Expat saying Hello

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Left Ireland back in 2012 to get work in Londonia - had to postpone my homebrewing then, but got back into it in earnest at the start of 2012.

Have a few country wines under my belt, mostly shop bought fruit, ginger, honey and variations of.

However my focus now is mostly in beer, and I have been all grain/BIAB since the start of the year, with a few cases where I was just using up all the extract.

Loving this hobby.

[Rossa]

You are spoiled for choice over there!

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

London is an unbelievable place for beer atm. New beer pubs opening up every other month, and there are some fabulous local small breweries (about 40 new ones have opened up in the last year) and 'concept' brew pubs.

The market is such, that you can be a pro-brewer for not much investment - many pubs are willing to accept delivery of a few kegs in a black cab - so it allows smaller brewers to make money.

[Bubbles]

'concept' brew pubs.

What kind of concepts are they adopting? Any links?

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

What kind of concepts are they adopting? Any links?

You have quite a few popup bars, that source their beers from primarily independent sources (i.e. microbreweries or distributers dealing in microbreweries). Urban Sessions http://www.urbansessionstickets.co.uk/ is a popup/temporary venue (running for 10-14 weeks) featuring a mix of music, performance, food and beer from a large list. It has an interesting beer token setup, and you can buy them online for a sliding scale. The beer prices are not cheap, even at the highest discount rates, but it is uniform pricing behind the bar, and the taps have a lot of imports on. So while it isn't cheap, it is actually good value if you know what you are targeting.

There are a few more permanent venue/food/beer spots which have breweries on site or close by, but that get their beer around (its sold elsewhere, or available on bottles). The Beavertown Brewery started off as a Pizza place, and I think the Crate brewery is the same, though their beers are not at the same level as their neighbours.

The Earl of Essex near Angel, Islington, is one of the more impressive, having the entire brewery behind the bar http://thesumofallbeers.tumblr.com/post/52941174110/the-earl-of-essex-microbrewery-setup-in-islington . There is nothing very concept about it I suppose, besides looking cool sitting out there.

There are a few pubs out there that have a great beer list, but primarily deal directly with breweries, and breweries with a good distribution chain. So you can get some excellent english or local beers for seriously cheap. You could pay something like £4.40 for a pint of peroni in an All Bar One, or go into the holborn whippet, the pelt trader or the euston tap, and get a good pint of Marble Pale Ale (Manchester brewery) for about £3.20

There are also a few pubs that keep a good beer list, but are trying to get into a semi-brewpub status, but work in collaboration with home brewers - 100-200L kit, brewed by *good* amateurs, sold on site.

And of course there are the 2 Brewdog pubs, and a range of other good peer pubs (the rake, southampton arms) and many breweries serve from the brewery 1 day a week or so, or run regular tours.