London’s love of craft beer is showing no signs of slowing down and barely a day goes by in the capital when a new batch of bearded hipsters don’t pop up with a keg of the latest brew. Thankfully, in a month that saw Carlsberg give away free beer through a billboard, London’s craft scene took another big step away from pasteurised, mass-produced and tasteless lager with the launch of Zero Degrees bottled range.
Zero Degrees is a chain of four micro-brewery restaurants dotted across the UK. The Blackheath incarnation was the first and goes back to the turn of the millennium when craft was in its infancy and the bearded brewers of today could barely grow a soul patch let alone get a full sleeve tattoo. The set-up is simple but genius. A brewery in half the building with pipes that connect directly from the tanks to the bar in the other half of the building where the restaurant lives – serving wood-fired pizzas in all manner of delicious flavours and mussels to die for. The beauty of the simplicity doesn’t stop there. With tables over-looking the brewery and work never stopping, you can relax with a pizza and freshly brewed craft beer whilst watching the beer you’ll drink on your next visit coming to life before your very eyes.
The selection is impressive and there’s something for all tastes. The black IPA is a twist on a classic and will appeal to those who like to mix things up; the now legendary mango beer really needs to be tried to be believed; and the soured wheat beer has a floral and fruit edge that certainly puts it among one of the nicest craft beers being produced on the premises.
But the real reason we went to visit was the launch of the bottled range. Three premium craft beers all brewed and bottled by the master brewers and appealing to all tastes. The dark hops stock is a variant on the black IPA, the Dunkel is XX, and to round off the triumvirate, a Vienna lager for the European beer enthusiasts. The variety on show makes choosing a favourite near on impossible, but you’d be hard pushed to find a better way to while away an evening than to try the full range and find your own favourite. The staff at the restaurant are all very knowledgeable so whether you’re a newbie to craft brewing or a bearded and be-sleeved aficionado there will be someone on hand to help you with any burning questions.
If you happen to be venturing out the capital too, the other restaurants are in Reading, Cardiff and Bristol, with rumours of a fifth site coming later in the year.
