Beers Of London Series
5. Partizan Brewing
- I P A : Columbus, Cascade, Bravo 7.4%

In my last post I mentioned the impact that London Fields Brewery had made over the last 18 months, but that makes them relatively old and established compared to Partizan. Based under the railway arches at 8 Almond Road, Bermondsey, South London, @PartizanBrewing released it's first brew in November 2012 using the brewing kit that Kernel outgrew, offered for free and was gratefully accepted. If you want to visit and buy beer direct from the brewery then you can, but only on a Saturday between 11 am and 5 pm. I was fortunate enough to visit Andy Smith @Partizansmith at his one man operation on a dull Tuesday morning in late January arranged by the excellent Cotteridge Wines and although he was clearly very busy brewing he made time to welcome me and talk about beer. I found him friendly and enthusiastic, particularly about the saisons that he had brewed but weren't quite ready for sale. These have since been released and if you get hold of them or indeed any beer from Partizan then you'll be in for a treat. Just look out for the fantastic artwork of London based illustrator Alec Doherty, a member of the Puck Collective, and you won't go wrong.
Brewed with Columbus, Cascade and Bravo hops (the clue's in the name), it pours a translucent deep warm orange colour with a thin off-white head and revels in it's big aroma of grapefruit peel, soapy pine and over-ripe pineapple. Prickly carbonation over the tongue and a sharp astringency heralds the arrival of an explosion of oily pine-sap, grapefruit, mango, lemon zest and grassy peach juice from a sweet spot right in the middle of your mouth. The finish is like a scattering of dehydrated, crumbled up tropical fruit , dry but juicy all at once, and it lasts along time. It's seriously good and similar, but not the-same-as Kernel, which isn't surprising considering the equipment used and the beer brewed. The comparisons with Kernel are inevitable, but as you'll see from beers that I'll review later in this series, Partizan and Andy Smith are definitely heading in their own direction.