CANOPY, A FAMILY AFFAIR
The only thing that is hiding its light under a bushel with Canopy Brewery is the awning outside! This small brewery reflects all that is good about brewing in London: enthusiasm, a commitment to quality and not taking yourself too seriously – for there is nothing pompous about Canopy.
The London Tasting Panel spent an afternoon talking to Estelle, who founded the brewery with her husband Matthew, in 2014. Estelle was previously an event manager for a design agency and Matthew’s background was in IT. Both were home brewers and the original intention was that Estelle would brew and Matthew would continue to work but that quickly changed. Within a year of setting up they brought in a brewer, Charles, who is ex-London Beer Factory and started to enlarge the brewery from the original 4 barrel plant.
Initially, Estelle and Matthew reinvested everything into the new kit. When they decided there was a market, they upgraded. These days, the brew length has grown three times, with seven fermenting/storage vessels and a small canning line. Estelle commented, “We started with a manual bottling line but then went into cans. Unfortunately, we decided that we just couldn’t keep both a can and bottle range”. The designs on the cans are particularly distinctive. Three artists were commissioned to come up with a design based on the game Consequences so each can has one third of each design. Cans count for 30% of their volume with 60% keg and 10% cask. Their best selling cask beer was Brockwell IPA but Estelle explained, “We had to stop brewing it as a cask beer as we couldn’t get the price we needed to make a profit on it.” This is, sadly, not the first time a brewer has made this comment on the trade price for cask beer.
At the moment, Canopy’s core range is Sunray Pale Ale, Champion Kolsch and Snapper IPA plus they do two specials a month, which at the time of the visit included Lloper Everyday Oyster Stout (using real oysters) and the nutty, full bodied Amaretti Imperial Stout. They had also just finished Leap!, a green hop pale ale using hops from the local Brixton Hop Growers collective. This is the third year that they have worked with the Growers to produce ten barrels of green hop beer (for beer descriptions see the London regional website: www.london.camra.org.uk). Dried yeast is used in all of the beers, normally either USA 05 or Nottingham (for the Kolsch) plus whole hops in the boil.
Most of the beer is delivered directly, mostly in south London, and their tap room provides a regular outlet. To keep everything on the go, there are four people in the brewery, a part time driver and bar staff for the tap room. What with managing the brewery, the tap room and three children, Estelle and Mathew certainly have their hands full!
Their Tap Room is open five days a week: Wednesday to Friday 5 to 11pm; Saturday 12 to 11pm; Sunday 12 to 10pm. Children are welcome and dogs are allowed in the outside area (where the awning is). The full address is Arch 1127, Bath Factory Estate, 41 Norwood Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 9AJ.
SAMBROOK’S CELEBRATING SUCCESS
IN A TIME OF CHANGE
It’s astonishing to consider how the beer market has changed within London in a decade. In my editorial before Christmas, I painted a somewhat bleak picture for cask beer. That said, although not complacent, Sambrook’s Brewery demonstrates very clearly that, if a brewery is aware of the changes in the market and its needs, they can continue to brew cask beer successfully.
But let’s go back a bit. Ten years ago, on a cold winter morning, a few members of CAMRA’s London Tasting Panel met Duncan Sambrook at his new brewery. It was a Saturday and, despite the weather, everybody was enthusiastic to see a newcomer setting up in London after witnessing more and more breweries close or exit London. The welcome was warm and we were treated to Wandle, the bitter that still remains prominent in Sambrook’s portfolio. We had heard rumours of the new brewery the previous year when David Welch, ex-Ringwood, gave us the heads up that, instead of putting his feet up when he sold his brewery, he was getting involved in brewing again.
David had run into Duncan through a mutual acquaintance. “It was a bit of a blind date”, Duncan explained on our recent return visit and David’s influence on the fledgling brewery was profound. Duncan had decided to leave his job at Deloittes and had been thinking about setting up a brewery for about a year. “I was looking at starting a small venture and then expanding gradually. David persuaded me we needed to start bigger and so we bought a 20 barrel plant. He was right. Even today, we are still using the same kit but, with purchasing a lot more fermenters, we can now do 320 barrels a weeks.” The brewery currently has 14 fermenters that double as storage tanks. Fermentation is usually four to five days, with a further three to five days conditioning. Duncan added, “Dry hopping requires a bit more time and the kegged beer is then kept for a further two and a half to four weeks to drop. All of our keg beer is unfiltered and 50% of the carbonation is natural. We Krausen* our keg, which is kegged on site”.
It’s not just the kit that has changed since the early days. There is now an outside seating area, adorned with plants and a shop, which is open weekdays 12 to 6pm except Fridays when it is open 10am to 7pm and Saturdays, 10am to 10pm. Upstairs is the tap room, from where you can view the brewery from on high through large windows. It also doubles as a meeting room. The tap room opens Thursday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday. Needless to say, this has meant more staff; 23 people are now employed of which seven are brewers and five are drivers. There are also some sales people who are also responsible for judging the beer quality in a pub. This is all a long way from those heady days of just David and Duncan plus a few friends doing everything.
Sambrook’s has invested offsite too. There is a joint venture called South East Bottling, set up in 2013 with Eddie Gadds (Ramsgate Brewery) and Robert Wicks (Westerham Brewery). This operation can produce both microfiltered and unfiltered beer in a range of bottle sizes from 330ml to 750ml. The bottle conditioned beer is sterile filtered and then yeast added. In addition, they can fill kegs (Sambrook’s use it sometimes to develop new products) and they have a canning line which can fill 330ml and 440ml cans, usually unfiltered. This venture has even involved the family. Duncan’s wife went down to help out for a couple of weeks, which ended up being 18 months! She has now returned to her original career as a finance director; “She’s earning more”, quipped Duncan.
Probably one of the reasons for their success is that Sambrook’s do not believe in standing still and they are currently carrying out a range review. Their current range is Wandle (bitter), Junction (best bitter), Pumphouse Pale, IPA, Battersea Rye, Powerhouse Porter and Lavender Pale. They are looking to increase their seasonal beers from eight per year to one every month. Most of the bottled beer is filtered but their luscious Russian Imperial Stout is not. When asked why this was the case, Duncan explained, “Most of our sales are to people who do not understand what bottle- conditioned means. We find quite often that bottled beer is drunk straight from the bottle. The more esoteric beers, such as the Imperial Stout, are likely to be purchased by more knowledgeable drinkers and so we don’t need to worry so much”. The bottle-conditioned Barley Wine No. 5, brewed for their fifth birthday, will not be brewed again, so if you are lucky enough to have a bottle, it’s probably worth keeping for a bit as the beer will continue to mature.
There is no doubt that the market in which Sambrook’s are now operating is far different from when they began. Duncan commented, “When we started, we’d get a listing for six months. That just doesn’t happen now despite the fact that many pubs have more handpumps. There has probably been a doubling in number in that time and it does seem to be affecting the quality and we are seeing a decline in real ale sales. Four years ago, we were 90% cask, these days it is 60%.” This comment doesn’t mean that Sambrook’s do not believe in real ale. To quote Duncan again, “There are still enough people passionate about cask. It’s something we do well and we should be proud of it.” You only have to see the string of awards that are proudly displayed on the walls around the brewery to see that many other people agree. Happy birthday Sambrook’s and here’s to the next ten years!
The full address of the brewery is Unit 1-3 Yelverton Road, Battersea, London SW11 3QG.
*The Krausen process is where some of the liquid in the fermenter is added to a fermented beer to get further fermentation and thus carbonation.
Christine Cryne