I recently visited the UK for vacation and took my opportunity to try many beers, among other things. The last time I was there the UK was in a bit of a sea change in the pub business. There were about 58,000 pubs in the UK in 2000. That number has declined to around 47,000 now. Big breweries had stepped in and bought a huge chunk of the pubs in order to control beer sales. I've seen some different numbers, but the six biggest owned about 75% of all the pubs. In fact, Fuller, a well known brewery, sold it's beer making operation to the Asahi Group in 2019 so it could focus on it's pub operations. Fuller made one of the best known British beers, London Pride, that it had brewed in London since 1958. Asahi is a Japanese beer company, which you can easily find here in the states and I drank a lot when I was in Japan a few years ago. There were marketing agreements in place, as part of the deal, but it shows you how the pubs is where the money is. For awhile, there were laws put in place to limit the number of pubs the big brewers could own, but that has since been repealed. For me, the drawback is that you can only find a small selection of beers available at any pub and the food choices were the same at all of them I visited. There are about 3,800 pubs in London and I was in only about 8, but they were either owned by Greene King or Fuller. The beers were good, but the choices were nil.
I wasn't into the brewery scene during my first three visits there, so I was curious about how the micro-brewery business was fairing this time around. I did find a handful of small breweries scattered around the city, but they are basically left on their own as they cannot get their beers into the pubs. Overall beer consumption is declining there, as it is in the US., but despite that, the craft beer scene is surging in the UK. It makes sense from my standpoint that these once outstanding pubs, with distinct and long histories are now just cookie cutter operations. That's a broad generalization, I agree, but my brief experience says so. This gives the micro breweries a chance to make their mark.
I was happy to find Battersea Brewing. If you go to London, I highly recommend going out to Battersea Power Station, not just to try the brewery, but they have revitalized the whole area with shopping, food and high end apartment buildings. The last time I was there, the Battersea Power Station was a run down old monolith. Originally built in 1929, it generated a fifth of London's electricity. During World War II, both the RAF and Luftwaffe used it's huge smoke stacks and plumes as a guide, which is why it avoided damage during the London Blitz. By 1983, it had run it's usefulness and was closed. It sat completely idle until being purchased for development in 2012. Today it is a poster-child for revitalization projects. The brewery is owned by a pub ownership group, to be fair, but they do brew their own beer and have just twenty establishments throughout Britain. After perusing their list, I had to have their Admiral Best Bitter. It was what I was looking for. If you had ever had a traditional, old style British ale, they have a distinct smell and taste. It comes from the British yeasts they use, but it is a total nostalgic thing for me. This beer had that. It was toasty and malty with a smooth finish. It is brewed with the Admiral hop and as you can see in my pic above, it has a deep copper color. Overall, it was a great beer. The IBU's are at 36, but it doesn't come across that high due to the Seville orange and cocoa which make it more bitter sweet. The Admiral Best Bitter was exactly what I was looking for.
My next beer was an unfiltered Helles that I also liked. Helles lagers originated in Munich and are a fairly popular beer. They have a subtle bitterness and lack the sweet finish with more of a dry one. The yeast is left in, hence the unfiltered part, and that makes the beer more complex. The alcohol content in the beer is only 4.3%, but it is very drinkable and flavorful. It's pretty obvious that I like malty beers and Helles's have all that too. I liked both beers pretty well. I did not see any mech to buy, so I didn't get a t-shirt, but I would have if there was one. I do recommend both Battersea Brewing and Battersea Power Station for an afternoon excursion in London. Mind the Gap.
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