This approach is reflected in their adoption of a charity each quarter. The staff come together to suggest and choose a local charity that has a direct impact on the lives of people who live in the area. The funding comes from the idea of \u2018paying forward a pint<\/em>\u2019. To quote from their leaflet, \u2018When you order a pint from the bar, think of it as buying a pint for a mate who is not there<\/em>\u2019. Hackney Church then match however much has been raised in that quarter. The chosen charity at the time of the Tasting Panel\u2019s visit was the Hackney Migrant Centre, which provides advice and support for local immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n Hamish is assisted by head brewer, Jacob Hobbs, who also joined the brewery in 2022. Jacob was previously with Redemption and explained, \u201cBack at Redemption I started their first keg beer. When I arrived here, there were only a couple of Hackney Church beers on tap but plenty of lines. I started from scratch, creating new beers<\/em>.\u201d These days, most of the taps are full with Hackney Church beers. There are six beers in their core range, most having a church related name such as Ascension, Halo, Renaissance and St Clements although \u2018the names can\u2019t be too risky<\/em>\u2019. Jacob expanded, \u201cWe try and have a dark beer on and we do occasional collabs as well as our one offs. But we are not just for beer nerds; we are here for different people, ensuring we always have beer that is recognisable. I promised my dad there would always be some beer for him to drink<\/em>.\u201d (To find out more about Jacob\u2019s interesting background see the December\/January 2021 edition of London Drinker.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brewery and the tap room are housed in adjoining railway arches in Bohemia Place (E8 1DU). The brewery has a brew length of 2,000 litres (around 12 barrels) with five fermenters. Two additional ten hectolitre vessels are due to be added shortly. With a six week maturation period for their lagers, they need the extra capacity. Unlike many breweries, Hackney Church can do reverse osmosis with its water; this is where the salts are removed to leave a soft water, which is essential for a good lager. The other piece of equipment that many smaller breweries don\u2019t have is a malt mill. Hamish explained, \u201cWe have a lauter system for our malts and it\u2019s really helpful if we can control the grain size<\/em>.\u201d Lautering is more common on the continent than in the UK. The process is designed to extract as much sugar from the malt as possible. It is usually a three-step process at the end of a mash, involving recirculation and sparging of the grain bed.<\/p>\n\n\n Once brewed, the beer is put into either kegs or tanks; you can spot the latter above the bar. The beer put in the tanks is mainly their bigger sellers. The seating besides the bar is high tables and benches and they weigh a ton; don\u2019t try to move them! There is a small seating area outside at the front and a larger canopied area at the back with picnic type seating, overlooked by the kitchen. The food is provided by Lagom, owned by a Swede called Elliot Cunningham, and is more than just the usual burgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hackney Church Brewery and Tap Room is just a few minutes\u2019 walk from Hackney Central Station; the station which you get off at if you are going to Pig\u2019s Ear Beer Festival. So, if you are going to the festival this year, this tap room makes a good finishing point and train waiting room! The tap room opens on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and all day Friday to Sunday. For details see here<\/a>. You can find the London Tasting Panel\u2019s tasting notes in the London Breweries\u2019 section of the regional website: www.london.camra.org.uk. In 2018, when St John\u2019s Church in Hackney received funding for a refurbishment intended to help \u2018liven up the place\u2019, someone then involved with the church came up with the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brewery-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3582"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3592,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions\/3592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jacob\"](\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-2.png\")
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Christine Cryne<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"