Prepare for peak levels of Guinness-mania: the brewery’s multi-venue, beer-and-food playground has finally opened in Covent Garden, a couple of years after it was initially slated to launch. A shrine to the heritage of the storied stout, the Guinness Open Gate Brewery is designed to keep Londoners and visitors busy with brewhouse tours, a courtyard filled with the scent of Calum Franklin’s pies, and two restaurants headed up by chef Pip Lacey (ex-Murano, Hicce). It’s launched in an area in which breweries operated for centuries.
For master brewer Hollie Stephenson, the opening offers a creative outlet. “We won’t be brewing Guinness draught – that’s still going to be coming from Ireland – but we’ll be able to brew literally everything else,” she says. Visitors will be able to tour the brewery and, from February, undertake Guinness masterclasses and learn about how it’s brewed.
Stephenson is opening with a line-up of 11 beers. “We’ve got everything from fruited kettle sour beers like our apricot sour to a dark lager and multiple IPAs. We’re spanning the beer world with what we’re making.”
The brewery will have a permanent core of four beers – lager, pale ale, porter and IPA – each built on Guinness’s yeast and hop “legacy easter eggs”, as Stephenson calls them. “The pale ale and the porter [are] kind of brewer-favourite beers,” she continues. “They’re old school but a little bit modern … I think we’ve really bridged the gap between being very traditional and being kind of out-there craft [beer].”
There’s also a crowd-pleasing seasonal brew on tap. “We’ve got the winter warmer … a nice brown ale with a higher ABV and baking spices,” she says. Plus, she hopes her dark lager will surprise people. “It’s the exact same recipe [as our regular lager] with just a seven per cent change to the malt bill. It’s a fun one because I think a lot of people don’t think that lager can be dark.”
Elsewhere, visitors can step into The Porter’s Table, Lacey’s grill-led dining room. “All the food is [made with] seasonal, fresh produce,” she says. “The guys are making pretty much everything from scratch.” Still, she’s keeping things unfussy. “We’re trying not to be pretentious in any way. That’s what my food’s about.”
On the grill, there’ll be a 35-day aged ribeye from HG Walter and plenty of vegetables. “We spend a lot of time making delicious sides and they’re almost dishes in themselves,” Lacey adds. Her personal highlights include a triple potato pie, and meaty lion’s mane mushrooms from a specialist grower in Kent. A Guinness cake is on the dessert menu.
Upstairs Lacey’s second eatery, Gilroy’s Loft, shifts focus to seafood, an approach inspired by Covent Garden’s historic oyster and produce markets. “We’re bringing it back,” she says. Highlights include an oyster service, a native lobster dish with a deeply reduced tomato and brown-butter sauce (“it’s really nutty, it’s really rich”), and a clam linguine incorporating one of Stephenson’s pale ales.
Meanwhile, in the courtyard outside, Franklin – Holborn Dining Room’s former executive chef, who established its popular Pie Room – has a dedicated truck from which his team is turning out squash, chicken, and beef and Guinness pies. They’re available as full-sized portions or in “flights” of three minis with mash, gravy and colcannon.
Over time, the beer will increasingly be threaded through the food, Lacey says. “Me and Hollie have got lots of master plans of doing proper matching and pairing.”
And as for whether splitting the G will be encouraged at the dinner table? “No comment,” says Stephenson. We’ll take that as a no.
While tours and masterclasses are ticketed, food and drink venues are open to everyone.
Guinness Open Gate Brewery London
1 Mercer Walk, WC2H 9FA
Hours:
Tours and experiences
Mon to Thu 9.30am–6pm
Fri & Sat 9.30am–8pm
Sun 11.30am–6pm
Old Brewer’s Yard
Mon to Sat midday–10pm
Sun midday–9.30pm
The Porter’s Table
Mon to Sat midday–10pm
Sun midday–9.30pm
Gilroy’s Loft
Mon to Sat midday–2.30pm, 5pm–10pm
Sun midday–2.30pm, 5pm–9.30pm
