Rugby @ London Beer Factory

After winning a competition on twitter for 2 tickets to one of the 6 nations games with burger and beer we decided to take the puncture free (see bunsmith blog) fixed bikes off on an adventure and adventure it was! 3/4 of the way into the journey we both rode over a broken bottle and unfortunately Sarah's bike couldn't take it and boom another punctured tyre to add to the list! However she only noticed the flat as we arrived at The London Beer Factory which meant we could sample more of their beers than had we of been cycling back!

We were greeted by Ed at the door and he guided us straight to the bar where there were 3 beers on offer at £3 a pint - absolute bargain!

Sarah chose the Paxton Pale Ale (5.0%) and Soph the Chelsea Blonde (4.3%) and from the first sip we knew we were going to enjoy our afternoon immensely! The brewery was on a smaller scale to Camden but they are still producing really good tasting beer which we truly believe will be a big hit on a bigger scale. Ed and his brother Sim started the company with their wine and brewing backgrounds last year and decided to brew 3 very different beers to cater to all tastes and they also brew for Franco Manca. The set up of the Brewery was fantastic and makes a great venue for sporting events or actually any event due to the large screen and wooden benches. They also have table football, a darts board and apparently a few beer pong tables which excites us immensely. We settled in for the first half of the Wales V Scotland game and our glasses were soon empty so onto our second pint. 

This time Sarah tried the London Session and Soph stuck to the Blonde as she liked it so much. The Londoner has a lower ABV (3.8%) than the other two beers but is still packed full of flavour - a little too much for Sarah though having had the pale ale as her starting beer but none the less the pint was finished and enjoyed just not as much as the Pale Ale. The brewery also has a really nice little outside space where Josh was making burgers and we got to demloish these just before half time. We both had bacon and cheese with all the salad and really enjoyed them...although being burger snobs they were a little bit overdone for us but the char of the bun and the crispy bacon added a crunch to the burger.

During half time Ed took me on a tour of the brewery where I got to see the UK grown malt which was really insightful and a priveledge to learn more about the company and brand. Being quite a new company they are just starting to get bottles out of their beer and I got to see the newly designed labels which are really cool and eye catching - I look forward to seeing them on the shelves! We ended our afternoon with another pint of Blonde and a happy Soph as Wales won but due to the prospect of a walk not ride with one punctured bike we decided to head off for West Norwood Station back to Peckham. 

The London Beer Factory is situated between Gipsy Hill, West Norwood and Crystal Palace and easily accessed by train, car or unpunctured bikes. We really recommend watching the rest of the 6 nations here as the screen is huge and your beer is being brewed right infront of your eyes for 3 quid a pint - bargain for London prices! Check out their website as they have a deal on at the moment for burger, beer and the games for £10 which really cannot be faulted! We really hope the boys decide to do more events at their brewery and will be looking forward to heading back ourselves in the near future.