Brewhouse & Kitchen, Highbury Corner, N5

Nice looking building near Highbury & Islington Station, standard B&K layout, including the inset into the table next to the brewery with malt etc inside, wood floor and bench tables. The brewery is at the far end of the room. The beer quality was very poor, maybe a one off?

This is a microbrewery which had on seven of their real ales - Granita Pact (an India white ale, whatever that is); Illustrator (a black IPA); Pitch Fever (a grapefruit IPA); Astronomer (amber ale); Colonia Estivo (summer rye ale); Romford Pele (golden ale named after Arsenal's ball playing wizard, Ray Parlour); and Goalscorer (session IPA named after Ian Wright who made his name with the mighty Eagles). There was also a cider called Yellowhammer. I had a pint of Astronomer which I thought was pretty good. Burgers and the like were available; I had a New York burger which was around £14. This is a modern outfitted pub with nothing of heritage interest. But the microbrewery is actually in the pub, which I found quite interesting. There is some outside seating at the front, which was hugely popular on the nice day when I visited. It's a decent enough watering hole, but nothing like a traditional pub.

You enter via the outside beer terrace,down some steps entering into a long ,open plan room with the bar running along the left wall.As other have noted,there is a mix of furniture and lots to see,with seperate alcoves along the right side,and the brewing coppers at the rear,with 6 conditioning tanks beyond the bar.The current head brewer recreates a lot of lager styles,hence the conditioning tanks and at least 3 of the house beers will be served from keg taps,on my visit London Calling,No Fly Zone and Peasants Revolt IPA.On keg there are also around 5 guests from far and wide. There are 8 handpumps offering a real cider and other house brews which on my visit included No 19 Brown Porter,Tramshed,The Goalscorer,Genuiss Stout ,Old Major and Man's Best Friend.I sampled a wide range on a Brewery Experience trip and found everything i tried to be on top form.Food is firmly pub grub,but cooked in an open kitchen towards the rear. There are no flatscreens,fruit machines or ear splitting music to spoilt the bibulous atmosphere ,and this is the best of this small chain that I have visited.However I was warned that before Arsenal home games this pub can get rammed.A lot of the beer names have Arsenal connections,clues on the pump clips. The ale quality is dependent on who is head brewer,and if some one moves on ,a new brewer will create ales that have unique recipes,there is no attempt to standardize across the chain.I count myself fortunate that the current incumbent,an Italian called Roberto Basilico was at the top of his game.

Official site of Brewhouse & Kitchen - www.brewhouseandkitchen.com

Official site of Brewhouse & Kitchen - www.brewhouseandkitchen.com