{"id":5877,"date":"2025-11-26T11:05:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=5877"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:05:26","slug":"brewery-news-november-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/brewery-news-november-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewery news – November 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

London Brewers\u2019 Alliance festival<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LBA\u2019s latest festival was held at the Bird House Brewery<\/a><\/strong> in Herne Hill over four days in September.\u00a0 As the event guide pointed out, it\u2019s a very special year for the LBA as they celebrate their 15th anniversary.\u00a0 Over 80 beers covering a very broad range of styles were available from 32 member breweries, including eight cask beers.\u00a0 There were three from Windsor & Eton (Guardsman, Knight of the Garter, Canberra Autumn Ale), two from Fuller\u2019s (Vintage Ale, Red Fox) and one each from Sambrook\u2019s (Powerhouse), Wimbledon (Keller Helles) and Bird House (Amber).\u00a0 I visited on the Thursday and the cask beers that I tried were in great form.\u00a0 The festival was very well laid out with plenty of tables and seating, with room to move between the bars.\u00a0 There was also a good selection of food.\u00a0 The event was very well attended, including a good number of younger drinkers.\u00a0 The brewery tap, originally the home of Canopy Brewery, is worth a visit.\u00a0 The brewery is very close to Herne Hill station.\u00a0 Turn left as you exit.\u00a0 For opening times and other details see https:\/\/birdhousebrewing.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Butler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brockley Brewery – Raising the Bar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many small independent breweries, Brockley has developed into a cornerstone of its community through forging strong links with nearby businesses and schools, supporting local campaigns and collaborating with cultural events. \u00a0In November, to further embrace their ethos of being a community-led enterprise, the brewery launched a crowdfunding campaign called \u2018Raise the Bar\u2019.\u00a0 All proceeds will be used to establish a brand new taproom that will include a dedicated area for local artists, musicians and young creatives. \u00a0Brockley\u2019s co-owner, Carl Lawrence, says, \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about raising money, it\u2019s about growing together. \u00a0For more than ten years we\u2019ve seen how powerful this community is and this campaign is our way of giving everyone the chance to shape what comes next<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The campaign runs until Christmas.\u00a0 If you are interested, visit https:\/\/crowdfunder.co.uk\/p\/brockeyraisethebar<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>Contributors are being offered a number of different rewards, ranging from various bar tabs through to (I\u2019ve been informed) ten years of unlimited Brockley beers from the taproom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Hillier<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(CAMRA Liaison Officer for Brockley Brewery)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gipsy Hill on the move<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gipsy Hill<\/a>, which is now part of the Sunrise Alliance Beverages group, is to move the majority of its brewing to another Sunrise site, the Curious Brewery in Ashford, Kent.\u00a0 They had wanted to stay at their current site in Hamilton Road but there are rent increases on the horizon which, even though they have been trading well, make this impossible.\u00a0 Production will transfer once the new versions of the beers have been matched to the originals.\u00a0 The rent increases primarily affect the storage and warehousing areas.\u00a0 The adjacent tap room will remain and be expanded.\u00a0 Some experimental beers may still be brewed at Hamilton Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

International Women\u2019s Collaboration Brew Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme for the 2026 competition has been announced.  It will be Unite Belonging<\/em>.  This is intended to be a global call to create a kinder, more inclusive world through the power of our beer communities.  In this spirit, the brew days will celebrate the power of belonging, because no one should feel like an outsider in beer, in our communities or in the world.  For the first time, posters are being produced for the event, run in partnership with the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) and Women On Tap CIC.  Printed copies will be sold to raise funds for the campaign and it is hoped to make the posters an annual collectors\u2019 item.  Applications opened on 31 October.  For more details go to the Women On Tap CIC website and social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portobello go for tanks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

News of another Sunrise Alliance group member.  Portobello Brewery has agreed a partnership with the Big Easy restaurant chain to sell Portobello London Pilsner (4.6% ABV) in Big Easy\u2019s five sites in London.  Tanks holding 880 pints are being installed in the restaurants and the beer will be delivered fresh from the brewery.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Signature collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, as usual, quite a lot of green hop beers around at the moment.  One of the more interesting ones is a collaboration between Signature Brew of Walthamstow and Cornwall\u2019s St Austell Brewery.  Signature were invited to go west by St Austell\u2019s brewing director Georgina Young and the outcome was a 3.4% ABV green hop pale ale called Never Mind the Dry Hops.  The beer featured at Signature Brew\u2019s Harvestfest event on the Blackhorse Beer Mile and is also available at certain St Austell pubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Eagle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers will recall that the Eagle Brewery in Bedford, once home to the Young\u2019s & Wells Brewery Company, was bought, along with its brands, by what was then the Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company.  It was subsequently sold to Spain\u2019s largest brewers, family-owned SA Damm.  This is their first venture away from home.  Damm are looking to turn the site into the largest independent brewery in the UK.  The plant has been modernised, doubling the packaging capacity and installing equipment for making soft drinks.  A number of new jobs have been created.  They have not ruled out brewing cask beer.  Now that Carlsberg Britvic, as they are now, have closed the former Banks\u2019s brewery in Wolverhampton, those cask beers that remain from the Eagle portfolio are being brewed at the former Marstons brewery in Burton-on-Trent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wimbledon Brewery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brewery held their autumn beer festival at the brewery tap over three days in September.  It was billed as the \u2018Beer Festival of Champions\u2019 and formed part of the brewery\u2019s tenth anniversary celebrations.  It featured twenty cask beers in a good variety of styles plus 24 keg beers, likewise.  Included were beers from Rodenbach and Cantillon, a selection of speciality and rare European bottled beers and three ciders from Against the Grain.  The festival was well attended with most beer sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the event, the brewery were kind enough to host the London & South East round of CAMRA\u2019s Champion Beer of Britain for the \u2018speciality beers \u2013 differently produced\u2019 category.  Six beers selected by a combination of CAMRA members\u2019 votes and county tasting panel scores were subjected to a blind tasting by a panel selected from both the trade and trained CAMRA volunteers.  The results were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Gold: London Brewery Co; Beer Street<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Silver: Langham; Saison<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Bronze: Portobello; Market Porter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The gold winner will go forward to the next round where it will be judged against the category winners from the other regional rounds.  The winner from that goes into the final round of the overall Champion Beer of Britain competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Martin Butler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (CAMRA Liaison Officer for Wimbledon Brewery)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    London Brewers\u2019 Alliance festival The LBA\u2019s latest festival was held at the Bird House Brewery in Herne Hill over four days in September.\u00a0 As the event guide pointed out, it\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brewery-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5882,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877\/revisions\/5882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}