Brewery
Original site: 3 Institute Place E8 1JE (Hackney, brewing ceased March 2021)
Current site: 61 Mare Street E8 4RG (Hackney)
fivepointsbrewing.co.uk
First sold beer: 22 March 2013 (at original site)
Five Points is one of the claimants to the title of London’s biggest independent brewery, producing around 18,000 hl in 2019 with a staff of around 45. It was founded by pub operator Ed Mason with proceeds from the sale of pioneering craft beer bar Mason & Taylor, which became BrewDog Shoreditch. Head brewer Greg Hobbs was recruited from East London Brewing and a 16 hl brewhouse installed in a railway arch under Hackney Downs station, named after the busy five-way road junction at the crossing of Amhurst Road and Dalston Lane only metres away.
A new 32 hl brewhouse from OAL was commissioned in 2015, with the old kit sold to Signature Brew. As well as taking on an adjoining arch and installing outdoor fermenters, Five Points added warehousing and offices at a separate site on Mare Street, a little to the south, in 2016. Unusually, it has both a bottling and a canning line, the former from Beavertown, the latter bought new from ABE LinCan.
Long lacking a taproom because of its restricted accommodation, in 2018 it bought landmark pub the Pembury Tavern, located right on the eponymous junction, from the Milton brewery in Cambridgeshire.
Following a 2018 crowdfunding campaign that raised £1.1 million against a target of £750,000, the brewery began a frustrating search for a more expansive site. Finally in March 2021 it reconfigured its Mare Street warehouse, transferring brewing there and opening a well-appointed taproom in November, with extensive outdoor space, while continuing to operate the Pembury.
The brewery was also the organiser of the London Brewers Market.
Beers still include a substantial amount of cask in both traditional and contemporary styles, as well as kegs, cans and bottles, with tank dispense for popular brands in the taproom, where specials from a pilot kit are also available. Due to capacity limitations, the Pils has been brewed De Brabandere in Harelbeke, West Flanders, Belgium, but production has since been brought back in house.
Updated 3 August 2022.
Leave a Reply