Kmflett's Blog

Marx’s Capital, boom & bust & craft beer

The passage below is from Will Hawkes excellent monthly bulletin on all things to do with London beer. Bird House is a South London brewery (etc) based on the site of what was Canopy brewing. The passage below underlines a key point from Marx’s Capital. Capitalism is a system based on boom and bust. As ‘inefficient’ companies go under, space is created for new ones to start, often on the back of those that have gone.

The London Brewers Alliance festival is at Bird House from 25^th-28^th September where a glass can be raised to Karl Marx himself a great drinker of London beer.

London Brewers Alliance Beer Festival – at Bird House Brewery – 25th – 28th September

In the case of Bird House, this has led to some smart thinking. On-site, beer is served from 500-litre tanks, all of them bought from upscaling or failing London breweries for a fraction of what they might have cost first-hand. That’s one big plus of London’s struggling brewery scene: plenty of bargains to be had. Will says the beer stays fresh in the tank for a month – courtesy of “a system to keep the oxygen really low” – although lager and pale shifts in much less time.