Bubbly brewing: why beer is the new champagne for many Londoners

Put down the champers. When there’s something to celebrate it’s time to raise a glass — of beer, says Oscar Williams-Grut
Alamy

Wine and beer are often seen as poles apart — beer is enjoyed by the pint down the pub, while wine is quaffed at bars and restaurants. But as the popularity of craft beer rockets, pints are reinvented as a complex drink to be savoured rather than just knocked back. Beer is being infused with champagne, aged in wine barrels, served in refined glasses and carefully paired with food in restaurants. For many Londoners, beer is indeed the new champagne.

“I think beer is far superior to wine,” says Logan Plant, founder of Tottenham’s Beavertown Brewery. “You look at what you’re working with — the variety of malts, hops and yeasts. That allows you a massive spectrum.”

The new flavours brewers are experimenting with lend themselves to food and Plant’s first two beers — a smoked porter and a rye IPA — were concocted to go with the beef and pork dishes at Haggerston BBQ restaurant Duke’s Brew & Que, in whose basement Plant first started brewing. But even restaurants at the fancier end of the dining spectrum carry beer recommendations alongside dishes, such as the Tate Modern Restaurant.

“One thing of particular interest at the moment is how beer makes such a natural match with food,” says the Beer and Pub Association’s Steve Livens, one of the first four people to qualify as a beer sommelier at London’s Beer Academy.

Plant is also one of a growing number of brewers experimenting with how the two drinks can work together. Beavertown is ageing beers in Burgundy wine barrels and Plant wants to start a barrel- ageing programme in a separate warehouse. “It allows the wood characteristic and the fresh red wine characters to come through,” says Plant.

Meanwhile, brewery Savour has made a Sparkling Brut beer, using the champagne method and served in a champagne bottle. “I fell in love with Belgian beer but also the culture and the attitude,” says Savour’s founder Sandy Kirkpatrick. “The Belgians treat their beer like the French treat their wine.”

Strong, flavourful beers such as Savour’s and Beavertown’s are served in tulip-shaped glasses with stems that hold unusual measurements such as thirds and two-thirds of a pint. They’re designed to emphasise the flavours

and smells of beer. Once unheard of in London, they are now de rigueur in the capital’s posher watering holes.

“It’s not just about consumption, it’s about appreciation,” says Plant. “There’s far more than just pint after pint. I think that’s why a lot of women are coming to appreciate beer.”

Perhaps the best example of the shrinking gulf between beer and wine is Kent winemaker Chapel Down, which began making beer in 2011. “Lager gets a bad reputation,” says founder Frazer Thompson, who previously worked for Heineken but became frustrated with the way big brewers relied on market research to guide what they brew.

Like Savour, Chapel Down uses champagne yeast to make its beers. “You end up with a beer that has softer floral and fruit aromas,” says Thompson. All this experimentation means “people are getting out of the habit of pigeonholing beer”, he says.

But Thompson is adamant that people shouldn’t think about beer replacing wine as a posh drink to have in hand: “We all drink beer and wine, and anybody who doesn’t isn’t experiencing taste. People should drink beer, wine, whisky, vodka, gin, cider, everything.” There’s something we can all drink to.

Latest London drinks trends

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