Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting London Fields Brewery in Hackney to have a tour of their facilities and taste some of the ales. We met in their Taproom with their manager Jack who provided us with a half pint of their Hackney Hopster to taste to start us off. In the Taproom dried hops were hanging from the rafters, and the bar had a wide selection of ales which we were to try later on.

Jack then took us around the corner to the main brewery and we met up with many members of his team who were all extremely friendly and more than happy for us to watch them at work as Jack explained the brewing process. He started off by showing us some of the hops that they used that come from as close as Kent and as far as New Zealand.

He then explained how from the mash tun the wort was extracted and then transferred to the boil kettle. Wort contains the sugars that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to  produce alcohol.

He then gave us a taster of one of their “green beers”. The beer is not literally green although is “young” and not quite ready so looks pretty cloudy at this stage.

He then demonstrated their unique ways of calculating the ABV (Alcohol By Volume) level of their beer.

The beer and ales produced by the London Fields Brewery are placed in Casks, Kegs and Bottles. They have been commissioned by one restaurant to brew a beer just for them. This is bottled and packed by hand for distribution.

London Fields Brewery also have some great event space in their BrewHouse which they hire out for parties, weddings and private functions all with their own bar of course! There is also a great courtyard which leads in to the two railway arches that house the event space.

Then it was back to the Taproom to sample a few more of their ales.

In the Taproom they also have experimental beers which they put on to gauge the reaction and popularity of their new recipes. Their latest one is Grapefruit flavoured which is for the summer, and I personally quite liked!

London Field Brewery is a very young company and having been established for 3 years is rapidly expanding. They provide brewery tours, run events and are currently recruiting.  So if you are in the London area pop over to the Taproom and have a chat with Jack, he will be delighted to meet you.