Brewpub no longer brewing
78 Norman Road SW19 1BT
hopback.co.uk
First sold beer: March 2015
Ceased brewing: November 2015
In a South Wimbledon back street, the well-loved Sultan has been the only London pub owned by Wiltshire’s Hopback brewery since 1995. A small brewhouse was installed in a shed in the garden early in 2015, producing cask beers for sale in the pub. But the brewer left in November 2015 and was never replaced, and the equipment was subsequently removed, leaving this as one of the most short-lived London brewpubs of recent times.
The owning brewery has historical London connections as its founder John Gilbert was one of the first generation microbrewers in the capital in the 1980s, beginning his career in 1983 a brewpub owned by Mike Conway, the Prince of Wales in Battersea, and later brewing at the Warrior in Brixton, part of the same group.
In 1986, John moved to his own pub outside London, the Wyndham Arms in Salisbury, where he began brewing under the name Hopback in 1988. Moving to a standalone site in 1991, Hopback became one of the most successful UK microbreweries, noted for Summer Lightning, the beer that popularised a new style of cask golden ale and laid some of the groundwork for the hoppy pale ales of today. Hopback is still around today, though John himself retired in 2018.
Last updated 9 June 2024.
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