A friend of mine is setting up a hotel and gastropub in Twickenham/Hampton Court area and I’m helping advise them on beer and spirits. They are mainly hotel and food/wine focused so not so knowledgable about beer/whisky/gin/cocktails etc.
I’m going to meet the people running it, but if they are going to have good cellar management will recommend local cask from Fullers, Twickenham and other locals. Any other ideas? Craft keg lines? Main crowd is locals/tourists/hotel guests.
They are looking for a lager option (balance between bottom line and craft) Any recommendations?
Great minds, etc, etc. I was going to suggest a small crawl around the closest 5/6 bars/hotels/pubs to see what they are offering before deciding on what should be considered.
Without the crawl; Veltins or Warsteiner would be my Lager/Pilsner choice, or another good (fairly well known) German offering.
Good luck and I hope it works out for your friends.
In terms of local breweries, The Park in Kingston would be one of the most local to Hampton. I think the name is probably a reference to Richmond Park, but also kinda relevant to Hampton area. Their beers are uncomplicated and would probably have a fairly wide appeal.
I’m terms of lager, I would suggest Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay Blonde Lager. I assume that it’s fairly easily available and cheap for pubs to buy in, and I thought it was pretty enjoyable (on the one occasion I tried it). Sure there are better lagers, but this would probably tick the box for being in between craft and macro.