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There are now over 1,200 breweries in Britain, a number not seen since before World War II, and the world’s highest percentage per capita. Around 70 of these are brewing from London. To get a grasp of the big picture we need to look towards the independent brewers, or microbrewers, that add up to these 70-odd different locations. Among the champions of small-scale production beer in the UK, also called craft beer (their definition has yet to be agreed upon), are Camden Town, Sambrook’s, and Beavertown breweries.

 

A key to success for these three craft breweries, and others like them, is that they are offering something more interesting – an alternative to the gassy, mass-produced lagers found in 99 per cent of pubs in London. They tempt their customers with brew that’s experimental, innovative and more flavoursome.

 

“It’s still very much an art form than a science,” says Ryan McLean, proprietor of Bullfinch Brewery in Bermondsey, “There are some very strict rules and a few little guidelines that you have to adhere to, but apart from that it’s more freestyle really.”

 

Brewery Walk 

Bermondsey, a part of the Southwark borough in south London, is notorious for its rich brewing history. Six of Southwark’s ten breweries are located there and the hop exchange by London Bridge is just a couple of miles away. And if you walk the surrounding streets of Bullfinch Brewery you will find several beer references in the street names like “Brewery Walk” and “Hops Studio” right around the corner.

 

“It’s not the reason why everyone have gravitated down here to brew, it’s just some mysterious vibe about the place that says ‘brew beer’,” says Mr McLean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brewing boom

Southwark has the highest number of breweries (10) of all London boroughs, evident in the information I gathered after sending Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the 33 boroughs. Not all boroughs responded to my requests – some referred me to their “planning records” archive, others the HM Revenue & Custom – but after a bit more research I managed to fill in some of the gaps.

 

Tower Hamlets (7), Islington (4) and Wandsworth (4) follow Southwark on the list of top brewing locations in London. I was told that specific data on outputs of each brewery is not in their records. However, the British Pub and Beer Association could report positive growth for the first time in five years, with a 1.7 per cent rise in total sales in the year’s first three fiscal quarters. And the craft segment of the sector is experiencing a continuing boom, with 70-odd microbreweries now to be found in London alone and new ones added to the scene each month.

 

A lot has changed in beer consuming circles. Your stereotypical image of a drinker is no longer the shadow of a worn down old man sitting in the corner of a pub savouring the last drops of his real ale pint. No, today’s most avid enthusiasts of brew come from all sorts of demographics. They demand better quality food and drink and join together to exchange knowledge of the beer at events, specialised pubs, or at breweries. What do they share? Maybe a wish for a sip of the future?

 

But who are they? Could it be possible to pin down a set of characteristics that run in their genes or visible features that make them stand out in a crowd?

 

Not a "man's drink" 

“You’ve got a mixture, from your traditional beer drinkers to the hipsters who are coming in from all over the place,” says Jack Hobday, co-founder of Anspach & Hobday Brewery, which share location with Bullfinch, “the food market definitely attracts people who wouldn’t come here for beer but they’ll stumble across us, come in, and so I think we get a very good proportion, a good mix.”

 

Mr McLean at Bullfinch says they also get a lot of groups of girls coming in, “purely off their own backs”, because they like beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The female drinker is very prevalent in London,” Mr McLean says, “it used to be for the sandal-wearing, scratchy jumper, big-bearded old man sitting in the pub swilling pints of real ale. But it’s definitely a much more refined beverage these days.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old preconceptions of beer being a male drink are done away with and women are embracing new editions to the ever-widening range of brew. Gone are the days when women sipping pints in pubs are gaped at and called “butch” behind their backs.

 

The Kernel Brewery has pioneered craft beer brewing in Bermondsey and was first out of todays remaining microbreweries, when Evin O’Riordain founded it in 2009. Mr O’Riordain is hugely respected in the tight-knit community of his peers. He doesn’t think there are any physiological or psychological differences that could prevent beer from being as much a women’s drink as it is for men.

 

“What we do is quite straight,” he says, “it’s not overly kind of blokey, beery in the kind of way that the English tradition has. We have four women brewers here, so that’s four out of ten.”

 

The culture of the way they taste things and the type of beer they make both reflect a gender-neutral attitude towards their profession.

 

“We generally serve small glasses and not pints – not that that should affect a women in any kind of way – but I think if you do things in an open and honest way then things are gonna change anyway,” Mr O’Riordain says.

 

Anspach & Hobday’s first customer when their doors opened in 2013 was female, and Mr Hobday think “that speaks volumes for where it’s going”.

 

“It’s probably like 30-70 (per cent) but that’s pretty good, you go to festivals and it’s closer to 50-50,” Mr Hobday says, “Craft is definitely more open to that and I think one of the reasons is that it lend very well to food pairing, and that might have more appeal across genders.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foodie magnets

The Anspach & Hobday and Bullfinch breweries are very close to Maltby Street food market and they often get people from the market stumbling upon their brewery, which is turned into a pub on publicly open Saturdays.

 

Mr O’Riordain at Kernel also thinks there is a crossover between them and their friends who sell roast coffee, and that it’s the same with good food.

 

“They overlap quite a lot,” he says, “it doesn’t have to qualify itself as a certain type, age or type of person but not everyone pays attention to what they eat and drink.”

 

So, if foodies and craft beer drinkers really do go hand-in-hand, is the burgeoning of craft beer down to a changing cultural fabric – a mass movement demanding higher quality stuff?

 

Yes, says Tom Cadden, Group Manager of Craft Beer Co., a chain of craft beer pubs reaching instant success when they opened in Clerkenwell in 2011. The Craft Beer Co. has since expanded with five other London branches.

 

“People are paying a lot more attention to what they’re spending their money on and, therefore, generic products that are from an uncaring company will ultimately fail,” says Mr Cadden, “The quality of products is always going to be the outcome of the winner.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beer tourists 

Covent Garden is their newest pub in the group. Opening in May 2014, the pub has the largest tap selection in the UK, with 45 different beers on taps. It has grown massively popular and there are people who come to London specifically to drink beer at their flagship pub.

 

“We get three crowds,” says General Manager Josh Woodward, “the after work crowds and a lot of people coming in just because we’re a nice pub; but then you also get you beer nerdy people working in the offices here and there about. We also get a lot of tourists, because they’re in central London.”

 

This is very much a renaissance for London as a beer destination. Though the capital has retained its tag as a global hub for pub culture for centuries, craft beer is a relatively new addition to its range of brews.

 

“I see this as the beginning of a beer movement, this isn’t midway into it,” says Mr Cadden, “People are becoming more aware of these products and therefore more likely to have another sip.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who want a sip of Kernel’s beer, however, you probably have to travel a bit further than your nearest shop.

 

“We don’t sell to supermarkets, because we don’t have the supply and it’s part of our ethos,” says Mr O’Riordain, “we deal with people rather than companies.”

 

 

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