Lockwood Tap Bar, Higham Hill, E17

Just over the road from the Hackney Brewery, this is a small taproom from the Wild Card Brewery which supplements their superior Central Walthamstow branch. This is a very typical industrial estate brewery tap, with the front part of the concrete floored unit set aside for the bar and some seating, and the rear part housing all of the brewery equipment. The bar is along the right-hand wall and has a knock-about counter and scaffold bar back, with beers listed on a board to one side and dispensed from taps on the bar back. Canteen style benches and tables have been laid out down the left-hand wall and out onto the parking apron outside, which also has a lot of garden furniture, some of which is underneath a good sized shelter. Above the bar is a small overspill seating area which looked like it had comfy furnishings, but on a bright, sunny day it felt out of the way and was subsequently empty. Signs suggested live jazz music is staged up here on a Saturday evening, but there was a world music soundtrack playing quietly in the background during this visit. I think there were around five or six Wild Card beers plus a cider on keg dispense. I tried the Wild Card Pale at a hefty £6.50 a pint, and thought it was a bog-standard pale ale that did nothing to stand out from the crowd. The place was doing a good trade, thanks in part to the outdoor seating area being in the sun on a scorching hot Bank Holiday weekend. I was pretty underwhelmed by this place, which I thought was doing the bare minimum required to make it feel like an enjoyable venue. If the weather had been worse, I can't imagine I would've got much from sitting inside and I would swerve this in the future and perhaps head to their Walthamstow branch instead. Date of visit - 4th May 2024

This place was inexplicably closed when we tried to visit last year. On arrival on a wet Saturday lunchtime, it was opening, but not quite open at its published midday opening time. As such, we decided to go to High Hill opposite instead and purchased a couple of pints there, leaving us time for just one in the Wild Card Brewery Taproom. When we asked the guy putting bench tables and seating outside when they would open, he responded that they would be open when he had set all of the tables and seats out! I'm not quite sure how this could be a priority when it was chucking it down and nobody in their right mind would chose to use them anyway. The Wild Card Brewery Taproom is a basic warehouse unit with limited seating (more outside than in) and with a small bar on the right-hand side as you enter. A board above the bar listed their wares, whilst there was also a fridge with a few bottles and cans. No cask ales, but the keg selection was Thirst Trap, Fomo Pale, Blackcurrant Gose, Table Beer & False Gods. A mead - Gosnell's Nectar was also on. The beer was ok here, but customer service was lacking. I prefer their original tap room. Although I haven't been back there for 6 years.

The Wild Card brewery were the first kids on the block when they expanded their brewing here from their much smaller premises on the other side of Walthamstow (now called The Barrel Store), a few years ago. This is a fairly standard industrial unit brewery set up. Some limited bench seating externally and you enter to find the bar on your right and then steps lead up to a mezzanine floor where the internal seating is, with the brewing equipment occupying the rest of the ground floor space. Unfortunately we didn’t visit this one at its best as they were having trouble with the coolers and only a single lager was available and some expensive tins in the fridge. Sadly also I didn’t see any evidence of hand pumps and the reason I used to like visiting their initial premises was because they usually had their signature range available from cask. But it now looks like this is another small brewery that has dispensed with cask and its crafty keg only now. Presently this one opens at 5pm on a Thursday and Friday and 12 noon at the weekend.

Official site of Lockwood Tap Bar - www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk

Official site of Lockwood Tap Bar - www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk