Market Taverns is launching a 12-day cask ale festival across 11 London pubs, celebrating the capital’s independent brewing scene.
From 28th October until 8th November, 59 different beers will be dropping into different pubs. The changing selection of festival ales will be pouring for £5 a pint or less, bringing together award-winning favourites, autumn specials, and an exclusive brew created for the occasion.
Market Pale Ale is a 4% ABV beer brewed exclusively for Market Taverns by Sambrook’s Brewery, with citrus, pine, and tropical hop notes. There is plenty more worth seeking out.
Twickenham Brewery’s Naked Ladies, a former CAMRA Champion Beer of London, takes its name from the water-nymph statues in York House Gardens. Brockley Brewery’s award-winning Harcourt Red brings toffee, treacle, and orange flavours, while Jiddler’s Tipple’s Swifty Session IPA, named world’s best session IPA at the 2025 World Beer Awards, joins London Tipple IPA, its limited-edition collaboration with Fuller’s.
For those drawn to darker beers, Big Smoke’s Dark Wave porter offers chocolate, coffee, and caramel, while Village Brewery’s Devil’s Horse, a 4.3% ABV Irish stout, combines rich coffee, chocolate, and toffee flavours with a balanced spicy bitterness. Fresh-hop specials and autumn reds add a seasonal flavour, and Small Beer’s 2.3% ABV IPA and 2.5% ABV Pale show how much character can come at a lower strength.
The line-up also includes beers from Anspach & Hobday, Belleville Brewing Company, Howling Hops and Redemption Brewing, alongside Wolfpack Howler Stout, supplied by Great British Drinks Company.
New 2026 research from the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) found that eight out of 10 beer drinkers believe it is important for pubs to offer beers from small breweries alongside global brands. Yet independent breweries say they are unable to sell their beers into around 62% of pubs in their local markets.
Cask remains hugely important to those smaller producers, accounting for 58% of the beer produced by independent breweries, while 31% of beer consumers say they would be encouraged to try cask if it had been brewed locally. Market Taverns aims to help close that gap, putting genuinely independent London beer onto the bars of genuinely independent London pubs.
“We’re proudly independent ourselves, so backing brilliant independent London brewers feels like exactly what we should be doing,” said Market Taverns chief executive Miles Slade. “London has an extraordinary brewing scene and there are some fantastic beers being produced on our doorstep.
“Giving those brewers more space on our bars encourages customers to try something new, and with pints at £5 or less, including Market Pale Ale brewed exclusively for us by Sambrook’s, there’s every reason to give one a go.”
Selected pubs will host meet the brewer evenings, brewery takeovers, and tastings, putting the people behind the beer in front of the people drinking it. Beer line-ups and event details will be announced through individual pubs’ social channels.
Miles added: “You can’t recreate a beautifully kept pint pulled through a handpump at home. That’s something worth coming to the pub for. You don’t need to know your hops from your malt. Come in, ask what’s on, and see what you like. Every festival pint helps support an independent brewer and an independent pub.”
Participating pubs
- The Market Porter, SE1
- The Cleveland Arms, W2
- The Carpenters Arms, W1
- The Lady Ottoline, WC1
- The Perseverance, WC1
- The Sporting Page, SW10
- Lots Road, SW10
- The Crown & Anchor, W4
- The Prince of Wales, SW15
- The Spencer Arms, SW15 and
- The Arab Boy, SW15
