Battersea-based brewery Sambrook’s has announced the launch of its first craft keg: Sambrook’s Pale Ale (4.5% ABV), in ten London stockists.
According to Sambrook’s brewery founder, Duncan Sambrook, there is a lack of English craft beer in kegs despite the popularity.
“You only have to visit one of the growing numbers of craft beer bars across the capital to realise how popular craft keg beer is,” he says. “But, with the exception of a handful of notable cases in the UK, this has primarily been the domain of the American and European craft brewers. So we thought it would be great to create our own unique product in keg.”
After more than three months of development, Sambrook’s has taken its traditional English Pale Ale recipe and merged it with a German lagering technique called Kräusening.
The brew is matured for three weeks in a pressurised vessel, developing its own carbonation. The resultant beer is unpasteurised and unfiltered with a natural haze.
Sambrook’s Pale Ale stockists in the UK include: Ales and Tails, Twickenham; The Cut Bar, Waterloo; Defectors Weld, Shepherds Bush; The Draft House, Northcote Road; The Draft House, Tower Bridge; Manor Arms, Streatham; Sebright Arms, Bethnal Green; The Strongroom, Shoreditch; The White Horse, Parsons Green; and Sambrook’s brewery bar, The Boadicea.
The launch of the kegs comes just eight weeks after the announcement of definitive growth in Cask Ale. According to the Cask Report, 54% of people are choosing Cask Ale because there is more variety and flavour than in mainstream beers, while 37% choose it to consciously support a local business.