Brewlab, for those who don’t know, is a training facility for would-be breweries and does scientific jiggery pokery with ingredients.


Brewlab has had taprooms before but they have been infrequent, now however they intend to open more regularly to coincide with events and football matches in Sunderland.


It is certainly somewhere I need to check out, not only where they responsible for helping identify the ingredients of a shipwreck 18th century porter which eventually led to the lush Darwin breweries Black Flag porter, but the Taproom has a bit of further history with the bar being from the original and much missed Brewery Tap in the old Vaux Brewery.


In the olden days, Brewlabs scientific know-how could copy any beer you liked and even offered to copy Guinness for my old  Beer and Real Ale Society..at the bargain cost of £120


Tempted as we were with the offer we couldn’t transport the keg on the X7 bus