Young at heart

by Darie Nani

With seven out of ten drinks served in a pub being beer, British beer economy is a £22.9 billion annually. As our thirst for quality craft #CheersToBeer is spanning beyond any expectations, we went to our favourite brewer in Battersea, who is celebrating their 11th birthday this autumn, to find out what is really happening behind the scenes. Duncan Sambrook, founder and managing director of Sambrook’s Brewery (sambrooksbrewery.co.uk), has a lot to be proud of. Launching its first beer in 2008, it is now a multi-award winning, Wandle Ale. In historic terms, 11 years is a very short period but a lot has happened since: there have been lots of changes in the London brewing scene but Sambrook’s has remained at its heart and is now the oldest independent brewery in London continuing to brew a range of British inspired cask and keg beers distributed throughout London.

Wandle Ale is a 3.8% best bitter which has been awarded bronze at the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain awards twice. Sambrook’s also brews a range of keg beers of which its Russian Imperial Stout picked up the supreme champion keg beer award at the SIBA brewer awards in 2016. Sambrook’s maintains a rotating selection of 8 beers throughout the year with the current seasonal being a honey infused cask ale inspired by the local area “Lavender Hill”. Beer by the River is Sambrook’s annual beer and music festival and it returns at the heart of the Wandsworth brewing scene at Ram Quarter. Duncan, said:

“Our move to Ram Quarter feels like a homecoming. Wandsworth has had a rich brewing heritage and we’re excited to be able to continue this and secure the future of Sambrook’s brewery. It’s a fantastic location for us to expand our retail offering and is just metres from the River Wandle after which our most famous beer takes its name.”

Brewing has been taking place at Ram Quarter since at least 1533. Famously the site was home to Young’s until 2006. During redevelopment the Ram’s brewing legacy has been preserved by former Young’s master brewer, John Hatch, who maintains a nano-brewery at the site. The relocation of Sambrook’s will re-launch the commercial brewing from the site and continue the brewing heritage since 1533.

Rams Quarter, Wandsworth, London 1896

Sam Macqueen, Marketing and Events Manager, adds:

“The US leads the way in craft beer, with it representing 24% of their total beer market. There, the norm is for people to drink their beer from small, local independents. With larger breweries (AB InBev, Asahi, etc.) unable to grow into this area, their natural pathway to growth has been to purchase younger, high-growth breweries.

You can the London craft market following, with Budweiser investing in Camden Town Brewer in 2015 and Heineken recently purchasing Beavertown.

Meanwhile, there's a huge growth in the number of breweries opening, providing healthy innovation and interesting local beers. In London, there was just nine breweries in the 1970's. Now, there are over 140. This trend has been driven by changing consumer attitudes and supported by a progressive beer duty regime introduced in 2002.

Just how do you make beer anyway?

This interesting perfect storm between larger breweries consolidating market share with economies of scale and the growth of smaller breweries and competition makes it difficult to exist in the middle. Without the larger, cheaper hop contracts and sites from scale, and no tax relief, many breweries lose their margin and go bust as they try to make the jump. Examples of this jump in the past few months are Redchurch Brewery, who recently went bankrupt after trying to operate as a medium-size brewery. More successfully, Crate Brewery are currently doing the same through crowd-funding.

After a period of exponential growth in the number of UK breweries, we are now entering a period of consolidation. There were 1,352 breweries in 2013, and nearly double by 2018 at 2,274. Now, with only eight breweries having opened in 2018, the number of people leaving the market is meeting those joining.

Sambrook's Brewery has steadily grown through a huge focus on the quality of our beer and sustainable pub relationships and festivals. We're the oldest independent brewery in London, at a youthful eleven years old. Quite fittingly, we are expanding to the old Young's Brewery, a site which has been actively brewing since 1533."

Chris Daly, Senior Commercial Manager at Greenland (UK), the holding company behind Ram Quarter said: “It’s poetic that London’s oldest independent brewery is setting up home at Britain’s oldest operating brewery. Greenland has always recognised the importance of Ram’s brewing legacy and safeguarding its heritage has been crucial to our development plans, from our approach to the design of the new homes through to our commercial ambitions for the site. We’re proud to be keeping Wandsworth’s beer tradition alive while creating an exciting new destination in partnership with a local business.”

Owner, Duncan Sambrook pursued his brewing passion after a UK-wide tour of breweries. Upon reaching London, he was surprised to find only five breweries in what was once the brewing capital of the world. Moreover, at the Great British Beer Festival that year, only one London brewery was represented.
He finished his career with Deloitte in August 2008, and proudly sampled Sambrook's first beer in November of that year. This became Wandle Ale, named after the river running beside the brewery.