enabled a major expansion with £30 million invested in a new and much bigger site on an industrial estate in the Lea Valley in Enfield. In operation since June 2017, at the time this represented the biggest new brewing facility created in London since Guinness opened the now-closed Park Royal in 1936, a feat Camden also previously achieved with its 2010 expansion. Brewing is now a 24-hour operation: the 100 hl brewhouse supplied by German company Krones can brew 12 times a day to fill 36 fermenters; the total capacity is around 200,000 hl a year with space to increase to 350,000 hl, enabling all brewing to brought back in-house.
In 2021, the brewery was fully integrated into AB InBev’s UK brewing operation, Budweiser Brewing Group, though Jasper was retained as a consultant.
The Enfield brewery was built with a visitor centre and taproom but these have never regularly opened to the public. The Kentish Town site has been retained as a brewery as well as a taproom, now mainly producing specials under the Arch 55 brand: the public areas were refashioned in 2021 into a Bavarian-inspired ‘beer hall’. Camden Town still owns the Horseshoe, and though a second pub, Camden’s Daughter, was closed after three years of operation in 2018, there are plans for more pubs in future.
Numerous talented brewers have worked for Camden Town. Troels Prahl of yeast supplier Whitelabs helped develop the initial recipes and establish good fermentation practices. Rob Topham, formerly of Fuller’s, was involved in commissioning the 2010 brewhouse, and is still head brewer. Brewing director Alex Troncoso left in 2016 to set up Lost and Grounded in Bristol.
Camden Town beer is unpasteurised but packaged bright, with over 80% sold in keg, the rest in can and bottle. Most of the beer produced is lager.
Brewery, brewing at London site currently suspended 25 Summerstown SW17 0BQ (Wandsworth) bythehorns.co.uk First sold beer: October 2011
Alex Bull and Chris Mills, then only three years out of university, started brewing on an industrial estate between Earlsfield and Wimbledon in September 2011, using a bespoke 9 hl kit from Oban Ales. Their site was opposite Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, the last of its kind in London.
A new 18 hl brewhouse, also from Oban, was installed in 2015, and the space began expanding into adjacent units, eventually occupying a whole row. A canning line was added in 2018.
Even this wasn’t enough, and in March 2021 the main production facility was transferred to Salfords, near Redhill, Surrey, just outside London (11 The IO Centre, Salbrook Road Industrial Estate, Salfords, Redhill RH1 5GJ), with a 30 hl semi-automated kit. A pilot brewery remained at the old place alongside an expanded taproom.
Meanwhile the greyhound stadium closed in 2017 and was soon demolished, replaced by a new development including a stadium for League One football team AFC Wimbledon alongside housing and shops. The Cherry Red Records Stadium, as it was named, opened in November 2020. By the Horns began brewing an exclusive beer for the stadium, Crazy Gang Pale Ale.
The relationship deepened in December 2021 when the brewery took over the Phoenix pub, on the stadium site but open to the public except during matches, as the new official taproom. The old taproom across the road has closed and the brewery is in the process of vacating the units.
A glimpse inside By the Horns in 2019, with the old brewhouse.
George and Dragon Brewpub, no longer brewing 151 Cleveland Street W1T 6QN (Westminster) First sold beer: December 2016 Ceased brewing: November 2017
Still and Star Closed brewpub 1 Little Somerset Street E1 8AH (City of London) First sold beer: December 2014 Ceased brewing: June 2015
W1 (Burlington Arms) Brewpub, no longer brewing 21 Old Burlington Street W1S 2JL (Westminster) First sold beer: December 2014 Ceased brewing: by 2016
During 2014, a company called BrewIT began marketing a device called the Truebrew, an automated 100 l ‘technobrewery’ with pre-programmed recipes, intended as hassle-free way to create an instant brewpub. Broadly the same size as a dishwasher, the machine could supposedly be used by anyone with no brewing knowledge or skills required, and enabled pubs to make cask beer in batches of two firkins more cheaply than they could buy it in. Unlike the DIY brewpub kits of an earlier generation, it used a full mash system, starting like a ‘proper’ brewery from dry grains and hops rather than extracts. Those of us who follow London brewing considered with trepidation the prospect of a new rash of tiny brewpubs to keep track of. It turns out we needn’t have worried.
The prototype Truebrew was installed on a test basis at the Still and Star pub near Aldgate in 2014, which briefly became the only commercial brewery in the City of London (a distinction currently held by BrewDog Outpost Tower Hill). Landlord Michael Cox began with the default recipes but soon began adapting them to his own specifications and buying in raw materials from third parties. But quality proved variable and brewing became increasingly intermittent. These were the only Truebrew beers I managed to taste, with Michael in 2015, and to be frank they weren’t good. Within a year the kit had been removed and though there was talk of an upgraded replacement, the pub now had other problems as its site was earmarked for redevelopment. Despite opposition, the pub closed early in 2018 and is currently the subject of a planning application for demolition.
The same month as the Still and Star, beers from a second Truebrew system began appearing at the Burlington Arms, a smart free house tucked away near West End Central police station . Licensee Taran Cheema used it to make beers under the W1 brand on what must have been a very occasional basis, as I never met anyone who tried them, and only other people’s beers (generally very good ones too) were on sale whenever I called. Activity had petered out by the time the pub was sold to new owners in 2017 and current staff have no knowledge that it once brewed its own beer.
Meanwhile, the Still and Star kit resurfaced at the George and Dragon in Fitzrovia in 2016. Production here was also erratic, and was officially suspended just under a year later, with the promise of an upgrade and relaunch. This still hadn’t happened when the pub closed for a major refurbishment in June 2018 and didn’t reopen for another 15 months. BrewIT, the company behind the kit, was wound up in June 2019, so we can conclude the experiment failed. It seems these devices were unable to substitute for the skills of an experienced brewer after all.
Includes information for Bull and Finch and So What Brewing Co.
Bullfinch Brewery, London SE24
Brewery Original site: 118 Druid Street SE1 2HH (Southwark) Current site: 886 Rosendale Road SE24 9EH (Lambeth) thebullfinchbrewery.co.uk First sold beer: 1 February 2014
Brewpub Bull and Finch, 126 Gipsy Hill SE19 1PL (Southwark) First sold beer: April 2022
Bullfinch mural at the like-named brewery.
Ryan McLean, originally from Ballymena, discovered international craft beer while travelling extensively for work as a live sound engineer. He began brewing commercially as a cuckoo at Anspach & Hobday in Bermondsey in February 2014, but this arrangement was soon outgrown thanks to the quality of the beers.
Cuckoo brewing ceased in April 2015, and in December, following a lengthy search for premises, Ryan and his wife and business partner Carly resumed business in two smallish railway arches just a few steps from Brockwell Park and a short walk from Canopy. One of the arches just about packs in an 8 hl brewhouse that began its life as a pilot kit at Charles Wells in Bedford, alongside numerous fermenters, some of them added after a 2016 crowdfunding round. The other houses a taproom.
Since May 2019 there’s been a second outlet, the Bull and Finch opposite Gipsy Hill station, previously one of Late Knights’ Beer Rebellion bars (see Southey). A 1.5 hl nanobrewery was installed here early in 2022 under the supervision of lead brewer and bar manager Jon Griffiths, with trial brewing starting in February 2022 and beers expected on sale in April.
From 2021, longer runs of Bullfinch beers have been cuckoo-brewed outside London, though some brewing continues at the Herne Hill site.
Jon Griffiths in the Bull and Finch nanobrewery.
Bullfinch core beers, usually named with astronomical references, are in keg, cask and minicask, though bottling may be restored. Beers from the nanobrewery will be either in traditional styles branded Bull and Finch, including revivals of old Bullfinch recipes in cask and keg, or small batch wild and mixed fermentation specialities under Jon’s own So What brand. Each batch of these will be divided between several small fermenters and treated with different yeasts and mixed cultures.
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