How we got here

Gravity Well started life as a nano-brewery, producing beer
in tiny 100 litre batches in a railway arch in Leyton. Initially we sold most
of our beer through an on-site taproom operating only on Saturdays with some kegs going out to local pubs and shops.

Once the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020 it became clear that the brewery needed to start canning the beer. So with the help of a mobile canning company, we started canning our beer, which at the time included core beers Cosmic Dust and Galaxies Apart, and set about getting our product into the hands of customers across the country.

The hugely positive reception took us by surprise and before long we had filled the tiny railway arch with as many fermenters as we could but still weren’t able to satisfy demand. There began the long and painful
search for a bigger site, which finally culminated in the acquisition of our current unit in Tottenham, which was up and running by February 2023.

Since then we have continued to develop our range of hop-forward pales and IPAs whilst also unleashing our smash hit fruit smoothies to the beer world. These styles remain our main focus but that doesn’t mean you won’t see the odd stout here and there as well as brewery favourite: dry hopped pilsners.

It might be somewhat aggrandising to talk about philosophy as humble brewers and throughout our first years of life we typically resisted giving away too much information. But now more and more people are discovering our beers, we wanted to say a few words about who we are and what drives us.

This is usually the part where a microbrewery talks about how it was set up by three lads “with a passion for beer who only brew the beers they want to drink…blah blah blah”. We’re a little different in that everything has happened slowly, organically and without necessarily a clear vision or plan. The result is that the brewery has ended up taking on our personal values and developing its identity incrementally. After six years of operation, we’ve reflected on what we’re all about and how we want our customers to perceive us. These are our headline values and objectives:

Modern flavourful beer.

We focus on hop-forward pales, IPAs and DIPAs. Most of these are in the soft and hazy style but some are clearer, drier beers. We also love making intensely flavoured fruit sours and, more recently, our fruit smoothie beers.
There’s nothing subtle about these beers and that’s by design. It’s a tired
craft beer trope that breweries “brew the beers we want to drink”. We like to think that it’s the other way round. Our customers tell us what they like to drink and then we make the very best versions of those beers that we can – and continue to improve them over time.

Everything is vegan.
Since turning vegan in 2018, our founder Ben’s personal philosophy has been reflected in the brewery’s beers. No lactose has ever passed through our doors. Not only that but our taproom might be the only 100% vegan brewery taproom in London (or the UK). Right down to our snacks and our cleaning products: it’s vegan all the way down. Not that we’re ever going to get too vocal about it or start preaching. It’s just how we are.

We’re a bit geeky.

Well, maybe not Andy. He’s a cool Leyton type. But the brewery identity is unashamedly nerdy. From the Hubble/James Webb photos used to create most of our can labels through to the beer names themselves, a love of science, space and all things a bit obscure makes itself known.

Treating staff fairly.

Wages are expensive for a small business. London wages even more
so. Our philosophy has always been to pay as much as we can to our staff,
without whom the business couldn’t function. Every member of staff is paid above the London Living Wage and always has been, including our bar staff. We wouldn’t have it any other way. A slice of profits from the brewery and the taproom are reserved for the staff. If you can’t run a business without paying staff fairly: don’t.