Big Penny Social, E17

Set in a huge aircraft hanger sized warehouse with wooden bench and table seating throughout, there were around ten Big Penny beers on tap covering the styles and a solo guest beer in the shape of Redemption Kazbek along with a couple of Ciders I forgot to note. There is also a very large outside seating space to the rear with its own separate outside bar. Needless to say both inside and out were very busy on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Renamed as Big Penny Social following a rebranding of Trumans beers, this is a huge warehouse taproom with one of the biggest interiors I've ever seen for such an enterprise. You enter into the left-hand side of the room, which is essentially an enormous space with a concrete floor, high brick walls and an insulated ceiling with skylight panels. Loads of bench seating is cluttered towards the front, with tables and stools opposite the bar and more low benches further back plus some chairs in booth-like sections to the rear left. The bar is along the middle of the right-hand wall and has a green glazed tile counter front and bare brick bar back with boards detailing the beer available from the long row of taps beneath. A large open kitchen in the rear left corner was chucking out burgers, pizzas and the like and I spotted three dartboards to the front, two pinball tables plus Defender, Pac-Man and Space Invaders slot machines opposite the bar. Other notable features include a photo booth, a small stage and a table tennis table which was occupied by some rowdy kids and made me feel like I was at some sort of package holiday resort. An opening next to the bar leads through to a a similarly sized second room with loads more seating arranged in formal rows. There's a sizable garden area out the back with lots of benches for sunnier months and it seemed like a good place to avoid the echoing shouts of the kids. I counted around ten Big Penny beers on keg dispense, some of which were poured from taps on the bar counter, whilst others were mounted on the bar back. In addition, there were also several guests from the likes of Lost & Grounded, Redemption and Drop Project, but I stuck to the home brew and tried the Big Penny Session IPA at £6.30 a pint. It was a decent enough drop to start this crawl of industrial estate taprooms and I had a pizza here too, which was okay but very expensive. This was one of the better venues on this industrial estate, let down somewhat by the chaos caused by several out of control children treating it like a holiday park. The beer range is extensive and there's enough going on to suit a wide range of customers, even if the aircraft hanger-esque building is extremely impersonal. Date of visit - 4th May 2024

Official site of Big Penny Social - bigpennysocial.co.uk

Official site of Big Penny Social - bigpennysocial.co.uk