As 2024 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on what’s been a busy and rewarding year at Pressure Drop. The team has been on top form—fine-tuning, experimenting, and cracking on with making the beers we love. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and are heading into 2025 with plenty of ideas and beers we’re excited to share.

One of the biggest trends we’ve noticed this year has been the growing preference for more accessible beers. Our Ja! Session IPA and semi-regular NE pale King Queen Knave have gone from strength to strength, while simpler pales like Motueka Super Pale and the radler-style Lemon Difficult were huge hits earlier in the year. These beers really show what we can do with simplicity and balance, and they’re here to stay.

Looking ahead to 2025, we’re focusing on what we do best: IPAs and special release pales. We’ve got some exciting ideas to bring fresh angles to our IPA lineup, and we’re committed to pushing ourselves further—refining our processes, exploring new malts, and experimenting with fruit and natural sugars to keep things interesting. New Zealand hops will play a big role in our plans. Varieties like Superdelic, Riwaka, Nelson, and Motueka will feature prominently, alongside cutting-edge hop innovations like Sub-zero hop kief and Phantasm blends, which added incredible layers of aroma and flavour to our beers this year.

It’s also great to see Galaxy hops from Australia back on form after a few rough years. Crop year ’24 has been stellar, and if we’re feeling brave, we might even revisit a single-hop Galaxy beer.
Collaborations will continue to be a big part of what we do in 2025. We’ve got exciting projects lined up with some of the best brewers in the UK—swapping tips, sharing pizza, and crafting something unique together. We’re even planning to bring a few of these collabs together for a celebration of UK IPA brewing in N17 next summer. Keep your eyes peeled—it’s bound to be a cracking afternoon in Tottenham.

Some of our most-requested beers will also make a return. Understanding Whole Systems and Alligator Tugboat are back, alongside fan favourites
like Sardines, Let’s Talk About It, and False Azure. The latter, brewed as an IPA version of Pale Fire to celebrate its 10th anniversary (with the help of Jonny and Brad from The Craft Beer Channel), went down an absolute storm. We can’t wait to revisit it in 2025. 

Of course, not everything about the year has been smooth sailing. Like many small brewers across the UK, we’ve faced significant pressures on margins and market demand. Beer lists have become more conservative, with adventurous styles like fruited sours, hoppy brown ales, and low-ABV stouts struggling to find their footing. Bars and shops are understandably cautious about stocking anything that might not move quickly, which has shaped our brewing plans for the year ahead. While we’ll be dialling back on sours and witbiers, we’re not letting these challenges hold us back. We’re doubling down on quality, creativity, and the beers we know our customers love.

A huge thank you to the amazing production team at Pressure Drop.
Brewers Sam and Rita have done a phenomenal job fine-tuning our processes and improving quality. (We were sad to say goodbye to Rita as she returned to brew in her native US in November—good luck, Reets!). Hat tip to our ever- diligent cellar and packaging team—Louis, Alasdair, and Brad. Music tastes aside, we couldn’t ask for a better crew.

Pressure Drop might be smaller than people realise, but our passion for what we do has never been bigger. I’m incredibly proud of our output and our continued improvement. Here’s to a packed IPA schedule in 2025 and another year of brewing beers we’re proud of.
Cheers,
Ben