London brewers don’t usually stand still and this couldn’t be more true than with Wild Card. It was in 2015 that the London Tasting Panel last went to see what the brewery had been up to and so we decided that it was about time for a return visit.
The brewery has its origins in 2012 when two friends, Andrew Birkby and William Harris decided to start commercial brewing after being home brewers for some time. Initially, they brewed as guests of other breweries. A year later, they were joined by another friend, Jaega Wise. The original plan for their own premises was to set up a one barrel plant in the basement of the Warrant Officer pub in Higham Hill but demand was already such that instead they decided to go for a six barrel brewery in a unit on the Ravenswood Industrial Estate in Walthamstow.
With sales increasing, they outgrew the original site and so, in 2017, they moved to Lockwood Way, off Blackhorse Lane. They haven’t forgotten their roots however, as William explained, “This original site is host to a tap room and our barrel aged project. Our first release will be later this year (2021).”
The Lockwood site has a 13 barrel plant with eight 2,200 litre and four 4,400 litre fermenters/storage containers. This is more than twice the size of the Ravenswood brewery. Although the vessels are conical, all of the yeast used in the brewery is top cropping, including the lager yeasts, in contrast to the standard practice, where the yeast sits on the bottom. Asa James, the brewer said, “We currently use only dried yeast but we might change in the future. We are installing a lab, which will give us the facilities to be able to be able to move to our own house yeast, if we choose to.”
Asa studied English Literature but left it behind to go into brewing. He joined Tap East, who paid for his General Certificate in Brewing and then his personal licence. He moved from brewing for them in the Westfield Centre at Stratford to join Wild Card three years ago. Asa explained, “There are four people in the brewing team plus three in packaging. We moved away from bottles some time ago and have our own canning line.” William spoke about the beers, “The majority of the beers use American or New Zealand hops. We chill-drop some of the beers but we might consider buying a centrifuge in due course.”
The site has a mezzanine with seating overlooking the brewery, with a small bar downstairs. This outlet is home to a number of events throughout the year, although in 2020 most had to be put on hold because of the pandemic. The events include BrewCon, a home brew festival, an Octoberfest and, what has to be unique, the Lovely Dog competition in late summer. “Everyone brings in dogs and all of the money goes to dog charities. There are three categories: small, large and dogs with jobs, with pictures of the winning dogs appearing on our cans.”
In spring 2020, Wild Card decided to increase their outlets by adding a pub to their two tap rooms. This was the Warrant Officer, where they nearly started brewing. Wild Card have renamed it the Tavern on the Hill. William said, “We have a fifteen year lease from a private landlord, who is a warrant officer; he owns the flats upstairs. We sat on it for a while because of the pandemic and it needed some work. There was a carpet on top of lino hiding a wooden floor.” The pub has been tastefully modernised with the floors now exposed and varnished. They have also installed a kitchen. The pub dates from the 1700s and the five fireplaces give a hint to its past. Once it had a public bar, a lounge and a jug & bottle but now it is a single bar. The seating inside is complemented by outside seating at the front and rear of the pub. A pub this old inevitably has a number of interesting stories. One of these involves a women’s football team that played out of the pub. However, they struggled to get enough women to field a team so recruited a number of men, who dressed up as women so they could compete!
Although Wild Card is known more recently for its keg beer, it did regularly produce cask when the brewery was originally set up and having the pub has allowed them to return to cask. William said, “This is a traditional pub so we thought it needed traditional beer so we put in two handpumps. We started with two Castle Rock beers, Harvest Pale and Perseverance, and then started to brew our own when we were certain we could turn it over.” The two beers currently being brewed are a modern pale and a traditional bitter, both at quaffable alcohol strengths at 4.2% and 4.3% ABV. There is also a reflection of both the new and the old that applies to the design. William said, “We based it on the old Embassy No 1 cigarette design. Thunderbird blue!”
So, a bit like the Tracy brothers, the Wild Card trio seem intent on taking advantage of new thoughts in brewing and beer styles while paying homage to the past and to play on the Thunderbirds’ motto ‘All for one purpose: to help others in need (of a good beer)’.
For tasting notes, see the brewery page on the regional website. The full address of the Tavern on the Hill is 318 Higham Hill Road, Walthamstow E17 5RG