Beer Shop (Pitfield)

No Longer In Business

Sadly not much longer for this world (lease runs out in February 2006), this delightful shop, complete with its own brewery, has a musty, dusty, Dickensian feel and a great selection of British and Belgian ales, including a shelf of Belgian Christmas beers. I found a parking meter outside, but it cost me 20p for each three minutes. You just can’t rush beer-browsing.

This place has a very nice selection that rivals many of the best American liquor stores. Everything is sold as singles too. There’s a lot of good stuff to pick up here. I had trouble deciding what to buy and how much I could carry back to the States with me.

Great choice of beers!
But if you don’t know what to buy, well, I’m not sure I would trust the owner, he seems to propose beers randomly, and maybe trying to sell his own Pitfield beers ;-)
The Belgian beers are quite common in Europe.
Among the British beers, there are not many strong ones.
If you are willing to spend 15£ you can buy very old bottles of Thomas hardy’s Ale (20ys old?) and Courage Imperial Stout.

A bit out of the way, but with an excellent selection and freindly service.

Huge range, helpful staff, my usual source for any beers interesting/unusual. If there’s somewhere better in London please tell me about it.

Good selection with some tasty German treats and seasonal Belgian editions. Good for UK beers, but I was there for the foreign stuff. Lots of large bottles too.

Nice shop. Figure they must have a basement, but the actual shop itself is a bit of a squeeze - excuse me, could you move so I can see those? Managed to pick up some great things, but as my pack was full and I was hiking and taking the tube limitations were in store.

A very nice beer store, full of so many beers. Large Belgian selection with many lambics (Cantillon, Hanssens, Mort Subite) and some of the novelty Florisgaarden and Chapeu beers. The English bottled selection is huge with Thomas Hardy and A Le Coq Imperial stout standing out.. Compared to only fine beer Pitfield seems to have beers more easily obtainable from suppliers, but there are still many hard to find beers. Noticeably lacking in German and American beer. Some interesting (but expensive) memorabilia is also sold, and lots of glasses. When I went none of the bottles had prices on and I had to refer to the (rather incomplete) price list. Opening times are on the website (not open Mondays, take note!).

I love this place. I was there just before Christmas and the owner was nice enough to let me go through boxes of Christmas beers that he didn't have on the shelf yet. Amazing beer selection for someone not used to seeing that many great beers. I made sure to pick up quite a few lambics when I was there. Next time I will try more of their own beers, I bought their Imperial Stout and it was very solid.

The #1 beer store in London, in my opinion, due to its location being better than Bottles and the selection being more upscale, turnover being better and service being stellar. Bottles has more bottles, but they're dusty and downscale. Pitfield Beer Shop's owner really knows his stuff and is passionate about it. He also brews his own which you can try at your own risk. Pitfield is the place to come for true Euro rarities, so bring your RateBeer list of all the beers you've tried - otherwise you'll be wondering "Have I had that beer already?".