Checking out Round 1 of London’s Brewing

Hanging out at London’s Brewing.

This weekend my boyfriend and I popped by London’s Brewing, a brand new festival by the London Brewers Alliance.

It was held in The BrewHouse, London Fields Brewery events space in the heart of Hackney. Inside the space was a small courtyard of sorts with three rooms off of it; one with a bar and a band, one with a bar, and one with loads of seating. In the courtyard were several, super tasty, independent street food carts to keep us well-fed.

We had opted for the £20 entry + nine 1/3 beer samples, and ended up sticking to that as far as drinks went. I focussed on checking out the newer microbreweries, while the boy went for a good mix of both the new and the old.

Here are the eight I tried, because I got a second helping of Trinity while I ate my chicken burger:

Five Point’s Hook Island Red: a full-bodied, aromatic red ale brewed with Chinook, Columbus and Simcoe hops.
London Field’s Love not War: silky texture and soft caramel cuddling up to rich pear and summer fruit character.
A Head in a Hat’s Tifter: an original Camden Brewery recipe from 1923. The revived low-gravity Dinner Ale, designed for the domestic family’s dinner table.
Sambrook’s Brewery’s Wandle: golden sunset colour, spicy herbaceous smell, lemony, light spice, quaffable taste, best bitter.
East London Brewery: dark vanilla-spiced mild.
Redemption’s Trinity: brewed with plenty of malt to provide decent body so that it has some backbone for a low ABV beer.
Sambrook’s Powerhouse Porter: tawny brown colour, malty, biscuity, smokey smell, sharp, sweet rich taste.
Windsor and Eton’s Knight of the Garter: golden ale with distinct citrus aroma.