Argyll Arms, 18 Argyll Street, W1F 7TP, LONDON

Bear & Staff, 10-12 Bear Street, WC2H 7AX, LONDON

Blackfriar, 174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EG, LONDON

Cambridge,  93 Charing Cross Rd, WC2H 0DP, LONDON

Clachan, 34 Kingly Street, W1B 5QH, LONDON

Clarence, 4 Dover Street, W1S 4LB, LONDON

Coal Hole, 91-92 Strand, WC2R 0DW, LONDON

Crown,  64 Brewer Street, W1F 9TP, LONDON

Dog & Duck, 18 Bateman Street, W1D 3AJ, LONDON

Doggetts Coat & Badge, 1 Blackfriars Bridge, SE1 9UD, LONDON

De Hems Dutch Cafe Bar, 11 Macclesfield Street, W1D 5BW LONDON

Dog & Duck, 18 Bateman Street, W1D 3AJ, LONDON

Doggetts Coat & Badge, 1 Blackfriars Bridge,SE1 9UD, LONDON

Elephant & Castle, 40 Holland Street, W8 4LT, LONDON

Falcon, 2 St. Johns Hill, SW11 1RU, LONDON

Feathers, 18-20 Broadway, SW1H 0BH, LONDON

Globe, 83 Moorgate, EC2M 6SA, LONDON

Henry Addington, 22-28 Mackenzie Walk, E14 4PH, LONDON

Hoop & Grapes, 47 Aldgate High Street, EC3N 1AL, LONDON

Hornimans At Hays, Unit 26 Hays Galleria, SE1 2HD ,LONDON

King’s Head, 10 Stafford Street, W1S 4RX ,LONDON

Lord Aberconway, 72 Old Broad Street, EC2M 1QT, LONDON

Magpie, 12 New Street, EC2M 4TP, LONDON

Marquis Of Granby, 41 Romney Street, SW1P 3RF, LONDON

Marquis Of Granby,  2 Rathbone Street, W1T 1NR, LONDON

Mudlark, Montague Close, SE1 9DA, LONDON

Old Bell Tavern, 95 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1DH, LONDON

Old Thameside Inn, Pickfords Wharf, SE1 9DG, LONDON

Pontefract Castle, 71 Wigmore Street, W1U 1QA, LONDON

Porcupine, 48 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0BS, LONDON

Princess Of Wales, 27 Villiers Street, WC2N 6ND, LONDON

Ship, 11 Talbot Court, EC3V 0BP, LONDON

Sir Christopher Hatton, 4 Leather Lane, EC1N 7RA, LONDON

St. Georges Tavern, 14 Belgrave Road, SW1V 1QD, LONDON

Swan, 46 Hammersmith Broadway, W6 0DZ, LONDON

Three Greyhounds, 25 Greek Street, W1D 5DD, LONDON

Tottenham, 6 Oxford Street, W1D 1AN, LONDON

Walrus & Carpenter, 45 Monument Street, EC3R 8BU, LONDON

Wellington, 351 Strand, WC2R 0HS, LONDON

White Hart, 121 Bishopsgate, EC2M 3TH, LONDON

White Horse, 16 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RY, LONDON

White Lion,  24 James Street, WC2E 8NS, LONDON

Williamsons Tavern, 1 Groveland Court, EC4M 9EH, LONDON

Woodins Shades, 212 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4PT, LONDON

Ye Old Watling, 29 Watling Street, EC4M 9BR, LONDON

York, 82 Islington High Street, N1 8EQ, LONDON

Victoria Hotel, 28 Great George Street, LS1 3DL, LEEDS

Scarbrough Hotel, Bishopsgate Street, LS1 5DY, LEEDS

Palace, Kirkgate, LS2 7DJ, LEEDS

Shakespeare, Summer Row, B3 1JJ, BIRMINGHAM

Shakespeare Inn,  Lower Temple Street, B2 4JD, BIRMINGHAM

Old Contemptibles, 176 Edmund Street, B3 2HB, BIRMINGHAM

Conan Doyle,  71-73 York Place, EH1 3JD, EDINBURGH

Deacon Brodies Tavern, 435 Lawnmarket, EH1 2NT, EDINBURGH

Greyfriars Bobby, 30-34 Candlemaker Row, EH1 2QE, EDINBURGH

Haymarket, 11-14a West Maitland Street, EH12 5DS, EDINBURGH

Kenilworth, 152-154 Rose Street, EH2 3JD, EDINBURGH

Last Drop, 74-78 Grassmarket, EH1 2JR, EDINBURGH

Mitre Bar, 131-133 High Street, EH1 1SG, EDINBURGH

Punch Bowl, 7 Stonegate, YO1 8AN, YORK

Old White Swan, 80 Goodramgate, YO1 7LF, YORK

Harkers, 1 St. Helens Square, YO1 8QN, YORK

Cross Keys, 34 Goodramgate, YO1 7LF, YORK

Bank, 57 Mosley Street, M2 3FF, MANCHESTER

Old Wellington, 4 Cathedral Gates, M3 1SW, MANCHESTER

Granary,  10 Kilmarnock Road,  G41 3NH, GLASGOW

Drum & Monkey, 91 St. Vincent Street, G2 5TF, GLASGOW

Chequers, 131 High Street, OX1 4DH, OXFORD

Eagle & Child, 49 St. Giles, OX1 3LU, OXFORD

Crown, 59a Cornmarket St, OX1 3HB, Oxford

Black Bull, High Street, TS15 9BH, YARM

Carpenters Arms, 4 Market Street, SL4 1PB, WINDSOR

Crooked Billet, 51 High Street, SS9 2EP, LEIGH-ON-SEA

Crown Liquor Saloon, 46 Great Victoria Street, BT2 7BA, BELFAST

Green Dragon, 51 Saturday Market, HU17 8AA, BEVERLEY

Mitre, 17 Bridge Street, CB2 1UF, CAMBRIDGE

Old Buttermarket, 39 Burgate, CT1 2HW, CANTERBURY

Philharmonic Dining Rooms, 36 Hope Street, L1 9BX, LIVERPOOL

Plough, 28 Duke St, CM1 1HY, Chelmsford

Pump House, 46 Market Street, BN1 1HH, BRIGHTON

Red Lion, 59 Northgate Street, CH1 2HQ, CHESTER

I often get asked by people what I think about the number of pub closures going on around the UK and my simple answer is that it is a direct result of beer taxation policy. Beer taxation has been an ever increasing problem for many years and doesn’t act kindly towards local pubs and smaller breweries.

We have all noticed over the past few years the rise in the price of a beer served behind the bar; some pubs even listing a pint for a shocking £5! What you may not have realised is that since 2008 beer duty has increased by a staggering 42%. It’s no surprise then that people up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet and a quiet pint at their local is becoming a luxury that many can no longer afford and people are more inclined to drink in their homes, where they can drink beers for as little as 50p per pint. Add this to the fact that the larger breweries seem only focused on volume, not the quality of product – we have to thank CAMRA for supporting and promoting the value of micro-breweries.

At the end of a long day I love nothing better than to sit in my local pub and enjoy a nice, cold pint of beer with good company. To drink a pint of beer in a pub costs more than 5 times the price of petrol!

If you feel the same way, then I invite you to take a moment to fill out the e-petition to help instigate a debate on excessive beer tax in Parliament. This petition has already gathered up 40,000 signatures and we need your help to crank it up to 100,000, in order to have it discussed and considered by the Government.

Of all the things we do here at the brewery, naming our beers is probably one of the hardest. When we thought about renaming our Pale Ale, we certainly didn’t have anywhere near the amount of ideas that we had entries from you and we were really overwhelmed with the response we had, in just a short two week period. As for Paul and Gary, I think it is fair to say that they were disappointed they didn’t win, but are looking forward continuing their career in showbiz as the new 2 Ronnies!

Towards the end of 2011, I was contacted by an American by the name of Colin asking whether he could come and visit the brewery and spend some time brewing with us during his vacation to the UK.  We regularly get requests from enthusiasts to brew with us, and given that I started in much the same way we try our best to accommodate such requests.  In fact over the last year I think we have hosted in excess of 20 enthusiasts from not just London but the wider UK and overseas too.  It is always fun to be able to share our knowledge and ethos about brewing and we enjoy meeting the myriad of people who are interested in beer and brewing.

So Colin joined us at the beginning of January for a week to learn the ropes of the production of cask ale.   Getting his hands dirty on all of the fun jobs like cleaning out the mash, copper and the endless cask washing, Colin turned up every day with the enthusiasm of a child in a sweet shop.  Since then, he has proclaimed that he has felt more on vacation at the brewery than out of it, and regularly drops in on us, in between his many visits to pubs in London.

Colin is soon to be returning to the states, where he is to try to find a role as an assistant brewer (previously having been an accountant – where have I heard that story before?).  Over the last couple of months we have found a new friend in Colin and I wish him many thanks for his time at the brewery and the best of luck in the future.

If you are interested in seeing some of Colin’s passion for beer check out his blog:

http://thejourneymanbrewer.blogspot.com/

It seems to me that Spring has jumped up on us this year – life at the brewery is moving so fast and we’ve been incredibly busy preparing for the big year ahead. I’d been thinking after the first few glorious days of sunshine hit Wandsworth earlier this month, that it’s time we started brewing our Spring ale, which we currently call our “pale ale”. We brewed it for a month longer than planned last year, due to popular demand, so we’ve decided to start brewing it again this week, ready for the warm weather season.

To give this popular beer a warm welcome to the family, we’d like to change the name of our pale ale to something more in keeping with our heritage and area like our other beers: Wandle, Junction and Powerhouse Porter. We thought it might be fun to ask if you would help rename the beer.

The competition will run from today: Friday 23rd March until Friday 6th April at midnight. The brewery team will then choose the shortlist and I will pick the winning name. The prize will be to see your suggestion chosen as the name for our pale ale – the reward will be a cask of our pale ale and a tour of the brewery for you and 3 friends!

Two of our brewers, Gary & Paul, have come up with their own suggestions. Gary proposed the name Patrisey PA which was mentioned in the Doomsday book, Patrisey was what this area was called before changing to Battersea. Paul’s suggestion is Pagoda PA, after the beautiful pagoda standing in neighbouring Battersea Park. You may cast your vote for one of those or you can suggest one of your own.

There are four easy ways in which you can enter:

• E-mail paleale@sambrooksbrewery.co.uk
• Text message: Start a text with Ale then a space, then your name for the beer to 07786 205 227
• Tweet @sambrooksale
• Facebook Sambrook’s Brewery

You can enter as many times as you like, but please put just one suggestion per message. You can see your entries on the Sambrook’s Brewery page on thumbprintcity.com

Be sure to watch our video of Gary & Paul discussing the challenge on our YouTube channel – they make quite the comedy duo! However, since shooting the short film, their demands for “hair & make up” before every mash in have become a little excessive!!

We will announce the winner on our social media profiles and here on the website. Good luck and may the best name win!

Terms & Conditions:

1) Enter as many times as you like – just one entry per message please

2) There is no monetary reward for the winning entry – the prizes offered are non transferable

3) We will announce the winner in the week after the competition closes and contact them via the channel they used to enter to arrange delivery of the prizes

4) The winner’s name will be published on our blog and social media profiles

5) The prize is: 1 x cask of pale ale & 4 x brewery tour

6) Sambrook’s Brewery reserve the right to change these t’s & c’s at any time

When David and I were first selling our Wandle Ale, we had the fortune to bump into three people who were intently interested in this “new ale” being named after the river Wandle and commenting how they had fished the Wandle for trout the other day.  But these three chaps were not just run of mill fishermen, it turned out that Jeff, Andrew and Robin ran a fantastic music scene at the Social off Oxford Street and had started a collaborative website for music and literary events called: Caught by the River.

Since then we have had great fun supplying beer to them and attending their events most notably last year at the Port Eliot Festival, where our beers will be served again this year.  It seems only yesterday that we were discussing their new website, which is now all grown up at 5 years old.  To celebrate, in typical don’t do anything in halves style, the caught by the river team are putting on a fantastic variety show at the south bank centre on 25^th May – click HERE for all the details – hope to see you there!

The date has been announced for the planning application for the Castle Pub site in Battersea. It will most likely be heard on the 18th April at the Planning Applications Committee (PAC), in Wandsworth Town Hall from 7.30pm – if this date changes, the announcement will be made in the Facebook group and Twitter page.

The Save the Castle Campaign has already received a staggering 700+ objections! It is heart warming to see how many of you care about losing an essential part of our community. Thank you for all your support and for taking the time to let the Council know how you feel about the situation.

I have been told that there will be buses laid on, to transport people from the Castle to the Town Hall and back again, for what we all hope will be a massive celebratory party! The buses will be leaving from the Castle at 7pm sharp. If you would like a lift, please put your name on the list behind the bar or you can email the campaign directly and request a seat at info@castlebattersea.co.uk

Let’s pull together to make sure this is the most significant planning application objection WIN that Wandsworth has ever seen… Defend the Castle! Save our local pub!

I was reminiscing the other day about the first pub that stocked Wandle.  Having first brewed Wandle in November 2008,  David and I were lucky to meet Charlie McVeigh, the proprietor at The Draft House on Westbridge Road, just around the corner from the brewery.  Little did we know at the time, that Charlie had aspirations to roll out his Draft House concept across London and now has one further on Northcote Road and another near Tower Bridge.

For those who have not visited, the Draft Houses are an excellent showcase for all things related to beer.  Not only can you always find a well kept pint of Wandle, but you can also find beers from around the world, all served by people with a passion for beer.  So when Charlie approached me about brewing a one off beer in 2012, how could I refuse?

We are now running a competition at the Draft Houses to design and brew your own beer with us.  We invite you to enter the competition by emailing the name and description of your beer to brew@drafthouse.co.uk. The winner will have the opportunity to brew the beer with us AND win a 72 pint cask of your very own beer, to get the party started at one of Charlie’s excellent establishments. To see those entries already made, visit the Draft House Facebook page.

For those of you that don’t know the Castle pub, around the corner from the brewery, it is a bit of a local institution.  Busy most days of the week and run by a charming New Zealand couple – Aaron & Cate.  Like many others, I have regularly enjoyed a pint of Wandle there with friends and family alike.  So I find it amazing that a property developer is now attempting to bulldoze the building and may create new flats.  Once a pub is gone, it’s heritage goes, as does the services to the local community and with pubs still closing around the country at a rate of 20 a week, it seems bizarre to try to demolish such a successful establishment.

Having a local community pub, where you can meet friends, family and neighbours is part of our British Culture and this wanton destruction of such a successful pub is an affront to our culture.

Luckily to date, many of you agree with our sentiments and with well over 100 objections already lodged against the planning application, I hope that this will be an example of Power to the People!  We will certainly be putting our support behind the campaign to Save the Castle and if the opportunity arose, we would certainly consider making an offer to ensure this thriving and successful pub remains open and serving the local community.

If you want to lend your help,  then please lodge an objection before 29th February, on the Wandsworth Council website for Application Number: 2012/0341. To lodge a planning protest, you need to quote planning policies.  It is not enough to protest about the loss of a loved and popular pub on its own.  So have a look at other objections and use these as a guide to helping to post an objection.  I’ll be posting mine. Read more information about the campaign on SaveTheCastle.co.uk

Watch this video of the Save the Castle pub rally, held on 31st January.