We’re used to having specialist wine stores on our high streets, but now we are seeing the rise of specialist beer merchants. Perhaps it’s odd that this is a relatively new occurrence – especially as Londoners are known for being passionate about their pints. Around ten years ago there were only five or so breweries in London including Fullers and Meantime. Today London supports over 100 breweries!

Here in Tooting we can now rest easy at night, knowing that we have not one, but two specialist beer merchants – We Brought Beer and Craft Tooting.

James Hickson – founder of We Brought Beer – mentions that the huge increase in breweries is one of the reasons why we are now seeing more specialist beer stores pop up in our neighbourhoods. There is currently such an expansive range of beers being produced, enabling stores to fill their fridges with exciting ranges.

We Brought Beer now has three sites situated in Balham, Clapham Junction and Tooting Market. James, who began his beer career working for Brewdog, launched the Balham store in 2014 with the other two sites following closely behind.

Craft Tooting, launched in May 2016, is located in Broadway Market and is run by partners Mark and Ela.
 

Events

Both stores provide friendly, inviting spaces where you can be guided through different beer styles and breweries. James mentions that this friendly and open environment is based upon the American beer store model where there is no snobbery. Everyone is welcome.

We Brought Beer offers a range of beer classes from a classic ‘Introduction to Beer’ to something more specialist such as ‘Sour and Wild Beers’. They also host ‘meet the brewer’ evenings where you can learn direct from the horse's mouth about specific producers, sample their beers and sip the evening away with fellow beer lovers.

Craft Tooting are known for their DJ evenings where you can indulge in a local brew whilst getting down to some funky beats.
 

Popular beer styles

Wine lovers tend to pop the cork on a bottle of rosé or crisp Sauvignon Blanc in the summer and then indulge in a warming Malbec over the cooler months. Beer lovers also ride the seasonal wave with hoppy IPA and sour beers proving popular over the summer and malty amber and dark beers warming the cockles in the winter.

Currently the most popular drop at We Brought Beer is the Beavertown Gamma Ray – brewed in Tottenham Hale, this is a refreshing American Pale Ale, packed with tropical fruit aromas, ‘a brew you can sit on and drink all day’.

Why are some beers rather expensive?

Beers start at £2.60 at We Brought Beer and go up to around £25. £25 for a beer!? Well yes. However there are good reasons for this. Some beers contain special ingredients like rare hops, coffee and chocolate. If you are a chocolate fan, then the Mikkeller Beer Geek Dessert is for you. Brewed with cocoa and vanilla it punches in at 11% abv and is designed to go with – yep you guessed it – dessert.

These pricier beers are often matured for long periods in oak barrels. During the ageing process a lot of the liquid evaporates. The beer equivalent of the whisky world’s ‘angels share’. When you lose around 50% of the beer you start off with, the remaining beer has to recoup the cost.

What are the future beer trends?

We Brought Beer’s James reveals that there is demand for both alcohol free beers and fruit beers. With Tooting and Balham being home to many young families, often Mum and Dad want to enjoy a grown up drink and still be fresh-faced in the morning. There are fantastic quality alcohol-free beers available these days with German producers Erdinger and Paulaner leading the way. London breweries still have a bit of catching up to do in this field, with only Tantra brewing alcohol-free options.

Room for two in Tooting?

Some might think that having two specialist beer stores in Tooting could be one too many. James disagrees and says that Craft and We Brought Beer compliment each other. Craft Tooting offers bottle and can options whereas We Brought Beer focusses more on cans. With so many fantastic beers being produced currently there is certainly enough to fill two stores. Tooting is a foodie destination these days so it's only right that the beer side provides for the punters. As James puts it rather succinctly “it's not surprising that craft beer in Tooting is a thing – what’s surprising is that it's taken so long!”