On a gloriously sunny Saturday in London, I finally managed to dedicate an afternoon to visiting the three remaining breweries in Bermondsey and complete the now infamous and originally nicknamed Bermondsey Beer Mile.

Some useful information, Anspach and Hobday, Brew by Numbers and The Kernel are all within a 5 minute walk of each other at one end of the mile and Four Pure Brewing and Partizan Brewing are about a 15 minute walk away on the other end of the mile.

I met my friend at 2pm at Bermondsey station, unaware that despite the fact that our last meeting was at The Cask Pub and Kitchen, a well respected craft beer pub in Pimlico, that all he normally drinks is Guinness as ‘we don’t have any of this fancy stuff in Leigh on Sea’. I couldn’t promise him that every visit to a craft beer establishment ended with a chance encounter with a couple of swingers but that’s another story. I was thrilled that I had someone to introduce to the wonderful world of South East London’s microbreweries. First stop was Anspach and Hobday on Druid Street, the one that no one can remember how to pronounce properly. Given the name, I was not entirely surprised to find a certain aura of snobiness about the place when we got there, not from the brewers themselves, who were very nice but the clientele. This was very different to the characters and nutcases that I usually encounter at Partizan (and where I personally feel more at home).

On this particular day, A&H were using a hop rocket. I’d seen this concept in action at the Brewdog bar in Camden before and the idea is that they pass a beer, in this case their IPA, through fresh hops which is supposed to extract the flavours from the hops then and there. I did not have the IPA on its own to compare but it was spot on and you could really taste the grapefruit from the Chinook hops. It was delicious and bitter and a great introduction for my friend who seemed well and truly sold. The A&H range currently consists of the IPA, a Smoked Brown ale and a Porter. The Smoked Brown ale and IPA were available on draft as well as bottles and I was excited to find out that they also had a Black IPA brewing which will be ready for tasting over the next few weeks. Impressed by the beer and the premises but less enamoured by the atmosphere, we decided to move on to our next stop Brew by Numbers, otherwise referred to as BBNo.

Brew by Numbers are quickly gaining in popularity, so I was looking forward to paying a visit and we were pleased to see a nice crowd outside the front basking in the sunshine. My friend and I felt more at home here and ordered ourselves a couple of saisons. I went for the Amarillo and Orange and my friend the Wai-iti and Lemon. I was very pleased that my saison tasted as expected, light refreshing and fruity, reminding my friend of a light wheat beer. Unfortunately I forgot to try his too but bought one to take away so I can tell you about that one later. It was hard to tear ourselves away but I had come on a mission and had at least two other breweries to get to by 5.

After this we swung by The Kernel, mostly so that I could buy a couple of bottles of their black IPA to take away, which is also featured as my Beer of the Week. I decided to take a break here and watch my friends drink a Citra and an Amarillo hopped IPA respectively, (we were now three). I quickly realised how torturous it is to watch other people drinking good beer and so after having a sip or two of my friend’s Citra IPA, I virtually made them down their drinks so we could take the 15 minute stroll over to Four Pure Brewing.

I’ll tell you what I knew about this brewery before we got there. They mean business. They have only been open since towards the end of last year and have one of the largest brew kits in the area. They have already won a competition to brew a beer for Le Gavroche, Michel Roux Jr’s restaurant, a saison which will feature on Le Gavroche’s spring menu. They have five beers as part of their core range and are already designing their cans. For this reason I had purposely saved them for last, as I also remembered enjoying their Session IPA at the London Brewers Market in Spitalfields back in November. The brewery itself is in the middle of an industrial estate, so it feels more remote than the others and bigger, allowing them to also squeeze in a ping pong table. They are also one of only two of the Bermondsey breweries to offer food, La Fermata at Partizan Brewing being the other.

Four Pure sell scotch eggs for £4 and Tom, one of the owners, did apologise for the price but to be fair this thing was pretty much the size of my head so I forgave him and it was also very tasty. Unfortunately for myself and my friends, the beer was an anti climax. There was no comparison for us between where we had come from and what we were tasting here, it just wasn’t as exciting. I had the amber ale which I found overly carbonated and too sweet and my friend had an IPA. The IPA was perhaps more down to personal taste as I prefer hoppier IPAs and theirs was more on the malty side, taking its inspiration from the beers of Oregon (fact). Despite all this I would still be interested in trying the saison that was brewed for Le Gavroche, which was not available to try, as perhaps all the stops were pulled out for that one.

By now it was 4.55 and I was panicked that this would be my last beer of the day. I also wanted my newbie friend to try the delights of Partizan Brewing but knowing they closed at 5 I knew that we would be cutting it fine. Despite that, we turned up hopeful at 5.10 met by an awkward silence and knew we were too late. Although disappointed, I was delighted to have finally completed the Bermondsey beer mile in one piece and add at least two more breweries to my regular Saturday crawl.

Opening hours of the breweries may vary but are generally open from 11am-5pm every Saturday. The Kernel tends to close earlier around 3 or 4 and Brew by Numbers and Four Pure around 6pm. Best to check before going!