Gipsy Hill Taproom, West Norwood, SE27

I struggled to warm to this venue I have to admit. The tap room is indeed a large space for this type of venue and it was rammed during my visit a little after 7pm. No music or screens (no big events to show this evening) and so the noise was just the chatter of groups of people typically half my age or younger again. It is very pleasant and some decent natural light from glass on the upright parts of the roof on a sunny evening. Nine of their own beers - took the boring option of a pint of Bandit as none of the ones I didn’t know appealed on this visit. The two guest cask beers were a cider from Iford called New Tradition and a bitter from the Three Legs Brewing Company. As noted below there is an immense range of snacks to choose from. There was a large menu of wine, spirits and cocktails to choose from but I wonder why the hell you would come here for a glass of wine unless dragged along by your craft beer loving partner! I like Gipsy Hill beers - not necessarily at the top of my preference list for sure, but I generally like them. A solid 6 as plenty of good stuff here all around but, unlike the beer, left feeling a bit flat. Maybe a bit too mass market and so hard to retain the charm of a small craft brewer.

Large brewery taproom in one corner of a small industrial estate which is almost entirely occupied by the brewery itself, just off the main drag through Gipsy Hill. In many ways, this is your typical industrial estate microbrewery taproom, set in a large, open plan room with a concrete floor, painted brick walls, a high corrugated metal ceiling and various bits of brewing kit dotted around. However, no brewing actually takes place in the taproom itself, so there’s a good sense of separation with none of the usual resultant clutter, helping to give the room more of a genuine bar feel. The room is filled with tables served by metal chairs and long benches, whilst the servery runs down the left-hand wall and has a simple counter with the brewery name painted across the front, plus a metal frame bar back with helpful beer boards above. To the rear of the room, a pull-down screen was showing live Six Nations rugby with the commentary just about audible over the buzz of a busy Sunday afternoon’s chatter. A second room, completely separate from the main bar, can be found to the left, and was full of bench seating, had its own bar that looked a bit like it might also be a food servery, and was almost entirely devoid of décor – perhaps acting as some sort of function room for private events, as it was closed on this visit. I noticed a big stack of board games near the entrance, plus one of those ring the bull games on a ledge in the rear left corner of the main bar area. Boards listed a surprisingly wide selection of bar snacks and there were quite a few picnic tables out the front, in the rather unattractive car park/loading bay area. There were no fewer than twelve Gipsy Hill beers available on keg, along with a solitary guest tap, one cider from Umbrella Project and amazingly, a solitary handpull dispensing Taylors landlord, although quite who is visiting a South London microbrewery to drink Landlord, I will never know. I tried a pint of the Gipsy Hill Shellback Dry Irish Stout, which fetched up at a pricey £6.50 and wasn’t entirely to my taste. The place was packed to the point that I pretty much bagged the last seat in the house, with many people engaged in watching the rugby, which made me wonder whether the place would just completely empty out at full time. I liked this place and thought they had created a decent taproom which felt much more like a self-contained bar than you would normally expect from such an industrial estate set-up. I’ve enjoyed a number of Gipsy Hill beers over the years and can only conclude that I got a little unlucky with my choice here, and my only question mark would be over the prices, as £6.50 for a pint doesn’t exactly lend itself to a good session. Nice to have somewhere like this in an otherwise unfashionable part of town – I’m sure I’ll be back again some day.

Only open from 1 - 6 on a Saturday. Not really a pub.

Official site of Gipsy Hill Taproom - www.gipsyhillbrew.com

Official site of Gipsy Hill Taproom - www.gipsyhillbrew.com