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Minimalist, tasty, refeshing, but watch the prices

Phil Mellows is taken with one of Stratford’s newcomers to the craft revolution 

A glass at Mother Kellys on a table
Mother Kelly’s
The logo for the Something's Brewing Column

Craft beer has changed the way we drink. Of course, it’s still great to have a couple of pints of cask ale or lager down the pub with your mates, but the craft ‘revolution’, which began in the UK about 15 years ago, has brought different kinds of what marketing folk like to call ‘drinking occasions’. 

In Newham, you can get an idea of what this means at Mother Kelly’s Stratford branch in the new development around the Orwellian-sounding Victory Park. 

Mother Kelly’s original taproom, on Paradise Row, Bethnal Green, is a celebrated pioneer of this sort of place, and its Stratford sibling follows a model that’s become familiar across the country, if not the world. 

It’s bright and open plan with hard, functional furniture that spills out onto the street. Minimalist, you’d say but for the busy, colourful murals. 

Inside, 21 taps are ranged along the back wall of the bar, rather than the counter, on my recent visit featuring 16 beers and five ciders on draught, plus more in the fridges, which are, trustingly, on the customer side of the bar.

It could be intimidating. Where do you start? It’s okay to take your time and study the beer list that’s on clipboards on the bar. It’s even more okay to talk to the bar staff, if they’re not too busy. They’ll help you navigate the styles, give you tasters, and find something you might like.  

Most craft beer lists are dominated by riffs on American-hopped citrusy pale ales and IPAs. Mother Kelly’s has those, but there’s more diversity than usual, at least when I was there. I went for a coriander and sea salt gose from south London brewer Orbit, which was terribly pretentious of me, but gose, a German farmhouse beer, is tangy and refreshing, which was just what I wanted. 

In another mood I could have had a porter or stout, a choice of lagers more flavoursome than your usual pint, a modern shandy called a radler or even a bitter from Suffolk’s Burnt Mill – retro styles are trendy. 

So that you can sample a variety of beers, they’re available in two-thirds and one-thirds as well as pints and halves. It encourages a more relaxed kind of drinking, and taprooms are surprisingly popular with families. There’s a food menu, too, with toasties and cheese and charcuterie boards. 

Watch the prices, though. Most are fair for these beers but they are listed in different measures and you don’t want to accidentally end up paying £14.70 for a pint of ruby chocolate stout! 


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