TOPIC:

I was at the Kernel Brewery in London on Saturday. What a great little spot! It's basically a small brewery located under the arches of a railway bridge located at 98 Druid St, SE1 2HQ. There's nothing to see at the front, except for a big closed gate, and we were a little worried that we had the wrong place. However, once you go around the back, off Millstreet, it opens out on to a pedestrian lane, where there are a couple of tables and chairs, and the guys are serving bottles from there. There was a lively trade of people picking up bottles, as well as people standing around just sipping away. There's also artisan hams and cheese for sale, which is a nice touch.

There was a nice selection of beers available, and they were rightly to my taste. There was lots of strong hoppy ales, as well as Porters, Stouts etc, but the 7%ABV Black IPA stole the show for me. Hadn't tried this style before, and wasn't excited to do so, but it was absoloutely lovely. I also tried the Citra IPA, but not sure if I am such a fan of this hop on it's own, as it's maybe a little too fruity without something else to give it a bit more edge. I brewed with it recently, and also found this to be the case, so it was nice to compare it and confirm my thoughts.

We had a quick tour around the brewery setup which was fairly straight forward, and not too different to the average homebrew setup, but obviously did the job, as they seemed to be expanding and adding on to keep up with demand. I had a good chat with the assistant brewer Toby, and also the owner/head brewer Evin. Evin is from Waterford, so the Irish connection made it all the better. He even had his dad who was over visting, manning the bar, while he had a smoke and a drink with us outside. He was fully aware of Beoir and the new micro breweries popping up in his home county. The guys only bottle at the moment, and the brewery is only really open for drinking on a Satruday from 9am to 3pm, but that seems to suit them, and I doubt they would get the same trade during the week. I think you can call in during the week, if you want to pick up a couple of bottles, but better to ring ahead. The kernel website indicates that their beer is available in quite a few other places in London, but nothing like drinking it at source and chatting to those who made it.

Prices seemed fair to me, at £2.50 a bottle regardless of size, with stronger beers being in the smaller 33cl bottles and more sessionable ones in regular 50cl bottles.

They also seem to be doing collaboration brews with other up and coming London berweries, and there were a couple of brewers popping in to chat over the course of the day.

I'll definitely call again next time I'm in London, and have ordered the brother to pick up some bottles for me, when he gets the chance. They are also available on cavedirect, so might put in an order there, in order to try the black IPA again. It's probably a style that I will now brew sooner rather than later.

I'm sorry now, that I didn't take some better pictures of the setup, but here's one of the lovely black IPA, and also the menu of the day.

I'd definitely reccomend the Kernel brewery for those who have the opportunity to visit.

The Kernel Brewey[/url:35twxvg1]

[img:35twxvg1]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/BillyNaughton/Image0422.jpg[/img:35twxvg1]

[img:35twxvg1]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/BillyNaughton/Image0423.jpg[/img:35twxvg1]

Been hearing great things about them.

There's a video here[/url:38i8yjoj]. I love the way they do their labels.

Good video indeed. I actually picked up a sheet of the labels as a souvenir, but didn't realise that the different detail was done by a stamp. I had thought of using one of those stamps to put something on my caps, but not on the labels.

I can't believe that they are doing all the bottling with a bech capper, but they did mention that bottling was a pain, and that they were looking at the options for draft.

I also forgot to mention that they were doing a type of semi open fermentation, which is probably unusual in this day and age. No funkiness whatsoever in the beers though!

I spent most of last Saturday again at the Kernel Brewery, and enjoyed it as much as ever. The menu is very much for the hop heads, so right up my street. We worked our way through the menu trying most of the ales, finishing off with the 9% and 10% Centenniel APA, which were lovely but dangerously strong! The Black IPA is probably still my favourite though, and they now have it on draft from corney kegs. Everything else is bottled. Prices have gone up a little from the last time I was there, but still very acceptable. Nice and busy but not too packed.

Had a couple more drinks in the Rake and assorted pubs around borough Market. Had hoped to buy some bottles at the Kernel or at Borough Market, but don't think they would have got home safely.

[img:355w7wmm]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/BillyNaughton/Maura124.jpg[/img:355w7wmm]

Nice writeup Billy, that Black IPA sounds the berries <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

&amp;quot;Ale Man&amp;quot;:iqjeowao wrote: Nice writeup Billy, that Black IPA sounds the berries <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->[/quote:iqjeowao]

Cheers Gordon. I've played around with Carafa 3 in the sparge, but have been underdoing it. Have a better idea of the required percentage now, so it's on the list to try again.