The Barrel Project

Location: 80 Druid Street

Opening hours: Saturday 1100-2300

Other days: Sunday 1200-1900, Wednesday-Friday 1600-2300

Official site: https://www.thebarrelproject.co.uk/

Last updated: 28/12/2018

When we did our initial research for the website in July 2018, this place looked like it had potential - the people from the London Beer Factory in Gypsy Hill had set up an entire site on the Mile dedicated to experiments with barrel aged beers, which they could then serve to people at the weekends. The problem was, we went there on three different Saturdays in that month and it was closed every time. A bit more digging around revealed a tweet mentioning that the site was closed for refurbishment until possibly mid-July, but by late July there were still no signs of life, so we put up a holding page and waited to see what would happen.

As you can see from the first two comments below, by the end of 2018 The Barrel Project was fully open again, and we're pleased to report that the potential we saw back in July has been fully realised. For one thing, it's definitely been refurbished: some lovely tilework makes the bar itself positively pop, and the massed barrels along the side wall give some additional atmosphere to what would otherwise be another standard railway arch.

And then there's the beer - 24 taps, half of them from LBF, the other half assorted guests from London and Europe. On the day we visited in December 2018 there wasn't much barrel-aged beer available on tap, but presumably that's something to look forward to in years to come. The couple of lighter fruity efforts we had that day worked just fine. If you're in the market for some food, the kitchen at the front of the bar seems to be hosting a regularly-changing cycle of popups: at the time of our visit it was occupied by Tangys, a confused but fascinating mishmash of global cuisines (for example, Malay beef curry wonton loaded nachos, which I think are just one thing rather than two). It's all working rather well right now, and could get even better once the barrel project of the name really gets going.

As of December 2018, TBP was another one of the Druid Street bars claiming that the council were stopping them from letting people drink outside, a restriction that seems to have mysteriously vanished once you get as far down as Anspach and Hobday.

Now walk 50m to Hawkes Cider ----->

<----- or go back 170m to Southwark Brewing

or return to the home page

Comments

[James]

Open as of November 2018. Nice new tile & concrete bar installed.

[James]

We're fully open and are soon releasing house barreled beers. Come check us out again. It's a completely revamped look! Opening hours: Wed-Fri: 4-11, Sat: 11-11, Sun: 12-7. Cheers!

[SpankTM]

James (assuming you're both the same James) - Yes, we've checked you out this month and liked what we saw. Post has been updated accordingly.