Dogs Grandad Brewery Tap, Brixton, SW9

Compared to the Brixton Brewery Taproom this is a very ramshackle affair, to be fair their neighbour is a dedicated taproom wheras this is a working micro brewery with all its day to day bits and pieces shoved into a corner to fit in a couple of tables and chairs.There were three beers and one Cider on all produced by themselves, Raspberry Plum Sour, American Pale Ale and English Pale Ale, the Cider was called Gasping Goose Cider all priced at £5.70 a pint. Worth the double header with the Brixton Taproom but beware this opens at 2pm on a Saturday (ten past in reality) and not the 12.00 stated on Whatpub.

Situated next door to the Brixton Brewery’s taproom, this is a similar, if much smaller scale, option from the previously unknown to me Dog’s Grandad Brewery. The arch space is much smaller than their neighbour, as they have the brewery and taproom all in the same arch, meaning the rear part of the room is full of brew kit, with only a small front area for seating. Like many of these enterprises, the lovely vaulted brick ceiling and walls have been clad with ugly corrugated metal sheets, which combined with the modern brick frontage and concrete floor, makes for an uninteresting interior that you can see countless copies of along the Bermondsey Beer Mile as well as around the rest of the capital.A tiny bar to the rear right has a small board next to it, listing the draught options, wi=hilst mid-height stools serve several small tables and a few extra seats can be found out on the service road outside. The pub’s main feature is an incredible arcade machine on the left-hand wall, which has been programmed with hundreds of games from the 80’s, 90’s and beyond, many of which I recall playing as a teen. I had a fun half hour or so watching a young lad trying to get to grips with the crappy gameplay of arcade games from yesteryear. A pretty loud soundtrack was playing throughout my late Saturday evening visit and the place was pretty much full - I bagged the last free seat in the pub. There were just the two draught beers available - Dogs’ Grandad Pale Ale and Black IPA - both priced at £5.70 a pint, so I went for the Black IPA, which was a smooth, stout-like drink with a more subtle flavour profile than a lot of black IPA’s I’ve tried in the past. For me, this place falls a little short of the standard set by its neighbour, which offers a much more comfortable environment and wider beer range, but considering this is a much smaller operation putting out beer that I haven’t seen available anywhere else, it’s worth checking out to see what they have on tap, maybe with a quick game of Mortal Kombat thrown into the mix!

Very basic micro-brewery tap, housed in a single railway arch, and now behind a plain frontage. Just a few high(ish) tables and wooden stools, plus a small sofa and an armchair as the 'lounge'. The various bits of brewing equipment and kegs are usually the feature I suspect, but World Cup football was being projected onto a large screen when I visited. Four craft beers on tap: a Pale Ale, Black IPA, Raspberry Sour and Chocolate & Vanilla Stout (£5.70).

Open air brewery tap.They just pull the shutters up and there are a few seats inside.Very basic (june 21) but they are going to put a new frontage on soon.All keg beers and jolly nice they were.

Dogs Grandad has limited opening times, but we arrived shortly after it had opened at 5pm on a Friday evening. The brewery is located in a railway arch with no signage at all when the shutters are down. Basic seating was in place and the beer choice was New England IPA and Black IPA. We tried both and they were both very enjoyable. In addition, they had Trenchmore Farm Silly Moo Cowfold Cider, which is also very drinkable. Take-outs are on the pricy side, but this seems to be a very good new venture and worth stopping if you're visiting the Brixton Brewery Tap Room a few arches up the road.

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