We have been brewing beneath Bermondsey’s railway arches since 2009, among a community of like-minded food and drink producers. We are committed to working sustainably and at a pace and scale that allows a contented workforce to focus on making great beer.
At the time there were only about eleven other breweries in London, ranging from a couple of brewpubs to a Budweiser plant. The inspiration to start a brewery came from experiencing the US craft brewery movement and wondering at the lack of something similar in a city like London, with its brewing heritage. The waves of new, modern breweries had yet to take shape in the UK, which gave us a little more freedom to figure out our own way to do things.
With little guidance around, we had to start to build the market ourselves. So, we started small, brewing 600 litres at a time in a railway arch shared with a cheesemaker and a ham importer. Our first beers were hop forward pale ales in the US style, and porters and stouts brewed to Victorian recipes as we sought to connect to London’s brewing history. This is still mostly what we brew today.
We moved to our current location (Spa Road, SE16) in 2012, as part of a group of food producers (our cheesemaking and ham importing arch-mates are next door neighbours now), called Spa Terminus, extending our community (https://spa-terminus.co.uk/).
We recently moved our taproom out of an adjacent railway arch into the ground floor of a residential new build opposite, which has given us a new way to engage with our local neighbourhood. We brew various styles: from pales with vitality, balance and clarity; to stouts made to old archive recipes that situate us within London’s brewing history; to mixed fermentation beers in which we let sourness, wood, fruit (and time) do their thing.
We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and we’d love to see you at our taproom sometime soon.
