Orbit Beers Brewery & Taproom
Nine taps, and Orbit brewed every beer on them across the road, on the same Walworth arch site it started on in 2014.
Why go
The distance between the tank and the glass is the whole proposition, and Orbit is one of the few London breweries whose taproom sits on its founding site rather than in a second unit somewhere cheaper (Orbit Beers). The house beers are Nico, a Koln-style lager, and a Tzatziki Sour, which tells you the range: European classic styles worked for finesse and drinkability rather than hop chasing. Nico takes its name from Christa Paffgen, the singer Nico, who came from Cologne and from the Paffgen brewing family, and the brewery calls it a Koln Lager rather than a Kolsch because Cologne law reserves that word for beer brewed inside the city's metropolitan area (Orbit Beers). The room is a railway arch with a yard, and the programme runs on a fixed rhythm, DJs on Fridays, bring your own vinyl on the second Friday of the month, spoken word on the third Thursday. The Dragon Flame BBQ team hold the kitchen Wednesday to Saturday and cook Sunday roasts.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Nico first, since a Koln lager is the hardest thing on that list to hide behind, and it is the beer carrying the awards. Then the Tzatziki Sour, then whatever else is on the nine. A Sunday roast if you are there on a Sunday afternoon.
- Avoid: Monday and Tuesday, when it is closed, and arriving at four on a Wednesday expecting food, since the kitchen starts an hour after the bar.
What locals & experts say
- Orbit Beers, on its own method:
We take classic styles and make them our own, with an eye for finesse and drinkability.
2 - Orbit Beers, on the site: the taproom is
tucked away in the heart of Walworth in South London, on the same site we began brewing in 10 years ago.
1 - Awards on Nico, named precisely and self-reported: SIBA Gold at regional level and Silver nationally for Best Premier Lager in the keg class, 2021, plus Great Taste one-star in 2021 and 2023 and two stars in 2024. Those come off the brewery's own technical page, which is where the detail lives, and they have not been confirmed against SIBA's results. Open coverage dates the SIBA wins to 2022 instead, so the year needs checking.3
- No independent assessment of the taproom. Nothing this pass reached carries an outside verdict on the room or the pour; the coverage that exists is about the beer. For a beer venue the right corroboration is a CAMRA branch record or a dated Untappd or RateBeer average, and neither had landed when this entry was written. That is a hole in the file rather than a judgment on the brewery.
Good to know
- Where: Railway Arch 233, Empress Street SE17 3HJ, in Walworth.
- Timing: the bar opens Wednesday and Thursday 4pm to 10.30pm, Friday 4pm to midnight, Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday noon to 9.30pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday. The kitchen runs 5pm to 9pm Wednesday to Friday, 1pm to 9pm Saturday and 1pm to 7pm Sunday.
- Access: wheelchair accessible, dog-friendly and family-friendly, with indoor and outdoor seating.
- Groups: the back space takes 40 to 50, bookable.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 11 March 2022, with a clean zero on hygiene, structure and confidence in management. The inspection is four years old, which is context rather than a finding.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour to Walworth for one beer in particular, drunk about as close to the tank as London allows. Orbit has brewed on this Empress Street arch site since 2014, and the taproom pours nine of its own taps from a brewery just across the road, led by Nico, a Koln-style lager, and a Tzatziki Sour. The brewery describes itself as rooted in European traditions taking classic styles with an eye for finesse and drinkability, which is a fair description of what a Koln lager is for. The room is set up properly: indoor and outdoor seating, wheelchair accessible, dog and family friendly, an N64 in the games area, Friday DJs, a bring-your-own-vinyl night on the second Friday of the month, spoken word on the third Thursday, and the Dragon Flame BBQ team cooking Wednesday to Saturday with Sunday roasts. The credential is category-correct and specific: Nico took SIBA Gold at regional level and Silver nationally for Best Premier Lager in the keg class, and three Great Taste awards including two stars in 2024. It holds below the top rung because those awards are self-reported on the brewery's own page and nobody outside the brewery has assessed the taproom itself in anything this pass could reach.