Kernel - Table Beer

Location: London, England

In 2007, founder Evin O’Riordan, a cheesemonger at the time with Neal’s Yard Dairy spent some time in New York training staff at a shop on the Lower East Side in caring for artisan UK cheese.  After a shift, they invited him out for a beer at their local bar where the selection of beers, IPAs in particular with a brighter, lively, hop flavour profile was unlike anything he had seen back home. 

Already interested in fermentation and flavour development as a son of a microbiologist and as a cheesemonger himself, Evin applied this interest to beer and on his return home started to seriously experiment with home brewing at his house in Hackney.  This was no playing around however.  The approach was more of a scientific experiment.  It was only a matter of time before he was ready to start brewing professionally and in 2009 The Kernel Brewery opened for business.  Their approach is all about tasting, experimenting (even now) and producing beers of quality: hop forward ales, historic porters and stouts based on recipes from London Breweries in the 1850s & 1890s.

Kernel Table Beer

Table Beer is a lower alcohol pale ale.  It has sweet, malt flavours and its bright, fresh, citrus & pine hop character is characteristic of Kernel Beers.  For a beer that usually comes in at around 3% ABV, it has more than enough flavour to hold its own against stronger beers and yet is a refreshing drink that doesn’t cloud your head.  It pairs well with most cheeses but does have an affinity to the crumblier and slightly more acidic cheeses like Montgomery’s Cheddar, Kirkham’s Lancashire, or Cantal au Lait de Salers.