Craft Beer in London, Easter 2016, Five Years On
Below is a slightly edited piece I wrote about craft beer five years ago, Easter 2016. This Easter as last I’ll been inside drinking cans of beer, which are much more widely available and more diverse than 5 years ago. That’s another story though.
Looking back 5 years the song has not exactly remained the same. Brodies (at least in London) are no more and the Craft 100 held in Clapham is but a memory. Beavertown is now under the effective control of Heineken.
Perhaps this was one of the last occasions when ‘craft’ beer still appeared as much on cask as keg. 5 years on that certainly is not the case.
On the plus side there are a lot more London breweries now and a lot more choice (when the pubs are open that is- from April 12th we hope)
For some years I used to travel (with my partner Megan) ‘Oop north at Easter to sample new and interesting beers that weren’t seen in London.
Such beers still exist but such is the lure of the Great Wen that most beers from the north turn up in the Capital sooner rather than later.
Easter was spent in London at various craft beer events and outlets.
On Thursday Megan and myself ventured Sarf to Clapham. The Craft 100 was again running at the Craft in Clapham.
These are always well organised events and this year was no exception. It was busy but there was no issue getting served and the decision (at last) to serve in thirds (as well as halves and pints) made a huge difference. Interesting beers could be sampled in greater numbers and in my view a third of Even More Jesus (cask 11.4%) is considerably more enjoyable than a half.
The range as always was exceptional and at the end of the night I realised I hadn’t sampled one keg beer. So is it right that more interesting beers are now more often to be found on keg than cask? Hmmm.
Travelling back Norf we stopped at the Waterloo Tap (remember I’d been drinking only thirds, slowly). The latest Tap venue it contains no spiral staircases and a spacious toilet (albeit only one). It has from memory 20 keg taps and 6 cask.
Moving on to Friday and the late afternoon found us at the King William in Leyton for Brodies bunny basher. This has been an epic event but last year it was a bit of a disappointment. Brodies have had their ups and downs as a brewery but on this evidence they are on their way back.
Here it’s true that most of the more interesting beers were on keg (and limited by a total of 9 keg taps) but there were good well-made brews to sample.
We than wandered across to one of the Beard Friendly Pubs of the Year, the Cock Tavern E8, to try BBN DIPA and one of the latest of Beavertown’s trial IPAs (as well as Tiny Rebel/Brighton Bier new misspelt Cascadian Kolsch on cask).
Saturday afternoon found us, as it often does when in London, at Beavertown brewery.
While the recent birthday party seems to be passing into legend, the new beers continue to appear. The jury remains out on Bloody ‘Ell 2016. For me the best I’ve tried was on cask at the Craft 100, but whether keg or can is better and how they compare with 2015…
Anyway on offer were the latest trial IPAs (all at 5.7% this time). For me Cpt Hasta was the best of the bunch. (the trial ended with the production of Lupuloid)
That day also saw the last print edition of The Independent and Will Hawkes last beer column made the point that the focus on craft was moving on from the interesting and unusual towards the consistent (as well).
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