So there we were, me and Andrew, minding our own business, enjoying the first pint of the day (at The Cow in Westbourne Park, the perfect place to ease yourself gently into tomorrow’s hangover) when a bloke comes up and asks us how the beer is. We’d gone off-piste that morning when we each opted for a pint of Wandle, mainly due to the fact that Andrew lives near it and we’re soon to publish a fantastic piece on the clean up of the river for the Caught By The River book (out in June, just put to bed this week). The beer, we said, was truly excellent – the perfect mellow session starter (Christ, to think that we used to be Firestarters round here). The chap, it turns out, has brewed the beer – he’s one of the partner’s in the recently set up Sambrook’s Brewery.

Sambrooks have brought brewing back to Wandsworth – a rarer sight since the demise of the Young’s Ram Brewery there a few years back. We drank more of the brew and began singing it’s praises, probably to the point where said chap got a bit scared that he’d asked the question of the wrong people – two early morning CAMRA heads who he’d never manage to shake off, it would be all talk of casks and mash and can we have a free one please. Luckily for him, we scooted off to to another engagement. All we wanted to say was – David, your beer is superb, keep up the good work, it made our day yesterday.

Robin