The Park Brewery, Norbiton, Kingston Upon Thames

Facebook page of The Park Brewery - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Park Brewery - www.facebook.com

One of the more basic brewery taps (and I've been to a few). A very dingy industrial unit had minimal signage and showed even fewer signs of life on a dark evening, but happily the door opened and a metal staircase led up to the bar, which doubles as a shop. A little home-made counter nestled alongside the bottle labelling machine carried a pair of handpumps, half a dozen keg taps and a remarkably small can fridge. The rest of the room to the front is simply decorated in white paint and light wood, cheered up with a few plants, and hosts a few tables and benches. The sprinkler system overhead looks threatening. Amusingly, the toilet is the brewer's one downstairs and involves walking right through the brewing area between fermenters and barrels! Just one cask ale was on - the Christmas Stout - but it was absolute nectar and probably rated at NBSS 4. The keg lines were all their own and included a couple of pales, a lager and a Kolsch. The place seems to be a well-kept secret; the only other customers were a couple who had brought their own pizza and were playing dominoes. Well worth a visit to check out the beers though if you happen to be around on a Friday or Saturday evening. (Their newer outlet has better opening but less atmosphere).

Official site of The Park Brewery - www.theparkbrewery.com

Official site of The Park Brewery - www.theparkbrewery.com

Tucked away in a small factory unit on the fringes of an industrial estate on the outskirts of Kingston, this is the brewery tap for the Park Brewery. The taproom is located on the first floor of the factory unit, essentially occupying the roof space, with the brewery presumably filling the ground floor area and a few benches available outside the front of the unit, where a bloke was cooking up some very tasty smelling food from a small gazebo. A metal staircase takes you up to the bar area - a bare boarded space with windows to the front, looking out across the neighbouring estate, the bar midway through the room, close to the entrance, and more brewing kit in the rear part of the room. The walls are whitewashed and there’s a high gabled ceiling with metal beams, poles, pipes and whatnot criss-crossing it. A drinking ledge with mid-height stools runs under the front windows, with various potted plants along its length, whilst tables and mis-matched chairs fill out the bulk of the space and a couple of canteen-style tables and benches stand opposite the bar. The servery has a squat, timber-fronted counter with a mini-fridge full of Park Brewery cans at one end and a cask on stillage behind. A second counter, to the rear right, had what looked like a food warming cabinet on it, albeit an empty one, plus American diner-style stools for punters to perch on. Some cool art was displayed on the walls, including a few nice photos, presumably taken in the eponymous Richmond Park, whilst over to the right, a large TV screen was showing muted tennis coverage, with brewery merch on display next to it, alongside a small pump clip collection. A hipster indie soundtrack was playing in the background, but there was only one other customer in attendance during the course of my visit. On the bar, five of the seven keg taps were in action, dispensing a good selection of predominantly pale beers, whilst a lone cask ale - Park Saw Pit West Coast Pale (£4.50) - was available, with the cheery barmaid giving it a try before serving. The beer was in good nick, but a little too warm for my liking, although it was a very hot day, so perhaps this was understandable. I quite liked this place, which felt like a proper brewery tap, rather than some sort of drinker’s concession within a brewery. The service was super friendly and the place had a bit of a micropub feel to it, despite the more industrial setting. It’s not in the most convenient location to add to a crawl around Kingston, but I’m sure I’ll make the effort to head back out this way again sometime soon.