What a beery week in the nation’s capital: GBBF, London Beer City and London Craft Beer Festival. Naturally, we had to go south to see lots of friendly faces, brew another collaboration for IndyMan, and take in some of the special beer events. It was a tough mission, but someone had to do it!

First, we stopped at Olympia and GBBF, next we visited Beavertown’s new, shiny brewery in Tottenham. The goal: to make an Iced Tea beer! To achieve this, we mashed in with pale, wheat, and oats, and produced a wort that was then soured in the kettle for three days. We then did some trials with Lemon Phantom and Earl Grey Tea… to determine how much tea would be added in the secondary. Can’t wait to try this little refreshing number! It was a busy day at Beavertown, with brewers from Brazil and Jamil Zainasheff from Heretic in California stopping by. After the brew day, it was time to unwind at The Kernel’s open brewery event, and round out the evening with a visit to Mother Kelly’s in Hackney (apologies for the lack of photos, too busy chatting and tasting beers). A lovely beery place indeed.

After a little bit of a tour around central London’s public houses, we stopped to visit Redchurch, during the busy workday as well as for the chill session in the evening. Well worth visiting on a Thursday evening, and keep an eye out for expanded opening times! Furthermore, we met up with Steve and Mark from Beer ‘O’ Clock Show — the podcast of our chat will be online in the near future, watch the respective Twitter feeds. Finally, it was time to visit the Oval Space, and London Craft Beer Festival, which was back for its second outing. More friendly faces, more excellent beer, and then it was time to leave that there London and head back North.

A huge thank you to Beavertown for hosting us and brewing a special for IMBC, and a further massive thanks to all the beery friends, old and new! We hope to see all of you in Manchester in October. Cheers!