The Best Craft Beer Bars in London

The Kernel is London's most influential craft brewery, responsible for establishing that British craft beer could be as technically serious as anything produced in Belgium or the United States. The taproom opens Saturday mornings and runs until the kegs empty — usually by early afternoon. The bottle shop is the best in London for take-home Kernel releases. Arrive before noon; the queue is worth it for the Export Stout alone.

Order: A bottle of the current Export Stout and a glass of whatever IPA is on tap

The most accessible of the Bermondsey taprooms — open six days a week rather than Saturday only — Fourpure brews clean, reliably excellent craft beers in styles that range from session lager to double IPA to barrel-aged porter. The taproom itself is the best designed on the mile: a large, comfortable space with a proper food offering and a tap list that covers the full range of what Fourpure produces. Good for groups who want more than a quick pint.

Order: The Shapeshifter Pale Ale or the current limited small-batch release

One of the smaller Bermondsey breweries with a focus on English heritage styles reinterpreted with modern technique — their porter and mild are among the best examples of the style being produced anywhere in the UK. The taproom is tiny, the pours are generous, and the atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon is exactly what a brewery should feel like: the people making the beer serving it directly to the people drinking it.

Order: The Smoked Brown Porter — possibly the best porter currently brewed in London

A Hackney brewery that has been producing some of London's most consistently excellent IPAs and pale ales since 2012. The taproom on Bohemia Place has a large outdoor area that becomes one of the best beer gardens in East London in summer, and the indoor bar functions as a proper local when the weather does not cooperate. The Pale Fire Pale Ale is the anchor of the range and has been since the brewery opened.

Order: Pale Fire Pale Ale on cask or the current NEIPA release

Howling Hops serves beer directly from conditioning tanks — unpasteurised, unfiltered, not carbonated beyond what the fermentation produces. The result is the freshest pint available in London. The Hackney Wick taproom is inside a railway arch with outdoor seating on the canal, and the rotating tank list covers a range of styles from session pale to oatmeal stout. The quality of a fresh tank pour from Howling Hops is difficult to match anywhere in the city.

Order: Whatever is newest on the tank list — ask which was tapped most recently

A bottle shop with a bar running twelve rotating taps in Clapton that stocks one of the best curated selections of British, Belgian, and American craft beer in London. The staff know the list deeply, the prices are fair by London standards, and the willingness to talk through what is worth drinking on any given visit is what distinguishes it from the larger operators. Go for the bottle shop range; stay for the taps.

Order: Ask for a recommendation from the British brewery section — they always have something new

A tiny bar at the edge of Borough Market that has been one of London's most important craft beer destinations since it opened in 2006. The Rake stocks over 130 bottled beers and runs ten rotating taps with a focus on rare imports, brewery-exclusive releases, and anything the owner finds interesting enough to put on. It is genuinely small — standing room for thirty people on a good day — and genuinely worth the squeeze.

Order: A rare Belgian import from the bottle list that you cannot find anywhere else in London

Two historic stone lodges flanking the Euston Road approach house forty draft taps and a bottle selection that covers everything from classic British real ales to the best new American craft imports. The west lodge handles cask ales; the east handles keg craft. Most of London passes this by on their way to the station, which is their loss. One of the best value-for-quality craft beer experiences in central London.

Order: A cask pale ale from the west lodge or a KEG IPA from the east — both are excellent

The Islington branch of the small London chain that has consistently maintained the most ambitious tap lists in the city. Fifty draft taps cover British cask and keg, American craft imports, Belgian classics, and whatever the buyers are currently excited about. The room is a proper London pub — dark wood, comfortable seats, no pretension — and the staff are selected for their knowledge of the list rather than their enthusiasm for it.

Order: Ask what the rarest thing on tap currently is — they always have something worth tracking down

A South London brewery with a taproom overlooking the Thames in the Nine Elms development that has produced some of London's best lagers and IPAs since 2015. Mondo's approach is European-influenced — clean lagers brewed to German standards alongside hop-forward American-style ales — and the taproom reflects that precision. The river views from the outdoor terrace are exceptional, which is not something most London brewery taprooms can claim.

Order: The Tommy C Pale Ale or the current limited lager release from the small-batch series