All Good Beer, Hackney Downs, E8

Official site of All Good Beer - allgoodbeer.co.uk

Official site of All Good Beer - allgoodbeer.co.uk

Located in the Hackney Downs Studios complex – an arts and business hub set in a bunch of old light-industrial looking buildings to the North West corner of Hackney Downs – this is a very simple craft beer counter with a reasonable sized shared seating area. The bar is housed in a building at the far end of the complex, near the railway line, which it shares with a florist and bakery. The servery is to the left as you enter and has a very small counter with the taps on the bar counter, in a radical departure from craft beer bar protocol, whilst the bar back is while tiled and has the beer range listed on it in marker pen. The room itself is very basic, with long rows of canteen-style tables and benches running in two rows from front to back. It has a concrete floor, plain walls and little in the way of décor and I found the nice little decked seating area out the front of the building was far preferable, especially on the warm day I happened to visit on. This space offers standard tables and chairs in a compact space overlooking the rest of the complex, although I noted that punters were taking their pints from building to building with seemingly no problem and in fact on arrival, I had to wait a few minutes for the lone barman to return from an extended glass collecting mission. The only real grip with sitting outdoors would the adjacent train line which shatters any peace you may have been enjoying. The bar doesn’t play any music, but at times, the loud sound systems from other buildings around the studios could be clearly heard. There were five craft keg beers and one cider available on my visit and I plumped for the Cloudwater Pale Ale which came in at £5.50 a pint. The barman was very friendly and industrious, and the few other drinkers here also seemed like a nice, welcoming bunch, despite it not really being a particularly pub-like atmosphere. This place seems to be quite clued up when it comes to supplying top-tier craft beer, but the premises didn’t really do a lot for me and I found myself thankful that the weather was good enough to allow for some al fresco drinking instead. It’s not a bad addition to the wider Hackney drinking scene, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to return.

Official site of All Good Beer - www.facebook.com

Official site of All Good Beer - www.facebook.com