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Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
David Walton left this review about Substation
This is a pretty small venue on the Mile. Now in the Battersea stable. Had been here in the Spartan days. Little outside seating area plus a mezzanine area. Had a pint of the Admiral’s Best on hand pump. A traditional brown ale at 4.5% abv. Quaffable but noting like the selection in their venue near Battersea Bridge. Things were rocking in the Three Hills venue next door so felt like a saddo sitting in the venue with zero other punters with all the action next door in a previously visited venue. Still that’s now two venues on the site unvisited in Central London. One east next week one a massive logistical challenge!
On 5th April 2024
- rating: 5
[User has posted 90 recommendations about 90 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Spartan Brewery Taproom
Very much a working brewery, with just small table acting as a counter and the beers being dispensed from a makeshift servery by the side office. With no indoor seating in use on my visit, the only option was some basic furniture on the opposite side of the access road parallel to the railway arches. Unusually for this part of the Beer Mile, a cask beer - Hoplite (£5.00) - was available along with four craft keg beers.
On 10th August 2020
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about Spartan Brewery Taproom
One of many similar establishments forming part of the famous Bermondsey Beer Mile, like many of the others this is located in the arches under the railway track, and is of course a brewery tap rather than a pub, and this is reflected in the somewhat industrial style décor, if one could go so far as calling it that.
The flooring was some type of concrete screed, whilst the usual white corrugated iron of these establishments was cladding the ceiling in order to channel the continually dripping water from the tunnel roof away from the punters underneath, although the walls appeared to be some sort of painted breeze block. There was no seating downstairs, and in fact very little space at all, with just some limited standing room in front of the bar counter. A mezzanine level floor had been constructed which did offer some seating, although this somehow lacked much in the way of any atmosphere, perhaps as there was nobody else up there on our visit. A row of large stainless steel brewing vessels were along the left hand wall reminding you that this is of course a working brewery, and old kegs had been pressed in to use as supports for the tables.
Son of Zeus was the only cask option available, and keg options too seemed fairly limited with just Trade Winds Extra Pale and River Styx London Porter. The solitary cider meanwhile was Duckchicken’s Easterhill Dry, which was a new one on me. Overall I felt this was a little too much of an industrial unit with little effort having been made to accommodate visitors, and I thought that there were certainly more appealing options in the vicinity. Perhaps the clue was in the name.
On 5th February 2020
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1947 recommendations about 1860 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Spartan Brewery Taproom
After the Partizan Brewery left these arches in favour of a larger set-up on the other side of the tracks, the Spartan Brewery took advantage of the existing infrastructure and installed their own equipment here, adding a new name to the Bermondsey beer mile in a familiar old location. The brewery takes up pretty much all of the ground floor space, with a small servery to the right and a beer board behind it being the only real concession to the general public at this level. It’s your typical concrete floored, vaulted ceiling, corrugated-iron walled beer mile archway, with the large beer vessels lined up to the left and rear with just enough room for one rickety looking table inside and nothing outside, although most punters were content to just stand around on the access road, drinking their pints outside. An iron staircase leads up to a small mezzanine level with low stools servicing two tables in an untidy space that seems to also be used as a storage area for various bits of brewery paraphernalia. A TV to the rear was set up to show the day’s big rugby fixture, but the light coming through the front of the arch made it almost impossible to see the screen. The projector was set up on two boxes of kettle crisps, which themselves were stacked on a box of pint glasses balanced on a small blue safe, all stood right in the centre of the room! Weirdly, a life-size cut-out of James Dean was stood at the far end of the room and it kept spooking me out as I was up there alone and kept thinking someone had snuck up behind me!
Unusually for the beer mile, this place has two cask ales, which on this occasion were their own Hoplite Session pale and Phalanx Dark Mild, alongside four keg options. The casks, rather alarmingly, were racked on a pallet on the floor next to the servery, so punters had to be careful not to accidentally kick them as they stood at the bar. The Session pale was £5.00 for a pint and in reasonable enough shape.
It's a shame that the Spartan Brewery seem to have applied their brewery name to their brewery taproom décor, as this is one of the most basic, unkempt, ramshackle places I think I’ve ever had a drink in. It was good to find some cask ale on the beer mile and the barmaid was quite friendly, but overall I didn’t really warm to this place and it was no surprise to me that it was considerably quieter than the other beer mile arches I visited.
Original review of Partizan Brewing on 8th October 2015: Rated 5
This is a microbrewery operation located in three adjacent railway arches and forming part of the ‘Bermondsey Beer Mile’. The first two arches are full of packaging materials and bits of brew kit, but the final arch has the main brew plant with a jerry built servery at the rear. The place isn’t really set up that well for those wanting to sample the brewery’s products on site. There is no seating within the arch, but a few benches have been arranged in the car parking bays opposite, which was fine on a sunny August afternoon, but probably won’t cut the mustard in the middle of winter. The arch itself is a drab concrete floored space, brightened up somewhat by some of the distinctive Alec Doherty artwork that Partizan use on their bottles. A young lady had set up a stall in front of the middle arch, selling a few wraps and other simple snacks, but it wasn’t clear whether this was a regular feature. Indie music played throughout the visit and it was quite fun watching the brewers performing all sorts of scientific-looking processes with various beer samples.
The brewery serves keg and bottled beer only, with the keg options on this visit comprising Pale Mosaic Cascade (£3.00 for a half), Pale WACC, Saison, Saison Raspberry and Lemon, Tripel and Atomium. I, along with everyone else in the queue, wanted to try the Pale Mosaic Cascade, as this was the first of eight breweries to be visited as part of the Beer Mile and it was the only beer with a sensible abv. However, some sort of technical glitch meant that this beer was pouring as approximately 90% foam, so I ended up having to have it in bottled format instead, which was a bit disappointing although the beer itself was actually pretty decent.
I found this was a bit of an inauspicious start to my crawl (I was supposed to start at Fourpure, but they were running late, so I ended up starting here and then retracing my steps). The place is not set up for large volumes of customers and I was glad it was relatively quiet when I arrived, as they were already struggling. Works as part of the crawl, but not somewhere you’re likely to linger.
On 6th September 2019
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Spartan Brewery Taproom
Now seemingly operating out of only one arch its standing room only inside so best visited on a fine weather day when the outside seating can be utilised. They now produce both craft keg and cask and as well as four craft offerings from the four taps on the still largely jerry built server, there were two barrels on stillage to the side. The keg offerings included a London Porter , a Czech pilsner and surprisingly a mild, and the two casks were Hoplite Session Pale and Phalanx Dark Mild.
The beer board is now very clear, showing which is keg and which is cask and giving the prices for a 1/2 and a pint and for most this was £2.5 and £5 respectively.
In danger of playing second fiddle to the larger Affinity tap room that is now next door, I quite liked this one as it is one of the very few venues on this strip to produce cask ale , and especially comforting to find a cask mild amongst all the chilled craft stuff.
On 19th June 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Partizan Brewing
Another railway arch and another microbrewery,It was a quite compact space with all the seating outside, It was standing only when I got there with all benches taken with other Beer Mile pilgrims.The beer board wasn't completely helpful in that although the beers and price were listed, it didn't state the measure, all prices were £3.00 and it turned out that was for two thirds. I went for the Partizan Pale 4.5%,despite being hopped with two of my favorite hops, Simcoe and Citra,the beer was less flavoursome than I expected so a little disappointed on that score.I didn't find this place as well put together as the previous stop at Fourpure, but certainly worth the stop.
On 30th April 2017
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]