Who are you and how did you get into beer and brewing?
Paul and I were University of London flatmates and started brewing at home in 2011 after encouragement from my professor, who said we could save some money. We enjoyed early success with our porter, its recipe unchanged since the first time we brewed it. We cheekily entered it into a professional competition (International Beer Challenge 2013) and won a silver medal. When we re-entered last year, actually brewing commercially, we picked up the gold. Encouraged by those around we decided to have a go at making a business of it, with the first step being to raise money for a BrewKit on Kickstarter.
Huge. We exceeded our funding target with 122 supporters: friends, family and people who liked our vision, backing us. After that we privately raised some capital (again friends and family) and got our arch in Bermondsey.
What’s special about SE1?
We picked this venue after looking at sites all over London. We’d been searching for somewhere that could function as a brewery and tap, and this location has proven to be excellent for that. We’re now open Fridays to Sundays, and with the Maltby Street and the new Druid Street Market on our doorstep we find ourselves amongst one of the best food and drink destinations in the capital. Being in a good location has helped draw attention to our beer – but ultimately the reputation is down to what’s in the bottle.
Unlike our porter, the IPA has been through many iterations. Our first homebrew attempt was not great (to put it mildly), and neither was the second or the third. We’ve explored through research, trial and error; and what you’ve enjoyed is the product of that process. We go for lots of new world hops to give a fresh citrus and pine aroma, a chewy resinous punch on the palate, but always keeping balance between the malt sweetness and hop bitterness. I’m sure we’ll always aim to keep improving the recipe but, for the size of our kit (2.5BBL) and the basic equipment we currently use (hand bottled, bottle conditioned and hand labelled), it’s very encouraging to hear that it’s hitting the mark.
Finally, what are your plans now?
To reinvest in our kit. Not to expand for the sake of expansion, but to allow us to produce the best beer we can and bring our patrons the best beer experience we can. The ultimate goal for our little brewery is to build the Beer Cathedral of London: a palace of beer right in the heart of the city. It’s still some time off yet, but bottle by bottle we’re getting there.
