CODE meets Greg Wells, founder of London Craft Beer Festival

London Craft Beer Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary at Tobacco Dock this August. We sat down with founder Greg Wells to chat about the journey so far.  

What can those who haven’t been to the London Craft Beer Festival expect this year? 

We’ve got more than 100 breweries and some amazing food and drink producers. It’s a real celebration of artisan fare. Your ticket includes unlimited festival pours of whatever beer you choose, so this is a brilliant opportunity to explore, taste and discover the best in beer and craft drinks, meet the makers, and have a great time. It’s a full venue takeover of Tobacco Dock and in my humble opinion there is no better beer festival in the world right now. 

Are you doing anything special for the 10th anniversary? 

We’ve gone bigger than ever before for the 10th anniversary — it’s the first time we’ve tapped more than 100 breweries from all over the world. We’ve got ten different breweries flying in from the States and a bunch more from Australia. We’re doing our own special fire pits with guest chefs from some of London’s best restaurants, including Fallow and Decatur. We’ve also got food from vegan joints Tendril, and snacks from Borough Market’s Tacos Padre. We’re also doing our biggest every fringe event series with more than 20 venues across east London getting involved over the coming weeks. 

How has the festival changed over the years, and do you have any plans to expand to other cities? 

We started in Oval Space in east London with only 20 breweries, one sponsor, and fewer than 2,000 people attending. This year, we are welcoming around 12,000 visitors, with 140 breweries and a full venue takeover of Tobacco Dock. There are so many new breweries, so the festivals character changes all the time, and we’ve upped the ante on the food and music side over the years, which is awesome. We do the festival on the road, which we’ve expanded from London to annual stints in Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham. Who knows if we’ll do another? We’d quite like to do Leeds and we’d quite like to take it overseas, maybe to Amsterdam, Dublin or Paris. Would be cool, right? 

What inspired you to get into the world of craft beer in the first place? 

I worked in alcohol marketing before, back when it was less about the product itself and more about the campaign and comms around it. I loved how cool the ads were. But then, suddenly, it all changed overnight. These super exciting, creative, highly skilled people started creating insane products and I was hooked. It was revolutionary, and it’s changed the face of beer and wider drinks culture in the UK for the better. The product is now key and customers are looking for more premium liquid. It was nice to swap focus groups and PowerPoint decks for dirty arches and stainless steel. 

Could you tell us a bit about some of your favourite up and coming breweries in London and the UK now? 

Oh yeah, I’m really excited by Eko, which is a new beer brand inspired by the West African heritage of its founders. Historically, craft beer has an ethnic diversity problem, so it’s wicked to see new breweries challenging this right here in London. Also, having spent time working with Guinness in Nigeria and Ghana, it’s cool to see that beer culture represented in London’s craft scene. It’s worth checking out Baron Brewing, too. Their new IPA breweries are up in Cambridgeshire and their beer is really fucking good — the next hop gods I reckon! Oh and Queer Brewing are making waves and going large on representing LGBTQ+ people in the beer community to make it a more inclusive space. The founder, Lily Waite, used to work with us at London Craft Beer Festival, so it’s great to see our alumni smashing it out there, for sure. 

Where can we find you eating and drinking on your days off? 

I live up in Newington Green which is the best corner of London to eat and drink, so I tend to never leave. I’ll probably have a nice pint of Five Best at The Lady Mildmay followed by some plates and glass of something fun at Jolene. Does that make me sound like a Hackney wanker? Ouch. 

The 10th anniversary London Craft Beer Festival will run at Tobacco Dock in Wapping (E1W 2SF) from August 12th -13th 2022. CODE members get 30% off tickets.