Temple Brew House is just a short couple minutes walking from the Thames, with lots of local tube stations to pick from including my short 9-minute walk back to Chancery Lane for the central line (there is even a handy wall poster in the pub with all the last tube times). Take a turn onto Essex Street and you will see the front doors of The Temple Brew House, inviting you down to the basement bar. Lots of wooden tables and chairs surround the bar space all sitting under the d

After a week of blistering heat, the midweek July evening had taken a turn to the muggy side and you could sense a storm was brewing. The storm didn’t bother me, neither did being on the other side of London for a change as I was on my way to my first visit to The Prince for a Magic Rock Beer Party & BBQ, hosted by Matthew Curtis with special guest Rich Burhouse, founder of Magic Rock Brewing. I walked into The Prince N22 and was instantly greeted with the rare sight of a ful

Last year MC Motors in Dalston held, in my eyes, the best beer event of the year in Brooklyn Brewery Beer Mansion. Nobody really knew what they were in for as they stepped through the doors of MC Motors, so to walk into a maze of rooms pouring top beers from both Brooklyn and other breweries, all for a £10 entry, blew our minds. The whole of MC Motors was decked out head to toe in Brooklyn branding, we drank some of the best beers I had all year long, there was loads of fun a

I was lucky enough to attend both Thursday and Friday sessions of Craft Beer Rising via a press ticket. There was so much to take in but here are a few of my highlights of the festival. Twisted Barrel Ales One of the breweries that impressed me the most was one that I hadn’t experienced before, situated at the Fargo Village in Coventry Twisted Barrel Ales brought some exciting and experimental beers along with them. After embarrassingly not realising I was talking to The Bear

For the last couple of years, I have said that London needs a CAMRA beer festival which should feature a beer list completely made up of London cask beer, I had wrote it in a half finished blog post after last year’s London Drinker festival which never saw the light of day. I wrote how that I thought the London Drinker would be the perfect festival bring the best of cask beer in London. Finally, this year I got my wish and not only that, there was a key keg bar thrown into th

Creating a fun, enjoyable and special atmosphere when putting on a beer festival can be difficult job to get right, its more than just putting on the best beers you can find or having the most beers available. Large beer festivals can sometimes miss that magic edge but small beer festivals can feel more personal and intimate, Stokey Beer Festival in Stoke Newington had just this. With a maximum capacity of 200 people with a brewery list of 8 of the newest up and coming brewer

Slowly but surely beer is starting to feature more regularly on the menus of British restaurants, we are getting there slowly. Wine and food has such a long popular history that I find it hard to even entertain the idea of drinking beer alongside dinner with someone who likes wine with their food, let alone convince them that beer is more versatile. Dedicated beer focused restaurants are a rare find, unlike in America and in Europe where I read of how advanced they are compar

If there is one thing I hope to hear less of in 2017 it would be this phrase… “The London Beer Bubble”. I’m not having a go at the people who refer to these words, it is just for me I don’t agree there is such a thing. London is a huge place with a lot of beer on offer, people of all ages and backgrounds enjoy good beer on completely different levels. Ok, so attending beer events and hanging out in London a lot does mean I bump into the same like-minded people, this is a grea

East London Brewing Co is a husband and wife brewing team. Stu and Claire have been brewing up beers in Leyton East London since February 2011 when they decided to make the plunge of becoming brewers and quitting their day jobs. Stu and Claire wanted to make high quality traditional beers and now brew a range of seven core beers including, Jamboree, Night Watchman, Orchid, Cowcatcher and more. ELB are one of the first newer breweries I noticed that started to get their beers

The London beer scene is constantly changing, it is hard to keep up to date with new breweries that open, it seems to be one a week at times. How long this can continue is unknown, we have already seen Late Knights close its doors recently, could we be starting to see the craft beer locomotive slow down. With this in mind, celebrating 5th birthdays seems even more important, it is a great milestone to be proud of. Within 7 days of each other two breweries celebrated 5th birth

There are certain beers that hold this magical desire around them, Westvleteren, The Bruery’s Black Tuesday, Magic Rocks Unhuman Cannonball and for me Goose Island’s Bourbon County, it is that fantasy beer I had never drunk. When I first heard about Bourbon County and how people would queue up for hours just for one beer I thought it was mental, why would people set up camp for hours in hope of getting a limited release beer when so many other beers are out there. In 1992 Goo

Trying to put a plan together at the Great British Beer Festival can be difficult, so many beers so little time. But Duncan Sambrook and his drinking buddies had a great route mapped out, starting in the counties of the South West of England and working their way geographically to London, visiting loads of great breweries from all the different counties on the way. The year was 2006 and although it was easy to visit many great breweries during this county pub crawl, when Dunc

I had just poured my very first pint of Guinness, it was in the Guinness Factory in Dublin and instead of trying to pour the clover leaf they had shown us I thought it would be hilarious to do a cock and balls, I think the 5 pints of Guinness may have helped the immaturity. Soon after for reasons I cannot remember we were taking photos with this American family, in one of the group photos the Dad Bob from Ohio instructs us to “flip the bird”, I had no idea what he meant but m

It is crazy to think that it was nearly three years ago that I was stood in a newly opened Billericay Brewing Co courtyard listening to Logan Plant talk to no more than a dozen people, telling us about the beers he was brewing in Hackney under the name Beavertown. Fast forward to now and Beavertown have grown into a world recognised name, had three different brewing addresses, sell out events in minutes and has a huge loyal fan following, which even includes (spoiler alert!)

As I rush through the door of “SMITHS” of Smithfields in Farringdon London with fellow beer enthusiastic Justin Mason we are asked “How are we tonight guys?”, I reply “Wet!”! In typical 2016 weather a glorious sunny afternoon was followed by heavy rain, making the first impressions of “SMITHS” of Smithfields a bit of a damp one. I was looking forward to the evening though, it was a new venue that I somehow hadn’t been to before and the evenings plan was to sample beer from a

I wake up to the sound of horrendous rain pissing it down outside on a gloomy post bank holiday Tuesday morning. The rain continues and my train is delayed but despite this I am still in good spirits, as today I was brewing my first big collaboration beer. I first met the guys from 40FT Brewery several months back (which you can read here) and since then I have got to know them well. It’s been great to see them grow and find their beers in more venues. Brewer Ben Ott has a gr

Imagine a place, a huge venue with different rooms, all pouring different types of beer. Imagine a never ending flow of popcorn and ice cream cones that doesn’t require chasing a van down the street, imagine a place where top quality chefs serve up incredible food literally in the palm of your hand. Imagine live music, an outside area to chill and photo booths to capture all this excitement. Sounds like heaven right? Well I have seen heaven and it is called Brooklyn Brewery B

Eat the brewer… I know what you are thinking and no this isn’t a title of an episode of The Walking Dead! This was the name of the first beer and food pairing event at The Other Room in Bermondsey. The Other Room is a small beer bar which is kind of in the middle of Borough and Bermondsey tube stations. The front of the building reminds me of an old London greasy spoon or a pie & mash shop, big windows with a bright mint green paint job. The inside of the beer bar is far from

Golden Pints 2016Its 2006 and I walk through a packed Brixton Academy crowd while Biz Markie beat boxes on stage. I’m holding two pints of Carling in my hands. The combination of shit squeezy plastic glasses, slanted floor and a sea of moving elbows has left me with about two thirds of beer in each glass from a round that was the best part of a tenner (even back in 2006) and wet hands. Continue a few years later and I am in Scala Kings Cross watching MC Slug of Atmosphere sma

In the ever evolving world of craft beer brewing you should never be surprised hearing where new places breweries are popping up in. But last week when I was told there was a new brewery in an old shipping container I must admit I was curious. Could you really brew decent beers from inside one of those metal boxes? Would it work as a tap room? Are they playing on the gimmick of brewing inside a shipping container or do their beers do the talking for them. With these questions