Anspach & Hobday have taken inspiration from their flagship beer, The Porter, to create nitro porter London Black.
Anspach & Hobday London Black. Photograph: Anspach & Hobday
London Black is a creamy, smooth, and sessionable London Porter, poured from keg but smooth like cask. An easy drinking dark beer, with an incredible tight creamy head that lasts all the way down the glass, London Black aims to be the true independent local alternative to mass produced macro dark beer.
Available exclusively in keg, Anspach & Hobday are currently taking orders for London Black, providing a much needed increase in consumer choice within the nitro dark beer market.
London Black is currently available at The Arch House, Anspach & Hobday’s mixed fermentation brewery and taproom in Bermondsey, alongside The Rusty Bucket, in Eltham, and Fountain Tap, in Shoreditch, with more venues stocking London Black soon.
Chairman and co-founder, Jack Hobday, said: “Despite the meteoric rise of craft beers, there is one style still absolutely dominated by a single macrobrewery brand. That is the nitro-stout otherwise known as Guinness, a Diageo omnipresent mega brand. That multi-national giant is rightly Dublin’s through and through. We may be small and independent, but London Black is our local answer.
‘We make traditional beers modern’
“Largely because of the dominance of Guinness, a dry stout, porters are a lesser known style of dark beer. The reality is that porters are the beautiful original dark beers of London.
“As with anything at Anspach & Hobday, we make traditional beers modern. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to enjoy a sessionable smooth dark beer that has real flavour and is made where it will be enjoyed: London.”
Head of production and co-founder, Paul Anspach, said: “As brewers with a strong pedigree in porter and stout production, the idea of introducing a nitro-beer into our range is a natural one. After a year of settling into our new home at Croydon upon the backdrop of the pandemic, we finally felt like it was the right time to scratch the itch and begin the development of our first Nitro beer.
“Nitrogen (N2) is naturally less soluble in beer than CO2 and produces incredibly small bubbles. This is what gives nitro beers their instantly recognisable tight, creamy head, along with their smooth, silky mouthfeel. This smoothness pairs perfectly with the roastiness of stouts and porters, softening any edges the darker malts might bring and making the resulting beer incredibly drinkable.
“The London Black very much has its foundations in our flagship beer, The Porter, with a few tweaks made to the grain bill to accommodate the lower ABV. As brewers, we couldn’t be happier with how the beer has turned out. Despite the modest ABV, it’s got bags of flavour. It’s rich, complex and satisfying, and the smooth, silky texture resulting from the use of nitrogen makes it incredibly drinkable.”
