There’s definitely something brewing in the arches of the London Beer Lab! This funky community brewery opens its doors to hold regular beer brewing and tasting workshops with the intention of showing you just how easy it is to make your own beer even with no prior experience (other than drinking the stuff that is).
Tucked away behind a residential street in Brixton you’ll find the London Beer Lab in a converted railway arch. Downstairs are the bottle shop and brewing supplies section along with tables and a bar area that has a couple of nice draft brews on tap ready to be tasted. Upstairs is the nerve-centre of this beer brewing laboratory. The head brewer has a wealth of recipes at their disposal with all the necessary ingredients to hand. After selecting the brews for the day you will then take part in the beer-making process.
Despite looking like tea urns the Braumeister vats that the London Beer Lab uses are really quite fancy. They are automatic and computer-controlled to pretty much ensure you can’t make a bad batch of beer. As long as you follow the recipe and add in the hops and malts at the right time your batch of London-made beer is going to taste good.
Of course you probably won’t have such high-tech brew vats at home so the London Beer Lab team is always up for chatting about and giving advice on home brewing using commonly available domestic kit. It’s also really useful to learn all about the different malt and hop options which is what makes each finished beer different – and these brewers know all about that too!
Once the brew’s on attention turns to tasting the in-house wares as well as beers from neighbouring London brewers such as Late Knights and By the Horns with the likes of some very nice imported Belgian beers too. Having quenched your thirst with beers from London and beyond it’s time to get back to the lab to tend to your brews for the final steps in the brewing process.
At the end of your brewing and tasting day at the London Beer Lab you have the choice of taking home eight different bottled beers from the shop or you can opt for a starter kit that’ll get you on the road to brewing five litres of your own beer at home. This open-source community brewery in the heart of London is a great place to talk drink and make beer with self-confessed ‘beer geeks’!
