Guinness Open Gate Brewery London

The Guinness and the Guinness 0.0 poured here are brewed in Dublin, in Diageo's own words, and the only beer actually made on this site is the master brewer's small-batch range (Diageo).

Why go

For that small-batch range, and for the building. Old Brewer's Yard first brewed beer more than three hundred years ago, and Diageo spent GBP 73m turning 54,000 square feet of it into a working microbrewery with a guided tour, two restaurants, two shops and an events venue. It opened to the public on 11 December 2025 and the King opened it formally a week later, tasting three of the beers made on site: an Old Brewer's Yard Porter, a Winter Warmer and an apricot sour (The Morning Advertiser). Master Brewer Hollie Stephenson's brief is limited editions and seasonal specials, explicitly including non-stout and low-alcohol beers, which is a more interesting job than it sounds for a company whose name means one thing. The two restaurants are led by British chef Pip Lacey, cooking locally sourced produce with Guinness pairings, and the oysters come from Gilroy's Loft. The bar is called 232, after the temperature in Celsius at which the barley for Guinness is roasted. A 30ft mural by the artist Mason London runs through the yard, showing Covent Garden's brewing and social history.

Order this / avoid

• Order: whatever the microbrewery has on, since that is the only beer in the building that was made in the building. The Old Brewer's Yard Porter is the house one. Ask what is left of the current limited edition before you order anything else, and take the oysters in the restaurants.
• Avoid: treating a pint of Guinness here as a local product, because it came from Dublin. Avoid turning up without a ticket if you want the tour and the tastings. And do not come expecting a quiet pint: this is an attraction built for more than half a million visitors a year.

What locals & experts say

• Nobody independent has tasted anything yet, and that is the finding. Seven months after opening, the approved London and beer press carry no tasting note on the microbrewery's beer and no review of either restaurant. The evidence base is Diageo's own copy, one pre-opening Time Out news piece, the trade press reporting a royal visit, and the food hygiene register. No experts: tags and no endorsements: rows were written, because there is nobody outside the company with a verdict to tag.
• India Lawrence, Time Out, 20 May 2025, reporting before it opened, is blunt about the thing the marketing softens: "Sadly Guinness will not be brewed on site, but it will be readily available for drinking, of course." The same piece records that the build was announced in 2022, was first tipped to open in 2023, and slipped after "the collapse of the lead contractor." ref
• Barry O'Sullivan, Managing Director of Diageo Great Britain, on the London context: "two centuries after the black stuff arrived in the UK capital, one in seven pints poured in the city is now a Guinness." That is the company's own figure. ref
• Diageo's own description of what is brewed where, which is the line worth reading twice: the microbrewery will "create limited-edition craft beers and seasonal specials including non-stout varieties and low-alcohol options," while "a beautifully poured Guinness and Guinness 0.0, which will continued to be brewed in Dublin, will also be served." ref
• The Morning Advertiser (Phoebe Fraser, 19 December 2025) on the opening: the King toured the site with managing director Jason Thorndycraft and master brewer Hollie Stephenson, and was "guided through pouring a pint of Guinness" in the 232 bar. The same piece names the three beers he tasted, which is the only published list of what the brewery actually makes. ref

Good to know

• Where: 1 Mercer Walk, Old Brewer's Yard, Covent Garden WC2H 9FA. The street address is from the food hygiene register; both press releases give only the yard.
• Timing: Time Out reported before opening that the building would run 9.30am to 11.30pm on weekdays with paid tours in the early evening. Those were plans, so check before you travel.
• Booking: tours and tastings are booked through the venue. The courtyard bar and eatery at ground level is open to the street for casual dining.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Westminster, inspected 14 January 2026, about five weeks after opening. FHRSID 1889034, component scores 5 for hygiene, 0 for structural and 0 for confidence in management, where lower is better. ref
• What is on the site: the microbrewery, a guided tour with tasting sessions and a 360-degree digital experience, two restaurants, the 232 bar, a courtyard bar and eatery, two retail stores and a private-hire events venue.
• Who runs it: Diageo. Jason Thorndycraft is the managing director of this site. It is the fourth Open Gate Brewery in the world, after Dublin, Baltimore and Chicago.
• Worth knowing: the site is the southern UK hub for Diageo's Learning for Life programme, which offers free hospitality training and has helped more than 8,000 adults into the industry, with 100 students due to graduate from here from April 2026. The venue was expected to create up to 250 jobs.
• Scale: Diageo expects over half a million visitors in the first year.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. Jeff's saved-places export carries no note for this row. The master CSV's "Guinness's London brewhouse and taproom" line was written by an earlier enrichment pass, not by him, so it is not quoted here as his words.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Go if you are in Covent Garden and curious, and order carefully. Diageo spent seventy-three million pounds turning Old Brewer's Yard, a site that first brewed beer more than three hundred years ago, into a 54,000 square foot brand home with a working microbrewery, two restaurants under chef Pip Lacey, two shops and a ticketed tour, and expects half a million visitors in its first year. The part worth a drinker's attention is small and specific: Master Brewer Hollie Stephenson makes limited editions and seasonal specials here, including non-stout and low-alcohol beers, and at opening those were an Old Brewer's Yard Porter, a Winter Warmer and an apricot sour. The Guinness and the Guinness 0.0 on the bar are brewed in Dublin, which Diageo states plainly and the marketing does not lead with. So the local product is the small-batch beer, and no beer writer or restaurant critic has published a word about any of it seven months in. A multinational rolling out a format carries the burden of proof on craft and value, and that burden has not been discharged by anyone independent. It earns a stop on the strength of a real microbrewery and a named chef, and it does not earn more until someone outside the company tastes the beer.