Naming our beers, Part 2: the Electric vibe

This is the second in a series about the real-life inspiration for our beers, which are named for places around Brixton.

Our Electric IPA is, appropriately enough, the strongest of all of our core beers at 6.5% abv. We don’t want to over-do the connection with conduction (there are pun hazards everywhere here), but it does have a way of striking you with a jolt as you take a nice long swig. Expect an expertly crafted balance of malty sweetness, hoppy bitterness and strong floral aromas. It refreshes you as it wins you over with its outgoing and confident flavours. The Electric is a bold assault on the senses and has long been one of our most popular beers.

It’s named after Electric Avenue, one of Brixton’s most colourful and storied thoroughfares. The name itself commemorates the fact that it was one of the first London streets to get electric lights. The street was immortalised in song by the 1982 Eddy Grant anthem Electric Avenue. Who among us hasn’t lurched around a dance floor robotically shouting ‘we’re going to rock down to Electric Avenue…’ at least once? – but, though the early electronica beat and catchy chorus is often understood to be a celebration of the ‘vibe’ of area, the song actually refers to the 1981 Brixton Riots.

Photo: The lightening bolt label design perfectly captures our striking Electric IPA!

Pretty much any time of day or night there’s something happening on Electric. In the day, it’s home to a noisy and fragrant street market selling all kinds of exotic fruit, veg and other imported goodies. After the stalls have been packed away, the nighttime revelers come out. If you take the time to look up and away from the street-level bustle, you’ll see that Electric is lined with gracious Victorian buildings, arranged on a stately curve to draw in wandering shoppers, a remnant from an altogether more refined past. For all its tatty, eclectic charm, refined probably isn’t a word you’d use for today’s Electric Avenue. Brixton Buzz has a brilliant photo essay on ‘the rise and fall of Electric Avenue’, documenting it from its heyday as one of London’s premier shopping streets to today.

We’ve always thought of Electric Ave as the beating heart of Brixton, which is why it’s the perfect name for one of our most distinctive and ‘electrifying’ beers.

Want to know more about anything we’ve said here? Here’s where we got our information:

1. Brixton Buzz, The Rise and Fall of Electric Avenue
2. Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant on Songfacts