Our guide, however, most certainly would. Salt-of-the-earth Mart grew up just five minutes down the road, and his knowledge of the Fuller’s institution equals his love for London Pride. He reels off witty myths (apparently Londoners became a city of beer-drinkers because the water was too dirty to drink in the Middle Ages) and facts as we peer into frothing tanks, but he’s straight-faced when he describes drinking a pint of Fuller’s cask ale as “like having a new conversation with an old friend”. He’s not the only fan: 250,000 pints of the stuff are brewed here every day.
My whistle sufficiently wetted after a tasting session, I leave the Griffin Brewery both impressed by its enormity and eager to visit one of London’s smaller breweries. So on Tuesday evening I hop on the overground to London Fields in search of a more intimate experience.
I’m not disappointed. Housed in two train arches just around the corner from Broadway Market, three-year-old London Fields Brewery is now a relative veteran on London’s craft brewing scene. The tour is brief (around 20 minutes, compared to an hour at Fuller’s) and self-consciously unpolished, but that tallies well with the environs – a partially-flooded warehouse where brewers glug pints and passing trains rumble the tanks.
For the tasting session we are led to the neighbouring Tap Room, a woodchipped bar where Hackney hipsters pull pints for other Hackney hipsters. The stronger beers in the seasonal Bootlegger series are a must-try for serious ale drinkers, but it is the hoppy Love not War – first brewed during the London Riots in 2011 – that best sums up the brewery’s unique personality.
On Wednesday I’m lucky to squeeze onto a tour at Battersea-based Sambrook’s Brewery, which only runs one session per month. Bearded, larger-than-life Sean beams as he plies arriving punters with pints of Wandle Ale, answering questions with a level of assurance that only a head brewer could command. When someone mentions the term “craft beer” he flinches and replies: “We don’t brew craft beer here – I hate that word. We brew cask beer”. And that is what sets this one apart from many of London’s other young breweries: there is no pretense at Sambrook’s, just very traditional British cask ale brewed for die-hard beer drinkers.
futureshape via Compfightcc
After the most generous drinking session of the week (Sean serves his “tasters” in pints) I make my way to Camden on Thursday. Best known for its Hells Lager, Camden Town Brewery has seen a surge in popularity since emerging on the scene in 2010, so much so that they’ve been forced to store a number of their towering fermentation tanks outside their Kentish Town headquarters.
We are led around the brewery by Mark Dredge, a leading beer writer who frequently disappears to collect more jugs of lager to accompany the tour. After, we retreat to the buzzing beer garden, where it’s hard to decline a cherry-smoked pulled pork sandwich from the Bare Bones food stall that’s parked outside.