The Porter, Anspach & Hobday, Bermondsey (6.7%, 440ml)

Paul Anspach and Jack Hobday have been friends since childhood and have grown up to work together in running their own brewery in a railway arch in Druid Street, near London Bridge station, just south of the River Thames. The area is known as the Bermondsey Beer Mile and for very good reason, with several relatively new start-up breweries dotted along a stretch of railway line heading south out of the city of London. As with so many recently created ‘micro-breweries’ the friends started out as home brewers and, with encouragement from wine guru Oz Clarke (who tasted and enthused about their porter), used a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to open a brewery. Rather than the term ‘micro-brewery’ though, they preferred to call themselves a nano-brewery, starting out small but with high-quality at the forefront of their thinking. Soon after opening their porter won an award at the International Beer Challenge. Quite rightly, they have not looked back and are now looking to expand, have opened a bar in South London, and they are selling across the UK and exporting as far afield as Japan and the US. Innovative and focussed on excellence, their beers are well worth seeking out.