Award winning brewer

Tuesday June 8, 2010

If you appreciate decent beer it's worth raising a glass to toast Duncan Sambrook.

The 32-year-old is the man who brought brewing back to central-ish London after the closure of Young's Wandsworth site, and the business is proving to be a big success.

His Junction ale, which joined the first beer brewed, Wandle, has just earned Sambrook's Brewery an award for the best ale at the recent Battersea Beer Festival.

Duncan, who lives in Crabtree Lane, Fulham, with wife Tracey, said: "We are thrilled with it. This is our first award and it is just nice to get recognition for the quality of our beers.

"Junction is a stronger beer than Wandle and is not as widely available but we have had really good feedback about it. We had produced it only as a seasonal ale but it was so popular we have kept it full-time."

Former accountant Duncan followed his dream of opening a London brewery with the help of Hammersmith-born brewing expert David Welsh, who used to be managing director of the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire.

Sambrook's is based in Battersea and opened in November 2008. Wandle was the first brew and Junction followed a year later.

There are no plans to release a summer ale but another brew should join Wandle and Junction in November, this time in a stout or porter style.

The success means changes at the brewery. "Our complex has been redesigned to give us more capacity," said Duncan.

"There is a new tank installed, mainly for Junction but also because production of both beers is rising up and we are almost at capacity. And we have another tank on order.

"We are up to four-fifths capacity now and the fifth tank will push close us to the limit. That will mean a rethink about what we want to do with the brewery.

"It goes to show there is a dearth of good micro breweries in London, which is why we set Sambrook's up in the first place."

While some pubs in H&F serve their ales on a regular basis, others will take a barrel or two so it can be enjoyed as a guest beer.

"Half of our outlets are permanent but the rest are on rotation as guest ales, for a week or maybe a month," said Duncan.

Sambrook's will be available at beer festivals in Ascot and Windsor and Eton later this year, and it will hopefully be represented at the massive Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court in August.

Despite the demand for his excellent products, Duncan - who runs the brewery mainly on his own these days, although David pops in to help sometimes - is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

He said: "We want to be a sustainable, community brewery, producing enough so we can continue to brew good quality beer in London, which is an expensive place to brew beer in!

We want to support our consumers and the community around us. It is not going to be unlimited growth."

Duncan said you will almost always be able to get a pint of Wandle in these H&F pubs: The Blue Anchor (Lower Mall, W6), Curtains Up (Comeragh Road, W14), Distillers (Fulham Palace Road, W6), Fulham Mitre (Dawes Road, SW6), Harwood Arms (Walham Grove, SW6), Havelock Tavern (Masbro Road, W14), Rose (Harwood Terrace, SW6) and the Southern Belle (Fulham Palace Road, W6).

You'll occasionally find a pint of Wandle in the following pubs: Crabtree (Rainville Road, W6), Colton Arms (Greyhound Road, W6), Durrell Arms (Fulham Road, SW6) and Queen Adelaide (Uxbridge Road, W12).

For more information, visit www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk.