Our ales - The Florence Brewery

Florence Ales

Capital Pubs took over and refurbished Ganlon’s Irish Pub just opposite Brockwell Park on the Brixton-Herne Hill borders in 2007. They shrewdly decided to install a microbrewery. The five barrel plant brewed its first brew on 19th September 2007. In 2011 Peter Haydon, beer historian, ex-SIBA General Secretary and late of the Meantime Brewing Co. Persuaded Capital to let him take over the Florence Brewery and when – in September 2011 – Greene King acquired Capital he persuaded them to sell him the plant and intellectual property outright. Since April 2012 the Florence Brewery has been run as an independent business, still however, turning out a range of beers that remain totally exclusive to the Capital Pub Company estate.

More info

A Head in Hat

Following his acquisition of the Florence Brewery in 2012, Peter was free to use the surplus capacity in the brewery to create his own beer range under the A Head In A Hat range (Peter is usually to be found under a chapeau). As author of An Inebriated History of Britain his original interest has always been in brewing history, so what made more sense than to look for inspiration in the old brewing archives of the city that was once the brewing capital of the world – London. Unless the mood take him, A Head In A Hat beers are recreations of old London beers from now largely forgotten London brewers; giving Londoners and visitors alike a rare opportunity to taste history.

More info