Roxy Club Cold IPA > Inspired by the London Punk Scene

The Roxy Club was the first venue to give punk music a home in London. Open for a legendary 100 nights between December 1976 and April 1977.

Our Roxy Club Cold IPA honours the legacy of this legendary venue and the counter-culture it nurtured.

Here, we take a deep dive into the origins of punk in London and show how it has inspired us to make this beer.

The 1970's was a decade of change and economic turmoil in the UK - and nowhere was this more evident than in the Covent Garden district of London.

The closure of the century-old fruit and vegetable market in 1974, left the grand buildings on the 10-acre site abandoned. The government worked on plans to redevelop the area – but this took time. Like in other areas of London, squatters, artists and musicians moved into the vacant buildings. 

Many of these squatters were drawn to punk rock, an emerging sound from New York City that rejected the overproduced sound of mainstream 70’s rock music and sought to strip things back to a raw, visceral sound more in tune with the gritty reality of life in the inner-city.

Counter-culture fashion boutiques like Acme Attractions (managed by DJ Don Letts) and SEX (owned by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren) on Kings Road in Chelsea became the gathering place for the youth in this emerging scene. The accountant at Acme Attractions, Andrew Czezowski, saw an opportunity with this new crowd and with his partner Susan Carrington, opened The Roxy Club in Covent Garden – and gave the punk rock scene it’s new home.

The Roxy Club was the perfect venue in the perfect place. Opening at 41 Neal Street on December 14,1976 The Roxy Club had small stage and no-frills décor. It captured the energy of the moment and began hosting gigs almost every night – featuring the likes of the Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned, The Jam, The Stranglers and X-Ray Spex.

Unfortunately, the Roxy Club was victim to a number of robberies and without money the club owners were unable to pay the landlord and were evicted. Following a Siouxsie and the Banshees/Violators gig, the venue was closed on April 23, 1977. Today, 41 Neal Street it is a branch of the Danish Ole & Steen Bakery chain.

In a similar way that the punk rock movement rejected the excesses of mainstream 70s rock music, the Cold IPA has emerged as a stripped-back reaction against the thick and hazy New England IPA’s that have dominated craft beer over the last few years.

A Cold IPA has the same hop intensity as a NEIPA, but the malts are restrained making the beer ultra-crisp. In the Roxy Club, our brewers have used lager malt as the base, with torrefied flaked rice and maize to give the beer a light crisp body. A touch of Vienna malt help contributes to a biscuit aroma. 

Cold IPA’s are fermented using lager yeast to make the beer as crisp as possible. This means that the beer is fermented at a higher temperature than is usual for IPA, to strip out the sulphur compounds produced by the yeast. The beer is dry-hopped with Strata and Simcoe during fermentation to increase hop aromas and flavours of citrus and passionfruit.

With our Roxy Club Cold IPA we honour London’s punk heritage.

Buy Roxy Club Cold IPA from our webstore, here.