Tim O’ Rourke is a pensive individual. The former general manager of East London’s The Cock Tavern is modest and introspective in his approach to the brewing landscape that surrounds him, and his influence on it. But he’s both direct and honest, too.
A well-known figure for several years at the Mare Street-based pub , O’Rourke now finds himself at Howling Hops, the newly-opened brewery and bar concern that itself, started life back at his old pub.
And although O’Rourke ran the aforementioned tavern for three years, the Brisbane native’s journey in beer started long before then.
“I was into brewing and beer but I was much more into drinking them, than making them. Back in Australia I was bar manager at a craft beer bar and having spent a few years there was one of the key things that really got me into the whole beer scene,” he explains.
“Being around a lot of people that were very passionate about it, it’s infectious, and led into what I was about, as well. From doing that, it dawned on me that I didn’t want to do the whole university thing and subsequently dropped out of an engineering degree, flew over here and tried to get into beer. That was four and a half years ago.”
“My wife and I are both into beer,” he puts it lightly. While O’Rourke manages the brewing ship at Howling Hops, she runs the successful BrewDog bar on Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch, London
“It is a great industry to be in as this city is so small, and insular, so once you are in the crew, it is an amazing place to be, as everyone is so nice because once one person wins, we all win,” he says. “Yes, sometimes you make really amazing beers, and sometimes you make really rubbish ones, but when that happens, people are there to help, and to reassure you. And when they are great, people are there to tell you how good they are, too.”
Modest foundations
It’s this sense of community and camaraderie that has led O’Rourke through several successful years running The Cock Tavern and now, as a key figure at the brewery and tank bar in Hackney Wick that Howling Hops calls home.
