OK so it is both awesome and sad for me

let me explain,
I am a homebrewer living in London UK, i have been homebrewing succesfullly or not for 2 years, and an overwheling majority of the information on brewing science and technique that i have devoured comes from the US.
Now please dont get me wrong, i'm very greatful for the internet, you guys here, publications imported and the millions of podcasts, videos and blogs on the subject strewn all over the internet is awesome!

i'm just saddened not the have the network here, no one I know brews, its seen as a fringe interest, and the few people I do find who homebrew turn out to be kit brewers with no interest in the hobby beyond cheap 'acceptable' beer.

I guess my point is that here in the UK we have a wonderful and vibrant history of beer brewing, commercially and domestically. Not longer than a century ago, houses built with breweries in the basement. I find it sad that a culture that is socially and culturally British no longer thrives here, but i am gladdened that it is kept alive by passionate people like yourselves in the states.

just a thought i had

Sucks to be you!!! Haha, just kidding.

FWIW, I actually work for a Derbyshire brewery that has a brewery on the grounds of a country estate in some old masonry / carpenters workshops (also has a proper production facility elsewhere), so it's not all dead.

Jim's beer kit forums tend to be more UK-centric if you feel home sick.

Dude, you're just not looking around you hard enough.....Do you connect with folks on the UK Homebrew Forum? Or Jim's Beer Kit? Or the forum at Brew UK?

Have you looked to see if any of these homebrew clubs are close enough to you?

Or have you considered joining the Craft Brewing Association? Or Country Beermakers?

Even brewing here in the states, I connected with these sites and forums numerous times looking for info on English Homebrewing, usually to answer specific questions of the handful of English members on here- most of whom, when they find out about the UK forums end up staying there.

Have you even posted on any of those forums/organizations hoping to connect with other brewers there?

You actually have quite a vibrant and active homebrewing scene. I watch a lot of bbc cooking shows online, and I've seen homebrewers and homebrewing featured on Gordon Ramsey's "The F Word," on one of Heston Blumenthal's Cooking shows as well as the OZ and James Drinks to England series. They even did stuff about brewing on the show "Wartime Farm," and if I recall, they've covered it in many of those historical series....if not brewing cider making.

I just think you're missing what's in front of you. I mean if a guy in Detroit is familiar with those places.......

OP, I feel for you, but I agree with Revvy - I think that there is interest there if you will look a little harder.

Not trying to one-up you, but I live in Alabama - one of two US states where homebrewing is still illegal. Yeah, I can definitely identify with feeling isolated.

And there's a few threads of folks brewing in the UK in the International section of the forum. I would look at the London threads there or start one of your own. I mean you're in LONDON for christsakes, I bet once you start digging you'll find more active brewers than you can shake a stick at.

I just stumbled up this guy in a thread, mentioning homebrewing on "The Wartime Farm" on the BBC.

I used to brew in the UK 30 years ago, and I had a lot of friends who did the same.

There were a few scarce home brew shops at that time, but most of the brewing supplies came from Boots. Whenever I am back there now, I can't find anything in the stores. Boots doesn't carry anything. I found a few items in some other shop when I was there a few months ago, but not much. I have several 7 gallon fermenters I bought from Boots that I still use today; not found anything better.

I'm not sure, but I feel, homebrewing has been getting less popular with time in the UK rather than growing like it is over here.

I've not checked any of the UK forums, and I only see a small area when I go over there now, so my impression may be completely wrong.

You have lots of great beers in the stores though, and it seems every time I go back there are many new beers and breweries. Last time I sampled a number of Badger beers; don't remember seeing them before.

I think it's a much better picture than you guys are painting. It may depend on where you are but here in Cheshire there must be 4 or 5 LHBS in the distance between Liverpool and Manchester. Wilkinsons (a kind of hardware/general stores chain of shops) has replaced Boots in the high street as the place to get affordable equipment and a range of extract kits for beer and wine.

Most larger Tesco superstores throughout the country sell a small range of gear and extract kits ( including the coopers starter kits with equipment all boxed up.)

The UK forums are fairly evenly split between extract and AG techniques ( I do both depending on available time) and so do most of the home brewers I know.

Personally my experience makes me feel it's just the opposite of the picture you paint. It definitely lost popularity during the 80's and 90's but is on the rise again.
It's no different to any homemaking craft. when i was growing up in the 70's and early 80's people made stuff, bread, cheese, wine and beer (and my grandparents cured bacon and grew their own veg). Few people do that now, but based on the increase in online retailers supplying equipment to make cheese or sausages and the explosion of blogs about baking, i'd say all of these crafts are enjoying a resurgence. Home brewing is no exception.

The show James May and Oz Clarke did a few years ago where they brewed in a caravan whilst touring to find the "Drink of Britain" created a fair bit of interest both in homebrewing and decent beer in general. It's well worth a watch and the whole series is on YouTube.

One thing I would say is that as we aren't prone to deep frying turkeys on this side of the Atlantic, sourcing high output burners and large volume pots is much, much harder. Even going to American owned stores like Costco doesn't turn up the goods.

Hey mate don't doubt, I'm a London home brewer so yes we do exist! I think that within a city like London, it's easy to feel that way about any particular hobby but it really depends where you look and who you meet. There's a lot going on in the place and people don't tend to give a crap, because they're accustomed to be slightly jaded. One fringe interest is always going to get lost in this swirling mess of a city..It's part of the atmosphere of the place and actually a good thing in some ways. Keeps things balanced in some way. I'd certainly be up for getting together with other folks in London if there was an interest in that though.

But yea check out jims beer kit. Check put the places ppl suggested above..hell check out camra even. Check out places like the kernal on Saturdays if you are after more of a 'beer scene'. It is kinda sad that there is no decent home brew supplier within inner London though.

Padalac said:

Hey mate don't doubt, I'm a London home brewer so yes we do exist! I think that within a city like London ..... There's a lot going on in the place and people don't tend to give a crap, because they're accustomed to be slightly jaded.

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Lol And there was me trying to stay away from the "all you Londoners are grumpy introverts" line on this one!

unionrdr said:

I watched that series with May & Clarke. It was interesting & funny watching them trying to one up each other's home brew. And all the different ales & such along the way was refreshing. But it's not much different around here for me. I'm 56,& most of the HB crowd anywhere near here to Cleveland is about half my age. So it's not cool to hang with the old guy. And to think I used to be kinda cool...my wife & I were part of the counter-culture before they were even thought of.
Now I wish my next batch of ale were ready...I need a few.

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Lol it may be a cultural thing but when I was in my 20's I always used to enjoy hanging with the old guys, normally in their 80's. Whether it was the old timers in the pub who knew how to drink, play great blues and tell stories about getting chased by angry farmer's with a 12 gauge for scrumping/cow tipping/ deflowering farmers daughter*

At 56 you'd have been one of the young guns who could still be counted on to do the heavy lifting when the instruments needed carrying to the next pub. If you hadn't reached retirement age there was still a lot to learn!

*delete as appropriate!

mcspanner said:

Lol And there was me trying to stay away from the "all you Londoners are grumpy introverts" line on this one!

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Haha.. Btw wilko's is what introduced me to homebrewing in the first place. I was shopping in there with a mate for cheap household stuff when we ran into the homebrewing section. I was like, what? I can make a whole load of beer with a kit at home? And for less than 20 quid? Since then I've been hooked!

matteroftaste said:

let me explain,
I am a homebrewer living in London UK, i have been homebrewing succesfullly or not for 2 years, and an overwheling majority of the information on brewing science and technique that i have devoured comes from the US.
Now please dont get me wrong, i'm very greatful for the internet, you guys here, publications imported and the millions of podcasts, videos and blogs on the subject strewn all over the internet is awesome!

i'm just saddened not the have the network here, no one I know brews, its seen as a fringe interest, and the few people I do find who homebrew turn out to be kit brewers with no interest in the hobby beyond cheap 'acceptable' beer.

I guess my point is that here in the UK we have a wonderful and vibrant history of beer brewing, commercially and domestically. Not longer than a century ago, houses built with breweries in the basement. I find it sad that a culture that is socially and culturally British no longer thrives here, but i am gladdened that it is kept alive by passionate people like yourselves in the states.

just a thought i had

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Hay I'm from London and I now live in Colchester. I'm very passionate about brewing and feel the Same. People mock me when I make American ales and yet they drink cheap lager. Where bouts in London u from ?

mcspanner said:

Lol it may be a cultural thing but when I was in my 20's I always used to enjoy hanging with the old guys, normally in their 80's. Whether it was the old timers in the pub who knew how to drink, play great blues and tell stories about getting chased by angry farmer's with a 12 gauge for scrumping/cow tipping/ deflowering farmers daughter*

At 56 you'd have been one of the young guns who could still be counted on to do the heavy lifting when the instruments needed carrying to the next pub. If you hadn't reached retirement age there was still a lot to learn!

*delete as appropriate!

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Good luck on the heavy lifting! I've been doin heavy manual labor since I was a kid. Dug out a basement in 5th grade with a spade,matic,& washtub to haul the dirt. Retired in '07 from UAW. Walkin with a cane isn't too condusive of that kind of work. But I cansee the humor in it. But I was the same way when I was a kid. I like hanging with the adults & their real world stories more than playin with the other kids.

Revvy said:

And there's a few threads of folks brewing in the UK in the International section of the forum. I would look at the London threads there or start one of your own. I mean you're in LONDON for christsakes, I bet once you start digging you'll find more active brewers than you can shake a stick at.

I just stumbled up this guy in a thread, mentioning homebrewing on "The Wartime Farm" on the BBC.

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Hay revvy did u watch the wartime farm?

lewishowardm3 said:

Hay revvy did u watch the wartime farm?

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Yeah I loved it. I'm a big fan of all those programs. My favorite one of them all though is the Victorian Pharmacy, but this one was in my top three.

Have you heard if they're going to do any more programs? The three of them have covered just about every major period in English History where there was some sort of major or minor sociological/technological change. Middle ages, Victorian, Eduardian and now the second world war, what's really left? Unless they came to the states and did the same thing with those time periods that covered US history.

Yeah I agree, somewhat, with your original statement. But you should look on the brightside: the US has been experiencing a Homebrew/craftbrew phenomenon since the 90's (the 70s for the purists) but the UK is late in the game! This means there's a greater opportunity for those of us focused on the craft and quality to surprise our generation and countrymen!

Did you know that in the UK, the overall beer (aka Lager) market has plateaued/declined yet the Craft beer market is the only beer market to have steadily increased even through the recession?!!!

This is great news! I know you probably feel alone, imagine how I feel; living in Glasgow (lager idiots everywhere), going to the only homebrew shop in town just to find they've no experience with steeping grains and beer kits?!!! I wish I had the facilities for AG or even Partial Mash but due to my being a student and only having my GFs parents garage double as my brew arena, I'm stuck using Beer Kits. Somewhat disappointing but at the same time I know folks like us are onto something big. I'm gonna keep at it until I get my methods refined (my first brew was pretty decent, had a homebrew tang...mais c'est la biere). I really think the UK presents a rising tide of Homebrew innovation. Honestly mate, let's keep at it and watch the country rise up from former connotations of 'old man beer' and 'lager louts' to become a country of great craft brewing tradition and excellent beer brewing climate (both meteorologically and culturally)!

Hoappy brewing!

As Revvy linked, there are loads of good resources and webshops at least in the UK, some of the best malted barley produced throughout the world and a decent selection (and now thankfully growing) of hop varieties . There's also the likes of Brewlabs for yeast.. There's over 1000 breweries (a fair bit better than the US number per head of population) in the UK too, many of the smaller ones will happily help out homebrewers

I agree some of the local homebrew stores leave a bit to be desired but considering the size of the UK compared to the US it's perhaps understandable

DerStoff said:

Yeah I agree, somewhat, with your original statement. But you should look on the brightside: the US has been experiencing a Homebrew/craftbrew phenomenon since the 90's (the 70s for the purists) but the UK is late in the game! This means there's a greater opportunity for those of us focused on the craft and quality to surprise our generation and countrymen!

Did you know that in the UK, the overall beer (aka Lager) market has plateaued/declined yet the Craft beer market is the only beer market to have steadily increased even through the recession?!!!

This is great news! I know you probably feel alone, imagine how I feel; living in Glasgow (lager idiots everywhere), going to the only homebrew shop in town just to find they've no experience with steeping grains and beer kits?!!! I wish I had the facilities for AG or even Partial Mash but due to my being a student and only having my GFs parents garage double as my brew arena, I'm stuck using Beer Kits. Somewhat disappointing but at the same time I know folks like us are onto something big. I'm gonna keep at it until I get my methods refined (my first brew was pretty decent, had a homebrew tang...mais c'est la biere).

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Mate. MAIL ORDER

Btw, I appreciate your sentiment but don't forget that it was initially the other way round.. American craft brewing was based on homebrewing, and largely inspired by Europe, in particular Britain! A lot of the US craft brewing scenes's most popular beers are descendants of styles from the UK. The real difference I believe is that most of the decent craft breweries in America were started by people who had previously homebrewed and therefore brought a lot of creativity, skill and passion with them. But i wouldnt call us 'late in the game'. British breweries have been producing great beer for a lot longer! I think what's changing in Britain now is that more former home brewers are getting microbreweries started. 150 new breweries in Britain last year alone I believe.

Padalac said:

Mate. MAIL ORDER

Btw, I appreciate your sentiment but don't forget that it was initially the other way round.. American craft brewing was based on homebrewing, and largely inspired by Europe, in particular Britain! A lot of the US craft brewing scenes's most popular beers are descendants of styles from the UK. The real difference I believe is that most of the decent craft breweries in America were started by people who had previously homebrewed and therefore brought a lot of creativity, skill and passion with them. But i wouldnt call us 'late in the game'. British breweries have been producing great beer for a lot longer! I think what's changing in Britain now is that more former home brewers are getting microbreweries started. 150 new breweries in Britain last year alone I believe.

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This is spot on.

I am lucky to have a decent LHBS not far away but even they can't supply every malt I want so whilst I try to buy local there's some stuff I can only buy online from bigger outlets. As Esther Rantzen made a career out of saying "That's Life!"(oblique cultural reference for UK readers lol)

matteroftaste, YOU are keeping the tradition going! Keep it up!

One misconception you may have is how common homebrewing is in the U.S.
The only other homebrewers that I know are my younger brother ( got me into brewing but doesn't do much of it himself ) and the people at the "local" homebrew store that's a good two hours from me.

When I go into a homebrew store, I don't see many customers in there either.
I think the perception of it being common over here comes from the fact that nearly everyone has internet and a lot of homebrewers come to sites like this.

Take the number of people on here, forgetting that there are plenty of non Americans on here, divide that into 315 million and you have a very tiny percentage.
I'm not saying that all the home brewers in the U.S. are on here but it puts perspective on the numbers that you see on here.

Revvy said:

Yeah I loved it. I'm a big fan of all those programs. My favorite one of them all though is the Victorian Pharmacy, but this one was in my top three.

Have you heard if they're going to do any more programs? The three of them have covered just about every major period in English History where there was some sort of major or minor sociological/technological change. Middle ages, Victorian, Eduardian and now the second world war, what's really left? Unless they came to the states and did the same thing with those time periods that covered US history.

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I don't think their is anything else left to do. A US series would be good

Anyone on here able from the US able to stream live tv from the UK, I would recommend watching "Jamie and Jimmys food fight club". UK vs the Belgians at beer making. I'm watching it now and it's a good watch so far. Anyone from here in the UK that says we ain't making good good beer may want to watch this too

45_70sharps said:

One misconception you may have is how common homebrewing is in the U.S.
The only other homebrewers that I know are my younger brother ( got me into brewing but doesn't do much of it himself ) and the people at the "local" homebrew store that's a good two hours from me.

When I go into a homebrew store, I don't see many customers in there either.
I think the perception of it being common over here comes from the fact that nearly everyone has internet and a lot of homebrewers come to sites like this.

Take the number of people on here, forgetting that there are plenty of non Americans on here, divide that into 315 million and you have a very tiny percentage.
I'm not saying that all the home brewers in the U.S. are on here but it puts perspective on the numbers that you see on here.

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Go to a populated area like SF bay area and go into MoreBeer on one of their twice-yearly sale days and you would think the entire world was brewing! It's great (well, not the long lines.)

It's cool, some people get started homebrewing because of a lack of beer variety locally, and some get started because the immense variety available locally inspires them to DIY. I'm in the second camp, as are probably a lot of people in my area.

homebrewdad said:

Not trying to one-up you, but I live in Alabama - one of two US states where homebrewing is still illegal. Yeah, I can definitely identify with feeling isolated.

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Just moved from there a year ago. You've got a ton of homebrewers around, you just need to figure out where they congregate

lewishowardm3 said:

Hay I'm from London and I now live in Colchester. I'm very passionate about brewing and feel the Same. People mock me when I make American ales and yet they drink cheap lager. Where bouts in London u from ?

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lucky you, so close to colchester home brew store. is it any good? I'm from Newbury Park in Redbridge, NE London. thanks be that only one friend of mine prefers lager all the time, most of my mates like my beers, some even rave about them. All i want is some like minded geeks to swot over the technical aspects.

That said, for my birthday this year i went to the Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell. and it was awesome! Double IPA's Imperial Stouts, Geuze, Porter, Apricot Mild, Imperial Pils (yep), and a single hop Nelson Sauvingon 7.4 abv beer that was piney as heck! to boot the bartenders knew thier stuff and were happy to indulge my incessant questions. anyone who lives in london needs to go there.

matteroftaste said:

lucky you, so close to colchester home brew store. is it any good? I'm from Newbury Park in Redbridge, NE London. thanks be that only one friend of mine prefers lager all the time, most of my mates like my beers, some even rave about them. All i want is some like minded geeks to swot over the technical aspects.

That said, for my birthday this year i went to the Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell. and it was awesome! Double IPA's Imperial Stouts, Geuze, Porter, Apricot Mild, Imperial Pils (yep), and a single hop Nelson Sauvingon 7.4 abv beer that was piney as heck! to boot the bartenders knew thier stuff and were happy to indulge my incessant questions. anyone who lives in london needs to go there.

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Not far from where I grew up. I'm originally from Enfield been living In Colchester for 2 years now.

The brew shop here is ok but he sells mainly extract kits .

You should try going to the Chelmsford beer festival in the summer it is awesome!