Craft & Courage, Crystal Palace, SE19

Located on the Crystal Palace triangle, opposite a couple of other pubs, this is a bottle shop with a small rear seating area for in-house drinking and a squat little back yard, which all customers were being directed to when I visited on the final day of the government’s ‘outdoor-drinking only’ phase. Inside, it’s your typical bottle shop/craft beer bar hybrid – a narrow, shop converted single room with a good-sized servery down the right-hand wall, shelves and fridges around the rest of the room filled with all sorts of tempting looking bottles and cans and then a raised space to the rear which had been cleared of furniture on this visit, but presumably normally has several small tables served by basic chairs, allowing a small number of customers to enjoy their purchases onsite. Everything has been painted in a rather moody shade of grey, which can make the room feel a bit dark and gloomy at times, especially towards the rear where natural light is at a premium. The garden has a rough, gravel surface with very high brick walls on either side of a fairly narrow space, making you feel a little trapped. The space has been efficiently filled with tables and drinking ledges served by garden chairs and high stools respectively, mostly under a rickety looking temporary shelter, whilst a shed-like building to the rear seems to act as an overspill seating space. A decent alt-rock soundtrack played throughout my stay and the bar staff all seemed very friendly and knowledgeable. There were four draught keg beers available when I arrived, although the barman hinted that a fifth might be on the bar very soon. These beers were from the likes of Pomona Island, Gipsy Hill and Freedom, which is about par for the course in this sort of establishment. I tried the Signature Brew Backstage IPA (£5.50), which was a tasty and refreshing brew. I arrived just after a large thunderstorm had blown through, and the barman was very helpful in drying off a seat and table for me, having missed out on all the covered seating. This is a pretty functional place that fulfils the local community’s need for a craft beer bottle shop but doesn’t really offer all that much in terms of a pub-going experience. Much like other bottle-shop bars I’ve visited, the ‘bar’ element feels like a bit of an afterthought and I would rather drink in one of the many decent pubs that can be found nearby, but it works well enough as somewhere to dip into from time to time and I’m sure I’ll pop back at some point in the future.

Small Craft bar, card only as John mentions below.Beers on tap were from Five points, Beavertown, Laine and Canopy who's Brockwell IPA was decent enough.These kind of venues will not be everyone's cup of tea but I don't mind them and this was no exception.

Basic one room bar/bottleshop.Keg beers and bottles from the fridge.Friendly barman.Card only no cash.Reasonable prices and both my keg choices were very good.Kegs from Mad Squirrel ,Marble,Kernal and Lost and Found.

Official site of Craft & Courage - sites.google.com

Official site of Craft & Courage - sites.google.com