The Bermondsey Beer Mile is getting a new beer festival this month, one that celebrates a style of beer that is perhaps more often requested than any other. And that’s often without even requesting the beer by style specifically, but by one particularly famous example. We’re not talking juicy NEIPAs here, or fruit-packed sour beers, either, we’re talking nitro beers. Smooth, creamy, velvety textured beers that highlight their drinks’ delicious malty flavours. Ever had a Guinness? Then you’ve had a nitro beer. But London craft brewery Anspach & Hobday wants to highlight the breadth of the craft beer scene’s nitro beers, and show what else there is to offer besides Guinness. Enter: Domestock – a celebration of craft nitro beers from London, the UK, and abroad.
Domestock, which has been named for the perfect dome that forms on the top of an expertly-poured pint of nitro beer, will take place at Anspach & Hobday’s Bermondsey taproom from November 16-18. Throughout those days they’ll be pouring ONLY nitro beers, from craft-y peers such as Siren Craft Brew, Whiplash, and Brew York, as well as from US pioneers of using nitrogen in craft brewing, Left Hand Brewing Co. And of course they’ll be pouring plenty of their own beers, among them their nitro porter, London Black. They’ll also be nitro-fying two of their core beers, The Ordinary Bitter and The Pfeffernüsse Stout.
What exactly is nitro beer?
In the world of beer there are, to simplify it far too aggressively, three methods of packaging beer. (Bear with me here, I’ll be done quickly!). Those are cask, nitro, and CO2 – at its most simplistic. Cask, named for its container rather than what goes into the beer itself, is what comes to mind for most people they hear ‘ale.’ Think hand-pulled pints from the big tap handles that are so synonymous with British pubs. These beers get their lightly sparkling character from residual yeast in the casks themselves. Carbonated beers on the other hand, have the bubbles packaged with the beer (into keg, can, or bottle) through the addition of CO2. And then there are nitro beers, which are packaged with a nitrogen and carbon dioxide mix. This results in much finer, barely perceptible, bubbles in the beer that give the drink a super smooth, velvety texture.
Keep your eyes peeled on Anspach & Hobday’s socials for more information on what beers will be pouring at the event. And don’t worry, they will have more than just dark beers available. There’s at least one sour beer already lined up!
Domestock is free to get in, but a drinks voucher is available to buy, which nets holders five 1/3 pours for just £10. Head to Anspach & Hobday’s events page on their website to find out more.
Domestock will take place at Anspach & Hobday’s The Arch House taproom in Bermondsey, at 118 Druid St, London SE1 2HH.