Formerly SlyBeast Brewing.
Brewpub, no longer brewing
68 Wandsworth High Street SW18 4LB (Wandsworth)
theraminnsw18.co.uk
First sold beer: October 2019 (as SlyBeast, see also Ram Brewery under Sambrook’s)
Brewing suspended: May 2022
Brewing resumed: Autumn 2022 (by Coalition)
Brewing ceased: January 2024
Commercial brewing returned to the historic Ram brewery in central Wandsworth in October 2019 with the reopening of the landmark Ram Inn as a brewpub, joined in 2021 by Sambrook’s in some of the historic buildings around the corner.
The pub, on the northwest corner of Ram Street and Wandsworth High Street, is on the site of the original Ram Inn where brewing is thought to have taken place as far back as the 16th century. As the Ram developed into a substantial commercial brewery, its footprint gradually spread west and north towards the river Wandle, but the pub was retained a a brewery tap. The current Grade II-listed building dates from 1883, and was remodelled in the 1930s when it was renamed the Brewery Tap.
The pub was closed and boarded up when Young’s closed the brewery in 2006, but though most of the site was then sold for redevelopment, the successor pub company retained the pub itself. With redevelopment nearing completion, it was leased to Keris and Lee De Villiers, who already leased two other popular local Young’s pubs. They refurbished it, installed a brewery and reopened it in October 2019 under its original name the Ram Inn.
Head brewer Alex Leclere presided over a 10 hl brewhouse from PBC behind glass in one corner, working under the SlyBeast brand. This was named after two dogs belonging to Keris’s sister: their stylised profiles appeared on the logo.
Beers were in keg and cask, sold in the pub and in some other outlets.
In July 2021, Young’s sold the pub, along with almost all the rest of its leased estate, to major pub owner Punch. On 15 December, Punch was bought in turn by US-based investment company Fortress. Sadly, Punch decided not to renew the lease and to run the Ram Inn under new management in May 2022. Brewing ceased, but Keris and Lee hope to resume elsewhere.
The kit remained in place, and in autumn 2022 Charlotte Cook of cuckoo brewer Coalition, which had long been looking for its own site in London, began using it on a cuckoo basis. The arrangement continued when the pub was refurbished and rebranded in January 2023 as one of Punch’s Laine pubs (which have some brewing tradition of their own), with beer available in the pub. But it ended at short notice in January 2024.
Laine have since confirmed they have no intention to revive production and are in the process of remvoing the kit and converting the space to other uses. All house brand beers are now brewed at Laine’s main brewery in West Sussex.
For more on the long story of brewing on the Ram site, see under Sambrook’s, and see also Young’s.
Updated 29 April 2024.
Very informative and thorough article, thank you. Unfortunately the unique and subtle Youngs ordinary bitter has not, in my opinion, been equalled. The gap left by Youngs has, thank goodness been filled by many other small outfits brewing producing interesting beers. I still mourn the loss of that beautiful old brewery.