After a bit of a hiatus, the new Last Orders podcast is here:
Today I visited the brewery that links South and North London, Hop Stuff, where I was showed round by the lovely founder James Yeomans. Listen to the podcast to find out more, and while you’re listening, scroll down to see what it looks like. Radio with pictures. It’ll never catch on.
Their award-winning porter, which I can’t wait to try.
A small part of James’s ‘research wall’. Happy to see a bottle of Wu Gang Chops the Tree up there, among a myriad of other yeasty treats.
The hole in the upstairs floor, showing the fermentation vessels below. It really, really reminds me of Mr Blint’s Attic! (See my other web site for details).
The fermentation vessel that wouldn’t fit.
Bottled beer is a relatively new venture for them.
Where the magic happens.
The brewery is at the heart of the Royal Arsenal development. Berkeley Homes have bought a huge swathe of the old munitions factory land stretching to the River Thames. Some of the old buildings are being renovated, and new some 5000 new flats are sprinkled in between.
The brewery and its forthcoming bar & restaurant The Taproom are right in the heart of this development, with a new Crossrail station being built offering fast transport links to central and west London.
I’m not sure what I think about this development. I used to travel through Woolwich on the bus every day on my way to work in Thamesmead, and I could sense the odd juxtaposition of the old and the new buildings, as well as the well-healed professionals hurrying from their newly-developed flats into jobs in the city, alongside the folk who have lived in the area much longer.
How many locals can afford flats starting at £367,500? Not many, I suspect. The new Woolwich Arsenal development on the left comes hard up against ‘old’ Woolwich on the right of Plumstead Road, marking a bit of a dividing line (though there are other new flats further afield):
Is there a Plan B for the less well-off residents of Woolwich, or will they be priced out of the area?
The old covered market directly faces a parade of brand new, and as yet unoccupied, units that are covered with hoardings selling an upmarket urban lifestyle dream of Sunday brunch in a café bar with artfully distressed brickwork.
But I digress.
Hop Stuff is a very interesting brewery, run by a thoughtful and very friendly team. I look forward to drinking some more locally-produced beer (especially that porter when they release another keg), and the Taproom sounds like it will be worth a visit. They may be about to out-Zero Degrees Zero Degrees.