Malt Haus, Walthamstow, E17

I was a bit concerned when reading the review below that this place may be a bit hard to find, but it is actually very easy when coming from the Walthamstow Village direction and I was surprised how close to the Nags Head it actually was. Just keep walking around Orford road and take the side road marked Summit Road into the Ravenswood Industrial Estate. The Brewery and its associate bar has been well described by the previous reviewers so no need to repeat any of that, but as the sun had disappeared and it was beginning to get a bit nippy I was relieved to be able to bag a table inside the brewery next to the wood burning stove, although this seemed to be just for decoration as it gave out absolutely no heat at all.. Three of the brewery beers on including the Jack of Clubs and King of Hearts. But the third was the Ace of Spades which was a decent enough Dark Porter, and again all available for £3.30 a pint. With a chilled Jazz soundtrack being played I could have quite easily ended my crawl here and settled in for a longer session, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had promised to reacquaint myself with the King William IV and catch the second half of the Rugby. So also can thoroughly recommend you pay a visit here when in the area, especially as the rest of the trading estate has some other interesting offerings to visit and I would definitely recommend taking some time to look round “God’s Own Junkyard” at the wonderful neon creations of Chris Bracey. This whole estate has a nice vibe going on. It’s got a long way to go to get to the same level of Camden, but it’s great to see Walthamstow continuing to improve from the area of my youth where local maps used to have “there be Dragons” stamped over the top of E17.

Wandering down a highly unpromising residential street in deepest Walthamstow, I was all but about to concede defeat, assuming that I must've noted this breweries location down incorrectly, until in the far distance I caught sight of a sign directing me into a small industrial estate where the brewery and, more importantly, their in-house bar, can be found. The bar is nothing ground breaking - a compact, concrete floored rectangular space with a basic servery to the rear right, block work walls and a gabled corrugated iron roof typical of micro brewery bars - but a bit of care had been taken to make it a little more memorable, such as the seating and tables fashioned from bits of disused brewing equipment and an old Higham Hill Post Office sign hung on one wall. Obviously there is a chance to nose around the brewery with much off the equipment on show, some in a separate room to the left where a toilet block has also been constructed. There is a decent amount of seating available, but as I visited during a beer festival, this was all taken up, forcing me out to one of the many picnic benches available in front of the unit. A gazebo had been set up next to these benches and a cheery chap was selling jerk chicken wraps from here with a Caribbean soundtrack playing and clashing somewhat with the jazzy tunes coming from within the bar. The barman informed me that they usually offer the three Wild Card beers - Jack of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds and Pale Ale (all £3.30), plus one guest, usually from a local micro brewery. However, on this visit there were sixteen or so guest ales on, with stilage set up to the right of the bar showcasing a range of micros and clearly proving very popular with those that had found their way out here. I tried the Queen of Diamonds, which was excellent and in fine condition, whilst the festival brews sampled were also top notch. This type of bar can be a bit hit and miss, but based on this visit with a lively crowd and great beer, I would suggest this is one of the better brewery bars I've been to. An exciting addition to the Walthamstow drinking scene and well worth tracking down if your in town. Opening hours have changed slightly since the review below and according to the hand-out I was given, are now: Fri 12 to midnight. Sat 10 to midnight and Sun-Mon 10 to 10.