Distortion Brewing Tank Bar, Battersea, SW8

Distortion was the second brewery tap I visited early on a Saturday afternoon in Battersea. This one enjoys a very convenient location in railway arches very close to Wandsworth Road Overground station. It was also much busier than Mondo where I had just been. The taproom here is the archetypal railway arch version with bench seating near the entrance, a bar and then the brewery vessels at the rear. In fact, the vessels immediately behind the bar have nice graphics illustrating each of the brewery's core range. Those available for my visit were Phaser, Quantum, Kozmic, Pulse, Sonar & Decibel. The cider was Crafty Apple. I tried the Decibel, which was an easy drinking porter. Customers seemed to be fairly young and trendy. Some were playing board games. The bar staff seemed quite friendly. There were a couple of switched off TVs with music playing instead. There are also a couple of tables outside to the front. T-shirts could be purchased and children were allowed in if accompanied by an adult. A fairly generic place with beers that weren't too exceptional. But it's convenient location clearly brings in a decent trade. Can't say I'd heard of Distortion Brewing before, but I'd certainly give it another go if around this way again.

Take the point about the sterile environment but thought this place benefitted from decent natural light at the front so didn’t feel like I was sitting in a dark cavern. The sound of the trains did remind me of the general nature of the place though! I like their beer range. I opted for a pint of the Sonar, a New England Pale at 4.6% abv to keep things light’ish at the start of the evening. I did fancy the Phaser, a double dry hopped pale ale but that was out of stock to use that expression! The entire range of what was on only encompassed a less than 1% abv range from my option up to the double dry hopped IPA called Velocity at 5.6% and Quantum at 5.5%. Cosmic, or rather Kozmic to use the name of another of their beers on the list. Would definitely return in the area, definitely more brass monkey weather than I am sure both previous reviewers experienced at the times of their visits!

Arch style as most brewery taps seem to be.I thought they have made a nice little tap room in front of the brewery .Thought the beers were good and sat drinking them outside on a warm sunny evening.

This is a very simple railway arch-based microbrewery, located somewhere beneath Wandsworth Road Station. If you’ve been in a railway arch brewery bar before, then there’ll be no surprises for you here, with the usual skimmed concrete floor and corrugated metal panels obscuring the walls and vaulted ceiling all present and correct, although to be fair, the place felt a little brighter than most, thanks to the large arched windows at both either end of the room. The bar appears midway into the arch, with all the brewery kit behind it, hidden for the most part by the six large tanks dispensing the draught range. The bar has a simple counter with the brewery logo printed across it and seating options are almost exclusively mid-height tables and stools in rows down the side walls, plus one metal garden table with matching chairs in front right corner. A couple of upturned barrels in the centre of the room allow people to stand around and rest their glass somewhere, and a few canteen style tables and benches have been stuck out on the pavement outside, which seems to get sun in the afternoon and looks across a small grassy area to the main road. Some customers had arrived by bicycle and had been allowed to store their bikes at the back of the room whilst they were drinking. Brewery merchandise is displayed over in the front right corner and there was a decent rock soundtrack chugging away in the background. Beer menus have been placed on each table, which is handy when deciding what to order next, as have bottles of water and glasses. There were six Distortion beers available on draught, all served from the aforementioned tanks behind the bar, with two ciders, in bottle and can format, also listed on the menus. I forget the name of the beer I tried, but it was a decent, sessionable Pale Ale that had more going for it than your average beer of this style and strength. The staff seemed friendly but aside from the cyclists, there were no other customers, so it all felt a bit flat and lifeless. I’ve been in far too many taprooms like this and have seen plenty that offer much more than this place and just as many that are way worse. It strikes me as a well run operation with some good beer, cheery service and the prospect of a lot of interesting brews, but it’s such a sterile drinking environment with little in the way of visual distraction, that I was happy to head off after the one pint.

Facebook page of Distortion Brewing Tank Bar - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Distortion Brewing Tank Bar - www.facebook.com

Official site of Distortion Brewing Tank Bar - distortionbrewing.co.uk

Official site of Distortion Brewing Tank Bar - distortionbrewing.co.uk