Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. See if we've included your local.
Getting to Drop Project is like a Zelda quest. You must catch the enchanted tram, cross the roaring road, navigate the fly-tipped woods and traverse the eerily empty industrial estate. (Adding to the peril, the brewery's only open once a month. And it's in Mitcham. )
Your well-earned prize is a glass goblet of golden elixir, i.e. some of the finest IPA brewed inside the M25.
On our visit, we were happy to nestle among the stacks of kegs and sup the moreish Crush IPA and Shifty NEIPA. Those with more derring-do taste buds can knock themselves out with the likes of a 7.5% imperial sour or a 12% imperial stout. There's ample choice on tap — and even more in the fridges, where you might stumble across pilsner, fruited sours and potent TIPAs (not a typo) all brewed on site.
Drop Project — established by three outdoors-loving lads — is not one of the better-known London breweries, but it sure as heck deserves to be; in our opinion the beers it produces aren't far off the dizzying heights of, say, Kernel or Brick.
The atmosphere on brewery open days is lovely too; people of all ages (kids are welcome to the afternoon sesh), good music on the PA, and street food for soakage. This is almost without doubt the most fun you can have on a Mitcham industrial estate.
But hold your horses! Before you go bounding off, know that the Drop Project currently only opens on the first Saturday of the month (there's an afternoon session and an evening one). Tables are bookable for four-six people. We got lucky and just showed up, but there were only two of us. Play it safe and book ahead, traveller.
Visit Drop Project's website. Follow Drop Project on Twitter as @dropprojectbrew
Last visited: April 2022. All images © Londonist.
