Kanpai London Sake Brewery & Taproom
The mezzanine looks down on the tanks, so you can watch Kanpai brew from the table you are drinking at.1
Why go
Kanpai has been brewing in a Druid Street arch since 2016 and calls itself the UK's first sake brewery, making modern British sake by traditional Japanese methods.1 The arch is three things at once: the brewery, a sake bar with a kitchen, and a shop. The brewery's own statement of what it makes is small batch, sulphite-free, gluten-free, preservative-free and vegan. Tastings and tours run as booked experiences, and the mezzanine over the brewery can be hired for 25 to 35 people.
Order this / avoid
- Order: what is pouring off the tanks, and book a guided tasting if you want somebody to walk you through it.
- Avoid: the Peckham address, which the brewery says on its front page is permanently closed, and turning up with ten or more without emailing first. Online booking stops at nine.1
Good to know
- Where: 48 Druid Street SE1 2EZ, near London Bridge.
- Hours: not printed on the front page read this pass. Check the brewery's visit page before travelling.
- Booking: tables are held back for walk-ins; online bookings to nine, email for ten or more.
- Private hire: the mezzanine, 25 to 35 people, over the brewery floor.
Verdict
should-visit — Sake brewed in a Bermondsey railway arch since 2016, which the brewery says makes it the UK's first, and a mezzanine with a viewing platform so you can look down on the tanks while you drink what came out of them. The process claims are specific: small batch, sulphite-free, gluten-free, preservative-free and vegan. There is a kitchen alongside, tastings and tours run as booked experiences, and the mezzanine takes 25 to 35 for a private hire. Go to Druid Street and not to Peckham, which the brewery says on its own front page is permanently closed. What keeps it off the top rung is that nobody outside the brewery has described the sake, and no bottling is named anywhere read this pass.