Willoughby Arms - St George's Day

As we approach St George's Day, I am again pleased to give a shout-out to my friends at one of my favourite pubs, The Willoughby Arms in Kingston.

Their traditional St George's Day beer festival starts at noon on Thursday and ends on Saturday offering the usual 30 odd beers.

The beer list is on their website - www.thewilloughbyarms.com

Highlights from the beer list are the two beers, Wandle and Junction, from Sambrook's Brewery which seem hard to find in my patch, together with Spring Ale and Honeydance from Twickenham Fine Ales . I guess Honeydance is a special Sundance brewed with honey. There is also the legendary Downton Chocolate Orange Delight and, although I have been going on about it for two years, I challenge anyone not to love that beer. Dark Star are also represented with their Saison, Festival and IPA beers. To finish there is another rare cask of Fullers Golden Pride. Something for everyone.

If you dig deep on the Willoughby Arms web-site you will also find a copy of this video that I took at the event last year. Come along on Friday at six and you can see them in the flesh so to speak.

Sambrook's Junction

The final piece of news that arrived in my in-box this week that you may not have seen is that the beer of the festival at Battersea last week was Sambrook's Junction as voted for by the customers.

This is Sambrook's Brewery's first CAMRA award (I think) and gives deserved credit for the manner in which they have burst upon the beer scene in South West London in the last year or so.

My interest is that I am CAMRA's Brewery Liaison Officer for Sambrook's Brewery.

Twickenham Brewery

I took the short bus ride to Twickenham Brewery on Saturday with the CAMRA London Tasting Panel to visit the brewery, gather up-to-date news and assist with Good Beer Guide tasting notes for their four beers that are available throughout the year.

The four regular beers are :

Naked Ladies, a name inspired by the statues of water nymphs in York House gardens in Twickenham, a 4.4% golden ale with a distinct hop aroma and flavour,

Twickenham Original, a malty 4.2% best bitter

Sundancer, their CAMRA award winning 3.7% session bitter
and
Grandstand Bitter - a well hopped, 3.8% brownish amber, session bitter.

The success of these beers together with a seasonal offering and occasional specials, means that Twickenham Fine Ales are, like many other local micros, working flat out, at full capacity, to fulfill the order book.

The next expansion plan is in progress as they invest in a new fermenter, new bigger delivery vehicle, additional staff member and additional space to grow capacity significantly over the coming months.

In theory, the country is in the depths of deep recession but many micro breweries seem to be reporting the same growth in business despite all of the barriers that Government seems to put in their way and despite reports that up to 50 pubs are closing each week.

Cheers to Twickenham, Sambrooks and Brodies for flying the flag for London.
We will also welcome the new Redemption Brewery to London's brewing scene in the next month too.

Sambrook's Junction

News on Sambrook's new beer is here.

New Beer from Sambrook's

....confirmed arrival in November.....watch this space.....

GBBF Day 2

Apologies, camera shake is an occupational hazard at GBBF


Surely the cheapest Wandle in town ....

Spent Grains

On my recent trips to Fullers and Sambrook's breweries, it struck me how different in scale they were when I saw the spent grains being removed from the brewery to be taken away by farmers for animal feed. I took two short videos and then had to work out how to present them together.

Here is my first effort at movie making - not bad for a luddite - but then again - not brilliant. I hope you agree though that despite the shortcomings of the arty side the point is well made. Fuller's is a large brewery that brews excellent beer. Sambrook's is a small one with excellent beer. The brewing process is very similar - attention to quality will always give a good product.

Final apology that the blog has become slightly Fuller's and Sambrook's centric. I must get out more.

Sambrook's - Fermentation

Another video taken on Sambrook's Brewery open day with David Welsh showing off his fermenters.

Sambrook's - Hops

Sambrook's Brewery in Battersea recently held an open day to give their customers a chance to have a look an the inner workings of their local brewery. I went along and took the opportunity to video some of the talks given during the day by David Welsh, one of the partners at Sambrook's.

David had spent some twenty odd years at Ringwood Brewery so knows a thing or two about brewing. I think his passion for the beer comes through well but my video skills need some improvement.

Another one tomorrow.

Sambrook's

This is your last reminder that Sambrook's Brewery will be open to the public tomorrow, Saturday from 2pm.

This is a chance to welcome Sambrook's to London's brewing scene and to toast its continued success with the new bottle conditioned version of Wandle Ale.

If you have not already tried the cask Wandle Ale in any of the pubs or beer festivals where it has already been a big hit, get down to Battersea on Saturday 4th.

Retirement

Well, that's it. I am no longer CAMRA's Regional Director for London.

After four and a half years in the job, I feel it is time for a change and I did not put myself forward for re-election. Kimberly Martin was last night elected as CAMRA's new RD for the coming year. I wish her well.

This blog will continue - at least for the time being - I might not be able to bring information from within the Campaign nor act as a CAMRA spokesman, but hopefully I will be able to break free from my CAMRA shackles and bring some interesting commentary on beer, breweries and pubs in and around London. There is enough of a following to maintain the blog but I will easily see if readers drop off if my musing are less than interesting.

I am also the CAMRA Brewery Liaison Officer for Sambrook's Brewery so, apart from their web-site, this will continue to be the place to find their news and events.

Stay tuned !

I now turn my attentions to other things. I will now have upwards of 20 hours a week spare so if anyone can find me a similar job that involves visiting pubs and drinking beer, I could be tempted.

Meet the Brewer

Heads up for some Sambrook's Brewery events.

Tonight, 24th (sorry, late notice) sees the guys down at The Earl Ferrer in Streatham for a meet the brewer evening from 8pm.

Saturday, 4th April will be the official brewery launch day with open house from 2pm for tastings, meet and greet, and brewery tours. Everyone is welcome.

The following Wednesday, 8th April will see them spreading their wings into South East London to have another meet the brewer evening at Hoopers in SE5 at 8pm.

Finally, the bottled version of Wandle Ale has also just been launched in bottle conditioned form. It should be available at all of the above events together with the cask version.

Sambrook's Brewery

The latest news from Sambrook's Brewery, is that there will be a formal brewery opening to be held on Saturday, 4 April when the brewery will be open to the public.

Public tasting sessions and brewery visits are hoped to be held on Wednesday evenings in March and the next new beer will be available in April.

This is all to be confirmed which I will do here once I know it is all agreed. The web-site has some updating problems but all events will also be flagged there once finalised.

Sambrook's Brewery

Just a quick one, a number of people have asked me where they can find the beer from London's newest brewery, Sambrook's.

Luckily, I have just been nominated to be CAMRA's brewery liaison officer for said brewery so I will hopefully be able to share any knowledge here.

The confirmed permanent stockists as follows:

Westbridge (Battersea Bridge)
Roundhouse (Battersea Rise)
Cow (Ladbroke Grove)
Brown Dog (Barnes)

Others pubs where the beer has been on regularly are :

Cats Back (Putney)
Tooting Conservative & Unionist Club (Tooting)
Duchess (Battersea)
Le Gothique (Wandsworth Common)
Distillers (Hammersmith)

Of course, you may be lucky and find the beer in many other London pubs and beer festivals but probably on an occoasional basis.

Sambrook's Brewery

Last Wednesday, I took a visit to the new Sambrook's Brewery in Battersea.









Given the lack of micro breweries in London in recent years, this is a significant development for London's real ale scene. The 20 barrel plant is brand spanking new and looks immaculate as only two brews have gone through it thus far.



400 new casks await their first beer.


There is one beer brewed at the moment, Wandle Ale, a 3.8% quaffing bitter. The beer was clean and very tasty. It has been well received both by CAMRA visitors to the brewery and also its first beer festival outing at Egham United Services Club - where it was a "tick" for most of the visitors and stood up well against many other good beers, some also from new breweries.

The brewery is still open for visitors before Christmas. The details are here.

Sambrook's Brewery Tastings

London's newest brewery will be open to the public, for a tour and tasting event on the following dates:

Wednesday 10th December from 7pm until 10pm
Thursday 11th December from 7pm until 10 pm
Friday 12th December from 4pm until 8pm
Saturday 13th December from 1pm until 6pm
Wednesday 17th December from 7pm until 10pm
Thursday 18th December from 7pm until 10pm
Friday 19th December from 4pm until 8pm
Saturday 20th December from 1pm until 6pm

There will be a small entry fee of £5, which entitles you to a tour, a branded glass and two pints of Wandle. (There is a 50% discount upon presentation of your CAMRA membership card.)

The address is 2-18 Yelverton Road, Battersea, SW11 3QG. It is a ten minute walk from Clapham Junction train station, a short bus ride from Victoria on the 170 or a twenty minute walk from Wandsworth Town train station:

Please contact Duncan Sambrook directly to confirm your place so that he can plan numbers : duncan.sambrook@sambrooksbrewery.co.uk

Sambrook's

The new Sambrook's brewery opening in Battersea in the coming weeks is an exciting breakthrough for brewing in SW London. Since Young's moved their brewing to Bedford and Battersea Brewery downsized and moved away from cask ale, South West London has had no brewery until you reach those fine ales at Twickenham.

Sambrook's is being launched by Duncan Sambrook previously an accountant at Deloitte's and David Welsh previously a brewer at Ringwood - well actually he was the managing director/owner who pocketed the lion's share of £19 million when the deep pockets of Marston's came knocking last year. David together with Peter Austin were pioneers in the early days of micro brewing and spent over 30 years building up Ringwood into the company it is today. He is a longtime CAMRA friend.

Duncan had been mulling over a small 5 barrel plant as a hobby when he was introduced to David. Between them they now have slightly more ambitious plans and have installed a 20 barrel brew plant in 2 factory units in Yelverton Road, Battersea.

The plant is up and running after various teething troubles and they are hoping to get the first beer in the pot on Thursday.

Recipes will have to be tweaked and refined over the coming weeks before releasing the beer to the market but you should see some of the first brew - Wandle Ale - in the pubs before Christmas.

More to follow.

Sambrook's

This news is so hot it is burning ......

Sambrook's Brewery will be opening imminently in Battersea.

More to follow.