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, no visitors please Sidcup DA15 (Bexley) tankleysbrewery.com Active since: November 2015 First sold beer: May 2024
Australian-born homebrewer Glenn Heinzel first brewed commercially under the name Tankleys (an obscure family pun) at UBREW late in 2015. A year later, fellow UBREW users Beerblefish began brewing in their own right on a larger scale at a site in Enfield, and Glenn was brought in full time to run the operations.
Since then Glenn has continued Tankleys as a side project, developing recipes on a Grainfather homebrew kit at his Sidcup home and cuckoo brewing at Beerblefish and elsewhere. In 2023 he revived his brewing license and began brewing commercially at home in spring 2024. This activity is set to increase once a larger 1.6 hl kit is commissioned later in 2024.
Beers are mainly in cask, with some small scale bottling, sold locally and at festivals.
Brewpub Hopewell Square, London E14 0SY (Tower Hamlets) thelockdownroom.com First sold beer: March 2024
As the name Lockdown Room suggests, this popular bar-restaurant and event venue on London City Island, a recent development in a horseshoe meander of the river Lea near Canning Town, evolved from an initiative to supply the community during the lockdowns. Local resident and beer expert Allan was asked to advise on the craft beer side and subsequently helped build it into a noted beer venue supporting numerous independent London breweries.
Allan has since added a 1.5 hl nanobrewery on the mezzanine and is now producing keg beer on a small scale for in-house sales under the Hopewell Brewery name.
5 openings and revivals, 20 suspensions and closures, net change -15.
By the end of December 2023, there were 107 commercial breweries operating in London, including 25 brewpubs. 10 were parts of multinationals (M). Those breweries were:
Babel Beerhouse (formerly Little Creatures Regents Canal) N1, Camden, brewpub REVIVED! was also briefly active this year again under the new ownership of Odyssey, but brewing was suspended again by December 2023 and the business has been sold on again.
Closed this year
BBNo (Brew by Numbers, Bermondsey) SE16, Southwark, closed by May 2023.
Beavertown Brewery (Tottenham Hotspur, Heineken M) N17, Haringey, brewpub, suspended spring 2023 and equipment subsequently removed, production continues at other sites
Boxcar Brewery E2, Tower Hamlets, suspended February 2023, cuckoo brewing shortly afterwards but ceased by June 2024.
Brick Brewery SE8, Lewisham, bought by BREAL Group June 2023 and closed in November with brands relocated to other breweries in the group outside London.
Macintosh Ales N16, Hackney, cuckoo brewing exclusively since July 2023
Oddly Beer N11, Friern Barnet, inactive since at least early 2023
SALT London (Ossett, formerly Hop Stuff) SE28, Greenwich, closed May 2023, brewing continues outside London and may revive on a brewpub scale at one of the SALT bars in London.
Spartan Brewery SE16, Southwark, closed June 2023 though have subsequently cuckoo brewed, site and kit sold to Battersea to become Battersea Substation
Former lawyer Rob Fink and designer James Kindred launched Big Drop as a specialist brewer of beers of 0.5% ABV and less after Rob noticed a gap in the market when he gave up drinking for an extended period. They began by cuckoo brewing at now-closed Bermondsey shared brewery UBREW in 2016 but by 2017 had expanded to partnerships with larger producers, appointing former Wild Beer brewer Johnny Clayton as head of production.
As of 2023, the business is based in Ipswich, Suffolk, though the beer is brewed in London at Fourpure, and the relationship was strengthened in May 2023 through a licensing deal.
Beers are in can and keg, in a variety of styles from lagers to brown ales and stouts, including changing specials. They are exported internationally and also brewed in Australia and the USA for local markets.
Christos Daskalopoulos and Matt Dean met when they were both working at an Athens brewpub. Matt later went to Meantime but ended up working alongside Christos again when Greek brewery 56 Isles set up 3 Locks as a London offshoot.
In 2023 the pair got the chance to create their own venture, taking on the former Gravity Well arch under the Overground at Leyton Midland Road. This initially reopened in August as a bar but began producing beer again in November on a venerable 8 hl kit that Matt believes was originally made for a first-generation 1970s microbrewery.
The name is borrowed from a legendary 17th century utopian colony founded by pirates, which practised equality for all irrespective of colour and creed.
Beers are in keg, bottle and can, with cask due to be added early in 2024.
Beer firm, planned brewpub Patchworks, 258 Church Road, London E10 7JQ (Waltham Forest) blondiesbar.co.uk Planned for: Feburary 2024
Blondies is a popular Clapton bar and music venue opened by sisters Sharmaine and Verity Cox in 2016. The sisters always planned to add their own brewery but struggled to find a site: plans for a railway arch in Hackney fell through in 2019 and the lockdowns frustrated further progress.
In summer 2023, the bar began stocking a house lager and session IPA cuckoo brewed at Mammoth, and on 18 August 2023 the bar at a new brewery and taproom site finally opened in a former furniture factory space a short distance from the river Lea at Leyton.
A 10 hl brewhouse sourced from BritHop was installed with the assistance of Mammoth, but a combination of paperwork and practical issues delayed commissioning. Test brews were successfully completed in December 2023 and commercial brewing is expected early in 2024.
Beers will initially be in keg only, sold onsite and at the Blondies bar, though there are plans to expand production to distribute the beers more widely and possibly add a canning facility.
9 openings and revivals, 19 suspensions and closures, net change -10.
By the end of December 2022, there were 122 commercial breweries operating in London, including 27 brewpubs. 11 were parts of multinationals (M). Those breweries were:
Flat Iron Square (Lagunitas, Heineken M, formerly St Felix Place) SE1, Southwark, brewpub, brewing ceased by April 2022, brewing equipment removed by summer 2024.
Goose Island Brewpub Shoreditch (AB InBev M) E1, Hackney, brewpub, ceased brewing when pub sold September 2022 and kit subsequently removed.
Gorgeous Brewery (Bull) N6, Haringey, brewpub, ceased brewing when pub sold February 2022, subsequently merged with a brewer outside London.
Jeffersons Brewery TW9, Richmond upon Thames, ceased brewing September 2022 and company subsequently dissolved.
Laine’s Brew Lab (People’s Park Tavern) E9, Hackney, brewpub, ceased brewing by January 2022, kit removed and sold.
SlyBeast Brewing brewpub, host pub Ram Inn sold to new owners without SlyBeast brand, brewing resumes after a brief suspension when Coalition hire the kit.
St Felix Place (Laguintas, Heineken M) renamed Flat Iron Square and subsequently suspends brewing.
For definitions of a London brewery, see the current London breweries page.
Beer firm Also known as Not Another Beer Co. 58 Devonshire Street, London W1W 5EA luckysaint.co Active since: October 2018
Founded by Luke Boase, London-based Lucky Saint commissions a much-admired and widely available unfiltered alcohol-free pale lager to its own recipe. The beer is made at a historic Bavarian brewery in accordance with the traditional purity law but the company is coy on the details.
For several years the company was managed from co-working spaces but in March 2023 reopened the Masons Arms pub in Fitzrovia, London W1, renaming it the Lucky Saint, as both a bar, which also stocks alcoholic drinks, and permanent offices.
The beer was originally available only in bottles but is now also canned, and a keg version has been available since 2020.
Brewpub Brewery: 15 Whitburn Road SE13 7UQ (Lewisham) Pub: 316 Lewisham High Street SE13 6JZ foxfirkin.com First sold beer: October 2023
Firkin Brewery, London SE13
This busy music pub became a brewpub towards the end of 2023, with a facility known as the Firkin brewery added in a former Sainsbury’s depot at the back. The project was the brainchild of Didier Autard, who has owned the pub for over a decade, and brewing consultant Hugo Anderson, a longstanding brewer with AB InBev.
The brewery was first proposed before the 2019 Covid lockdowns, but was subject to numerous delays due to bureaucracy, installation and staffing issues. The original head brewer had to leave for health reasons, but a replacement formerly at BBNo has since been recruited. The first beers eventually went on sale towards the end of October 2023.
This is the second time the pub, formerly the Black Bull, has operated as a brewpub. In 1980 it became the second in David Bruce’s chain of Firkin brewpubs following the Goose and Firkin and continued to serve its own beer until new owners Punch discontinued brewing across the chain in 1999. It’s one of the few to retain its Firkin-era name.
Beers are in keg though following a planned refurbishment in 2024 the core brands will be dispensed from 1,000 l tanks behind the bar.
Brewery Arch N4 Dockray Place NW1 8QD (Camden) 3locksbeer.com First sold beer: November 2022
Founded by Marinos Alexandrou of the 56 Isle brewery in Paros, Greece, this enterprise occupies several arches under two branches of the Overground, with a taproom and shop located in arch S14. The three locks of the name are on the nearby Regents Canal.
Matt Dean and Christos Daskalopoulos, who worked with Marinos to set things up initially, have since moved on to their own brewery, Libertalia.
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London’s Best Beer
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