Setting Sail For London's Brew Wharf

Beer is raising its head above the ramparts in an area of south London packed with trendy restaurants and best known for the hugely successful Vinopolis wine museum and exposition. Brew Wharf in Stoney Street, is yet another restaurant in ultra-trendy Borough Market but, glory be, you are greeted by handpumps in the bar and a micro-brewery on view in the dining area.

Vinopolis has a stake in Brew Wharf and the wine attraction's manager Tom Forrest is an enthusiastic supporter of the project. The driving force behind Beer Wharf are two of London's leading restaurateurs, Trevor Gulliver, who owns the St John Restaurant in Smithfield, and Claudio Pulze, who runs the acclaimed Aubergine and Cantina.

Trevor has always sold draught and bottled beers at St John, including Black Sheep, Hop Back and Wadworth 6X, and so is not a newcomer to the belief that beer is just as good a companion at the dining table as wine.

"The micro-brewery is not a gimmick," he says. "Everyone who works at Brew Wharf understands beer. We are dedicated to getting people to appreciate beer, adopting the same attitude they have to wine. "The Germans and Dutch drink beer with food - sauerkraut and beer are a marriage made in heaven - while the Brits think it only goes with a ploughman's. The problem is that too many British beers are mass-produced and are not suitable for food while most, but not all, pubs serve crap food.

"Brew Wharf is not a gastro-pub and it's unlike any other pub in London," says Trevor Gulliver (pictured left). He proves the point by ordering a bottle of Meantime Brewery's London Porter in an ice bucket and then serving it with oysters: "Porter and oysters - chocolate hits the sea!"

Brew Wharf sells most of the impressive range from Meantime in Greenwich, including the superb bottled IPA, with Pilsner, Kolsch, wheat beer and raspberry fruit beer served in pressurised draught form. The two handpumps dispense cask beer produced in the five-barrel brewery by Iain Peebles. It is Iain's first stab at brewing: he was a wine buyer and, in common with Tom Forrest, is another enthusiast who has crossed the divide between the grape and the grain. Iain was taught the brewing skills by David Smith, the legendary builder of British micros, and uses Maris Otter malts from Fawcetts and whole flower English Fuggles and Goldings hops for aroma and bitterness.

The kit is simple and functional: a mash tun feeds a copper and the hopped wort is fermented in small vessels. Iain is tinkering with his recipes, so the beers are liable to change.

On my two visits I have sampled a 3.7 per cent Borough Bitter and a 4.1 per cent Best. The 3.6 per cent beer uses 10 per cent crystal alongside the pale malt and is hopped solely with Goldings. It has a burnished copper colour, a resinous and floral hop aroma balanced by biscuity malt, with a quinine-like bitterness in the mouth underscored by tangy fruit, and a long, dry finish in which the bitter hop notes are cut by juicy malt and tart fruit.

In contrast, the 4.1 per cent Best has just 3 per cent crystal malt and is hopped only with Fuggles. It has a pale bronze colour with a big orange fruit and spicy hop aroma, with tart fruit, more spices and biscuity malt in the mouth. The finish is long, dry and complex, packed with juicy malt, tangy fruit and intensely bitter hops.

The beers on offer also include Brooklyn Lager, De Koninck and Duvel from Belgium, Goose Island IPA from Chicago, and Budweiser Budvar from the Czech Republic. Matching the full range with the dishes on offer at Brew Wharf is a labour of gustatory love. The menu ranges from soups to salads, cassoulet to sauerkraut, roast meats to seafood and pasta.

The house beers sturdily match the big flavours of beef, chicken and pork dishes, the two IPAs go brilliantly with fish and chips, fish stew, seafood or blue cheese, while the Meantime Pilsner or Budvar are perfect companions for lighter fish. Every course is catered for, with Meantime's Chocolate Beer for dessert and the same brewery's Coffee Beer with espresso or cappuccino.

You can just drop in for a beer and snack, and from the bar admire the bare brick walls and vaulted roof of the cavernous wharf that was once part of a chain of warehouses that stretched from the Borough to Tooley Street near London Bridge, all feeding the London docks.

Now a different type of feeding is going on at Brew Wharf. "We have to kindle a belief in British beer and food," Trevor Gulliver says. Kindle on, Trevor: set the Thames on fire. Brew Wharf Stoney Street London SE1 Tel: +44 (0)207 378 6601