Looking For The Darkside In East London

"These are our salad days..." sang Tony Hadley on Spandau Ballet's 1983 hit 'Gold'. I've just checked out the rest of the lyrics and to be honest I haven't got the foggiest what they were going on about but I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about the beer scene in London 35 years into the future. Because for those of us who enjoy their drink these truly are 'salad days'.

The range in styles, strengths, flavours, countries of origin etc has never been as amazing as it is now and it was with this in mind I recently set off for East London. Although for this particular outing I was on a quest for dark beer. There was a time not too long since when the only dark beer that you ever saw in the pub, certainly in the South of England, was Guinness. Now hideously overpriced and over marketed to the point of destruction, it seems like Guinness are fighting a losing battle,even to the point of  seemingly giving in and bringing out their own versions of 'lager' and 'craft beer'.

Of course this increase in choice and availability has its price. On one hand, the new businesses that have moved into East London have helped revitalise a decaying part of the City. Whether they are breweries, bars, cereal cafes, shops that service Penny-Farthing cycles or make beard jewellery (yes that actually is a thing) they've made a contribution. The downside is that the old Eastenders can feel pushed out culturally and certainly financially. The average price of a two bed flat in Hackney is over half a million pounds. Many of the good old fashioned community pubs have been swallowed up by either greedy property developers or those other paragons of virtue, supermarkets and betting shops.

I first went to one of these new businesses a few years back, Mother Kellys (more of which later), a homage to the American tap bars, which sits under the railway arches a short walk from Bethnal Green tube station. This place completely changed my outlook on what beer is and could be. Selection wise, they had fridges full of beers of every style from around the globe plus around twenty taps. It was here that I first sampled beers from some of my favourite brewers Mikeller, Tool and Pohjala. Not household names to most people, and from Denmark and Estonia repectively. I've since added Lervig to this list. They're from Norway by the way. I don't know if this will apply to Mother Kellys (I hope not) but I recently saw that Network Rail have sold their stock of arches to private equity funds for around £1.2 billion meaning increased rents on some of their occupants in London of more than 300%. That can be your reward for success in modern Britain, crippling rent increases.

Anyway it was with a feeling of pleasant anticipation that I headed into London via our local train service. Its now a bigger pain in the neck since trains from Ware only go as far as Broxbourne on a Saturday. I expect the genius that decided that hasn't been on a train for years. So after changing at Broxbourne and then again at Hackney Downs (a short walk across a footbridge takes you directly to Hackney Central) I arrived two stops later at Hackney Wick. The redevelopment of the station now means that the walk to what was my original choice of first destination now only takes around 45 seconds. But shock horror, as I made my way to The Howling Hops Tank Bar  it appeared to be closed. Somewhat disappointed I diverted straight into its close neighbour The Crate Brewery and ordered one of their guest beers, Southbound from the Bad Seed Brewery This was to be the only actual pint that I had all day (and that was only because I ordered it without thinking). I'd chosen it as they didn't appear to have any of their stout available and I'm not terribly keen on the Crate beers in general, although it is a cracking venue right on the river. And the food they were bringing out looked fantastic.

HOWLING HOPS TANK BAR - Beer as fresh as it gets 

A quick check of the phone whilst drinking my beer revealed that Howling Hops was well and truly open (must book that Specsavers appointment sooner rather than later) so I made my way around to the main entrance. As you can see from the pic on the left Howling Hops dispense their beer brewed on site directly from ten tanks. This makes the beer incredibly fresh and the bar a great place to drink. Here everything is served in either two thirds or a third of a pint. The pricing structure is just as simple with everything under 6% abv and one price and everything over 6% at another.Yet again though my quest was somewhat thwarted as the tank containing their chocolate stout was showing as clearly unavailable. Not to worry though as the friendly, bearded (shock) young man behind the bar recommended the Ruby Red, which in all fairness although described as being amber was quite a bit darker. It was thoroughly enjoyable and suitably refreshed I headed for my next venue.

Once the aforementioned redevelopment at Hackney Wick station is completed and the underpass is fully open, the walk to my next stop The Beer Merchants Tap will be even quicker but even going the long way round the station its still only about two minutes.

THE BEER MERCHANTS TAP - Taps a plenty & two hand pumps

This was my first visit here and upon entering the first thing that strikes you is the sheer amount of choice. The spiel says there's around 500 beers to choose from and that doesn't seem unrealistic what with double fridges packed to the rafters all around the place. I decided to take stock and found myself a seat to check out the tap list. First up I went for The Black Pig from the  White Hag Irish Brewing Co which is a dry stout . Yippee. A dark beer.

The Black Pig

The upshot was that Black Pig was pretty good. I think its my first experience of anything from White Hag Brewery who are at the forefront of  the Irish craft beer scene. I'd love to think that people all over the Emerald Isle would drop my old mate Guinness and give these guys a shot but I suppose old habits die hard and maybe it will have to be a generational thing that eventually leads to change. Little did I know that drink number two at this venue would turn out to be the highlight of this or perhaps any other day. I've known since trying some of their beer for the first time that the  Norwegian brewery Lervig are among the worlds best but having a third of the Konrad's Stout certainly drilled the point home. Despite some stiff opposition I've decided to declare this as the best Imperial Stout I've ever had. The flavour combinations were nothing short of awesome and all delivered so smoothly. Incredible stuff.

Konrads Stout - The lucky bastard

As luck would have it in among the plethora of beers in the fridges sat the bottled version. Two were quickly snaffled on my way out. As I made my way back to Hackney Wick station I was feeling quite happy and then it suddenly dawned on me. Konrads Stout was so good that I may have just experienced the beer version of a 'Concorde' moment. What if after the bottled version had been consumed I couldn't ever get it again? What if I never found anything that tasted this good again? Luckily this mini crisis of confidence soon passed, boosted I'm sure by the Brian JonesTown Massacre giving it the full beans on my buds and I found myself back on the train heading for venue number four, the previously mentioned Mother Kellys.

This leg of the journey involved using a bus for the first time. Getting out at Hackney Central, I walked down Mare Street (making sure I crossed early enough to avoid the temptation of going in the frankly marvellous Cock Tavern) and after a wait that lasted all of two minutes, jumped on the number 254 bus heading towards Bethnal Green. Around ten minutes and half a dozen stops later I'm off the bus (it was red but there was a lack of lies on the side of it) and within a minute I'm in beer paradise.

MOTHER KELLYS - Beer Paradise

Mother Kellys was fairly quiet during my visit, with a few other disciples working their way through the taps or the selection of beers from the fridges. I sampled three during my stay, Boxcar Brewery DRK-004 Dark Mild, only 3% but full of flavour, Boomslangs Table Beer, again just 3.2% but very zesty & Black TrIPA from the Little Earth Project, a black IPA which was something special as well. My comment on Untppd simply said 'My Word'.

Boxcar's Dark Mild - Pretty yummy tbf

There's always a slightly sorrowful feeling when the time comes to move on from Mother Kellys, although the counterbalance to that is the fact that I know it hopefully won't be too long before I'm back again. My last port-of-call for the day comes highly recommended in one of the best books about the London beer scene you could wish to own. The London Craft Beer Guide, released earlier this year (I went to the launch night at the now sadly closed Mason & Co at Stratford) by Jonny Garrett and Brad Evans describes The Kings Arms thus

"If there is an exciting brewery doing a tap takeover in London, you can almost guarantee it will be at this understated East End boozer, where an excellent beer list is balanced by equally good cheese and meat boards to keep you sober-ish."

THE KINGS ARMS - A truly great backstreet pub

This was to be my first visit and I certainly was not disappointed. By this time it was early evening on Saturday and a few locals mixed in with a couple of groups of lads obviously there to try out some of the cask, keg and / or bottled beers available. I decided to dive straight in with a half of The Porter from Ansbach & Hobday from the keg selection. Really enjoyable and didn't really taste its 6.7% abv. Afterwards, knowing that it would be my last one of the day I carefully checked the wonderful bottled beer list and went for O/O Brewing Baltic Porter.

O/O Baltic Porter - Those Swedes have done it again

This was yet another example of Scandinavian brilliance in a bottle. This time though its not from Denmark or Norway but Sweden, usually recognised only for ABBA, Volvo cars & Zlatan Ibrahimovic. At the time I thought it wonderful and will be searching out more from this exciting brewery.

At this point it was time to begin the journey home. A satisfactory day in some great venues with some truly fantastic (and eventually) dark beers. Obviously, some of these beers do not come cheap. I haven't mentioned any prices anywhere because for the purpose of my visit the costs are irrelevant. I wouldn't travel to the Champagne region in France and then complain at the first vineyard about their prices and the fact its possible to buy champagne in Tescos for a fifth of what they're asking. If you want to try something different, that will challenge your tastebuds and perception of what beer is and can be, at some point you are going to have to pay for it.