Brew Club, Hackney, E8

With only outdoor seating available, there was no space for us when we first arrived in Bohemia Place. As such, we reserved a table later and moved onto the Hackney Church Brew Company a little further along. The strength of the beers at the latter meant we arrived a little late for our booking. Draught and canned beers are listed on separate A4 pieces of paper. Draught options were Bohem Amos, Triple Point Solo Cascade, Hackney Church Mare St Mosaic, Burnt Mills Higher Ground & Three Blind Mice Mango Sour. A strange kind of place. But we were already a little tipsy by the time we got here, making it difficult to judge!

Occupying a much smaller railway arch than some of the other craft beer outlets along this stretch of tracks, this is a ‘Brew Your Own Beer’ operation offering amateur brewers the chance to use the brewery kit that occupies the neighbouring arch and then showcase it in this taproom, alongside offerings from other local microbreweries. The usual concrete floor and corrugated metal ceiling coverings applied here, but the floor had a large rug over part of it and the walls were whitewashed brickwork with no coverings, so the place already felt a bit different to your average railway arch drinking den. Another distinguishing feature was the freezing cold temperature on my Winter evening visit, which had resulted in a total lack of customers and a poor lone barmaid huddled below the bar counter over a small portable heater. An L-shaped banquette runs around the front left corner, serving long tables with a load of low stools in support. Two rows of high tables and stools fill the centre and right-hand side of the room, whilst the super-basic chipboard bar counter stands in the rear left corner with the keg taps on a font in front of the bar back. The bar back is covered with blackboards listing various non-beer drink options, with the beer list confined to menus on the bar counter – one for draught and another for bottles and cans. Large, well-stocked fridges offered plenty of the latter, with signs explaining that they are available to drink in-house or purchase for takeaway, with a small fridge on the end of the bar used to display soon-to-be out of date stock available at discounted prices. Classic rock tunes played quietly in the background and I remained the only customer for the duration of my stay. There were around eight to ten beers available on draught and I plumped for a pint of Ritual Stout from the Exale Brewery of Walthamstow which was pretty good but too cold, especially given the freezing temperature in the room. The barmaid was nice and chatty when prised away from her radiator and helped me make an informed choice when faced with a lot of beers and brewers I’d never heard of. This place didn’t really work for me for a number of reasons, not least because I felt colder in here than I did out in the howling Winter’s night. I also didn’t much care for the room, despite efforts to present it differently to other nearby bars and was unsure what beer quality would be like with so much home-brew on the bar – ordering felt like playing a boozy version of Russian roulette. There are better options nearby but it’s worth a look for the curious.