Craft Beer Pubs: Tapping into the beer crowd

At first sight, the tall, narrow, grade II-listed Portland stone lodge that houses the Euston Tap might seem an odd choice of venue for a pub. Up until two years ago, it served as a women's only members' club.

Standing on the western end of what was once the imposing Euston Arch entranceway to the station, the building is pretty much all that remains of the original 1830s structure, which was demolished in the early 1960s to make way for the 'electric age'.

Set between the Euston Road and the station entrance, it's far enough away from the hustle and bustle, but near enough for travellers to escape the generic pasty and baguette shop horrors of the station concourse for a decent drink.

Following the award-winning successes of the Sheffield Tap, and the original, Pivní York, London-based Bloomsbury Leisure Group developed the idea in partnership with Jamie Hawksworth of Pivovar to bring a craft beer pub to the nation's capital.

With a footfall of around 40 million annual train and tube passengers passing by outside, and a beer cellar that stretches some 30 metres in length under the road outside, it looks like he may be onto something.

Look, no hand-pumps...

For the customer, the layout is quite different from the usual. There are no hand-pumps on the bar at all. On entry you are greeted with a blackboard on the left for cask ales, a blackboard on the right for keg beers, and the bar is flanked on either side by glass-fronted fridges where you can get a good look at the bottled range, for which there is also a menu.

The piece de resistance however is the American-style back-bar, with taps set into a brass wall of beer, 20 keg taps on the top row, eight cask taps on the bottom. And with a further 150 bottled beers on offer, the old western lodge seems to have finally found its true calling.

Installing more than £10k's worth of cellar equipment into a listed building was no mean feat, and there were a few 20-hour days prior to the opening on Bonfire Night last year. But according to Yan Pilkington, manager of all three of Pivovar's sites, it is an essential part of the proposition - which is quality craft beer. "The temperature and dispense speed on each tap can be individually controlled, so there are no excuses on serve," he explains.

Prices range from £2.70 per pint to £3-4 per half for higher ABV imported beers, so there should be something for everyone.

New breed

At just 24 years old, Yan is one of the new breed in the beer community, and has strong opinions about beer and how it should be kept.

"Higher ABV hoppy beers work better in kegs. It makes more sense to have disposable kegs - transporting empty casks around the country is crazy," he says. "CAMRA will never approve of kegs, although keg beer is much better quality than 'approved' real ale in bottles with sediment.

"Systems of dispense have been brought into the 21st century, offering more consistency than traditional hand-pull pumps, but people don't like change.

"CAMRA needs to address its issues. In many ways it has achieved its objectives in terms of reviving real ale, and it's time to look at the next 30 years. It should be about good beer, not archaic definitions. There's a lot of good beer that's not being supported. The longer you can keep beer in good condition the better. If that means microbreweries want to put beer in cans, then I'm all for it."

Focus on a younger crowd

With no neighbours, the Euston Tap has the option to open until 1am if necessary, and while trade is steady during the day, it usually starts to pick up from about 6pm. New coffee-making equipment has also been installed, giving it the option to capture early-morning commuter trade, serving upmarket Monmouth Coffee from 8am.

Yan says the current spilt of commuters to locals is about 60/40, but he is hoping this will even out as the pub gets more regulars.

He's focusing on a younger crowd, and trying to take advantage of the fashion for new, interesting and unusual beers among London's more urbane of drinkers.

"People coming into London for the day can start and finish here, and among travelling football fans there's a real interest in good beer and interesting pubs, which is also something to tap into from this location," says Yan.

While Pivovar pubs share common ownership and warehousing in York - which allows them to buy in bulk and distribute accordingly - the team has tried to keep each venue distinct. For example, while the emphasis in the Sheffield Tap is Belgian beers, the Euston Tap has a focus on German and American beers.

Following a trip to Bamburg in Bavaria - an area which boasts more than 100 breweries - Yan's been a particular fan of German beers. Pivovar has a special relationship with the Mahrs Brewery, which offers mixed crates from Bamburg's finest brewers to the Pivovar estate.

It has also recently teamed up with BrewDog to produce Growler, a 4.5 per cent cask citra lager, to be sold exclusively in Pivovar outlets.

The company hopes to open one new site a year over the next four years. Both the Sheffield and Euston sites are leased from Network Rail, which is said to be a very hospitable landlord, welcoming the rental of otherwise unused space in its property portfolio.

There are also rumours of another station site in the offing. Watch this space…

Yan's desert island beers

If you were to take one cask, one keg and one bottled beer with you to a desert island, which ones would you choose?​

Cask

Kernel​ Pale Ale

Keg

Bernard​ Unfiltered Pilsner

Bottled

Victory/Stone/Dogfish Head Breweries​ - Saison de Buff: "Brewed with Parsley, Sage, Estate Rosemary & Thyme - one of my favourite beers of the last year", says Yan