Mikkeller Brewpub, Exmouth Market, EC1

One of two bars run in the UK by the Danish brewery, this one is a brew pub and some of the brewing kit is at the rear. Long thin place with the counter along half the right hand side, brew kit takes up about 10% of the floor space and the rest is given over to mainly uncomfortable benches at metal framed tables topped with tiles. All the tables had reserved signs (Friday pm visit) some with times, some not. It gets very busy at times but there are plenty of staff. Concrete floor and ceiling with industrial fittings, the walls are decorated with Mikkeller’s naive drawings. 20 keg taps with a mix of their beers, a cider, a low alcohol lager option, a guest from Lost & Grounded and a couple of draught cocktails. Unisex toilets are in the basement next to a storage area, more brewing vessels and a food servery, most punters used the disabled toilet on the ground floor in spite of being young and fit.

The last time I was in Exmouth Market and tried to visit this bar, it was a Monday and the pub was closed. However, looking at the opening times on the window, it seems they now open all day every day of the week. It was quiet on my Wednesday afternoon visit, with one lady in a corner nursing a pint whilst working on her laptop and the barmaid. Another guy (possibly a local brewer, given their conversation) also arrived and stood at the bar chatting with the barmaid, without buying a drink. The interior is basic and has a fairly industrial feel. There is brewing equipment at the rear of the ground floor and a separate basement with more equipment. The unisex toilets downstairs (or at least the cubicle I chose) have a picture of Rick Astley, who was involved in the opening of the bar. I didn't really want to see him whilst having a pee though. Beers are all keg or craft as the marketing people will say. Although this is just an excuse to put the prices up. At over £8 for a pint, you'd have to have a big wallet to get drunk here. Having said that the locals around here probably have just that. Many of the beers were brewed on the premises - Moon Pie, Cold Caller, Beer Geek London, Market Wit, Half Day Haze, Fragments of Fiction, Winners Brunch, Can't Say No 2 U, London Proper & Exmouth Special Bitter. Guests were Holy Goat Holy Mountain, Burnt Mill Beyond The Firs, Elemeleven/Vault City Millionaire, NZBC/Double Barrelled Gloria, Pastore Blackberry Vortice, Northern Monk/Mash Gang Gary's Fizzy Army, Cloudwater So Cal & Umbrella Cider. The Moon Pie was a very enjoyable coconut stout. But I wasn't so enamored with the Beer Geek London, which was supposedly a coffee stout. I'd return, but could never afford a session here.

Facebook page of Mikkeller Brewpub - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Mikkeller Brewpub - www.facebook.com

Official site of Mikkeller Pop Up - mikkeller.com

Official site of Mikkeller Pop Up - mikkeller.com

This is a very plain shop converted bar from the ever expanding Mikkeller Brewery, presented as a ‘pop-up’, although I understand it is due to close briefly and then re-open as a brewpub. The promotional blurb around this place loves to mention how this place opened as a collaboration between Mikkeller and 80’s pop star Rick Astley, although beyond the bland styling, it’s hard to pinpoint the contribution of the latter to this enterprise. The pub has a concrete floored single room layout with a basic servery down the right-hand wall and two rows of seating opposite in the form of chairs and low stools. The bar has a simple counter and bar back with large beer boards above full of detailed information about the available draught brews, which are dispensed from a row of keg taps below. More seating appears as the room opens out a little more to the rear, with plenty of small tables served by metal framed chairs, which makes it far easier to bag a seat here than in their Shoreditch bar. Walls have been decorated with some nice framed brewery art prints which look really cool, although they weren’t exactly easy to see when we popped in one evening, thanks to the remarkably muted lighting that was at such a low level that we thought the place was shut as we approached – very low wattage bulbs in low hanging lamps combine with a single candle on each table to make this very modern brewery bar feel like a Dickensian boozer. The plus point is that this helps to mask the plain walls and floor and a ceiling dominated by exposed utilities – facets that no doubt become all too apparent in daylight hours. The beer boards suggested there were around twenty craft keg beers available, many from Mikkeller, but plenty of guests as well from various microbreweries such as Pressure Drop. As you would expect from Mikkeller, everything is stupidly over-priced, so my two-thirds of Mikkeller Single Hop Citra was a whopping £5.00 – thankfully, it was pretty tasty and the barman was very helpful, talking us through some of the options and offering a few tasters. It’s the price that, like every other Mikkeller venue I’ve been to, puts me off from returning – I appreciate that I’m trying beer not readily available elsewhere that perhaps uses unusual ingredients, but I can find a Citra-hopped beer pretty much anywhere nowadays for a fraction of the price I paid here, so I just can’t understand the premium applying to everything. It’s good to come for a one-off visit to try something new but only the well-healed or die-hard crafties will want to endure repeat visits.