Maarinos Alexandrou at the tanks

A BREWERY which has opened up next to the canal in Camden Town opened its doors for a behind-the-scenes tour – and a taste of its beer – on Thursday.

The 3 Locks’ founder Marinos Alexandrou is no newcomer.

He owns a brewery in his home of Paros, Greece, and said:  “This place cries out for a brewery. Because I’m Greek, I love the water and I like to drink beer when it’s warm and nice. We thought, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Underneath the historic railway arches of Hawley Wharf and part of the redeveloped Camden Market complex, the 3 Locks has a two-storey taproom with an ideal spot overlooking the canal close to Kentish Town Road. Behind the tall tables next to the bar, you get a perfect view of the towering tanks in the brewery behind.

Staff are knowledgeable: they brew the beers themselves as well as pouring them. Served in a schooner glass, their beers come in ⅔ or ⅓ of a pint.

In line with standard craft beer pricing, for a ⅔ glass prices range from £4.50 to £5.50. We sampled all six of their seasonal beers currently on offer. At 6% ABV, the West Coast IPA packed a strong and bitter punch, the 3 Locks Lager was light and fresh and there’s a gluten free option too.

My favourite was the fruity Hefeweizen, which tasted subtly of banana and vanilla – in a good way. The freshness of each schooner is down to the process.

Brewer Chris Greenhalgh told us that the more beer moves around, the more oxygen it accumulates which tarnishes the taste. To minimise this, the 3 Locks store each beer in one huge tank. From start to finish, the furthest the beer travels is 15 metres.

Due to the market’s licensing laws, the 3 Brewers is open from 12pm and closes at 9pm every day, which could cut short those long, hot Saturday nights sipping frothy IPAs.

But Mr Alexandrou hopes to diversify their offering with events in the summer. Those same licensing and listing restrictions, which delayed their opening by 2 ½ years, have led to some “creative engineering”. Mr Alexandrou said: “Usually in a brewery you’d have flues going up and all sorts of different things going on outside the building and things like that, this one is a very very unique project.

“Everything has been designed from scratch, we didn’t get anything off the shelf as such because it’s a unique space.

“It’s a factory within Camden within a National Rail arch.”