Brewery
70 Verney Road SE16 3DH (Southwark)
theoriginalsmallbeer.com
First sold beer: November 2017
In the 17th century, small beer was the lowest-strength product of a brewery, consumed daily by people of all ages in preference to water. It was usually made by sparging (rinsing) the mash a final time after the worts for the stronger beers had been extracted.
James Grundy and Felix James have given the idea a contemporary twist in response to the growing interest in lower-alcohol drinks by opening a brewery producing low alcohol and reduced alcohol beers at strengths of 1-2.7% ABV. The beers are properly mashed and fermented with no artificial alcohol extraction and no old school multiple sparging, just careful control of recipes and processes.
Felix, a homebrewer previously at AB InBev and Fuller’s, though in packaging rather than brewing, met James when they both worked at pioneering new London craft distillery Sipsmith. They occupied the site, a former laundry in an industrial area of South Bermondsey, from summer 2017, installing a sizeable 50 hl steam-heated brewhouse designed to their needs and built by Gravity Systems.
Its configuration includes a mash tun, two coppers which can be used both for the hop boil and as hot liquor tanks, an underback and whirlpool. It’s not only optimised for the brewing style but for minimum environmental impact, with a ‘dry floor’ and chillers that use glycol as well as water to help reduce water consumption, and a target of using 100% renewable energy (currently 74%).
Previously the onsite taprooom was open only for special events but has kept regular hours since autumn 2022.
Beers are in keg and distinctive stubby 350 ml bottles, filled off site.
Another, unrelated and much smaller Small Beer Brewing Company in Wood Lane has since been renamed Concrete Island.
Updated 22 December 2022.
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