First time brewing at UBrew experience

Last night I made a stout! Well I’ve made the beginning’s of a stout, in two weeks I should know if the black sugary water has taken and will become a 5.8% stout or a massive black sugary mess (35litres!!!). But before I get to the Stout, I guess I should rewind.

What is UBrew

UBrew is quite an interesting and relatively simple concept. I believe it started out in 2014 as a kickstarter-esque project to provide space and equipment for people to brew their own beers on professional equipment that might be found in a real brewery.

As much as I like to think of myself as an early adopter, I’m generally not. There are probably a zillion crowd funding projects I’d like to be involved in, but most of the time I don’t find it worth the risk. I can’t recall if I had heard about UBrew during its crowd funding campaign or if a little after, when I did hear about it, I was excited by the prospect and looked forward to seeing what came out of it.

So UBrew now have a site in Bermondsey that houses their bar and their brewery, it’s along the stretch known as the beer mile or brewery mile. You have to be a member to brew there, but you only have to be human to drink there.

UBrew memberships

My memory is hazy about when I got interested, but at some point I must have joined a waiting list to try and become a member of UBrew. I think the first time I saw an opening for membership was when I was in Japan, and due to time zones and a flaky internet connection, I couldn’t quite get everything in place to sort it out.

A good few weeks ago, I had an email from the list saying that 20 slots were opening up. I was in the country for this, so I gathered some friends from work to create a team for brewing our own beers.

Memberships cost £95 a month which is quite dear, but you can split the cost between 5 people, making it relatively affordable. For your £95 you get access to professional equipment (well it all looks professional) and professional people (again, they all look professional) to help you along the way,a long with a proper fermentation room for storing your brew and bottling equipment for when it’s ready.

Where we’re going, we don’t hold hands

I think I’ve rewound far enough for you all to get a sense of the beginning’s of this journey. So onto last night.

I’ve used the word professional way more times than one should (pass me a thesaurus), but I can’t state enough that this place is fairly professional and it’s kind of daunting. Last night it was one of my friends and I who took on the challenge of brewing a monster, so we turned up at 5pm to begin, and boy do you need to. Their brewing times operate from 5 to 11 and I think there are morning slots too. But Jesus do you need those hours.

Neither of us had done anything like this before and whilst the slot we had booked was from 5 to 11, I think we thought we’d probably be out of there by 10 or earlier, how wrong were we. When I signed up as a new member, the welcome pack sent suggested that we go on a brewing course. We ummmed and arrrred over this for a while, then decided maybe we should, but by this time the course had sold out. I think it’s maybe fair to criticise UBrew here in that new members really should get priority on these and that they should have slots especially for new members that don’t sell out. I’ll happily take criticism that we left it a little too long too. Should you get a chance to join, take this course, if anything g I think it will prepare you, though as I haven’t been on it, I can’t say for sure.

So we’ve rocked up, and found a staff member to talk to (thank you so so much Gio) who set about being our go to for the night. She showed us around and helped us pick a recipe. From there you go and measure out your ingredients or as close a proximity to the ingredients you require, as things can run out or there not being that ingredient but something similar to it. There’s a grinder on a workbench for you to hand grind various grains to add flavour.

With your ingredients measured and ground, you then take them down to the brewing hall where you’ll put them through a long process of boiling and transferring from one metal container to another. There’s a fair amount of stirring and cleaning and waiting involved in this. Depending on your recipe you’re boiling various liquids and grains for about 2 hours. Luckily there’s a bar on hand to help you through the waits, plus it’s damn hot in there.

There isn’t any hand holding, which is extremely scary for beginners but probably really good. I think we had enough help and supervision when we required it to not mess up, but we’ll see in two weeks. Part of me thinks UBrew need a bit more of a welcome pack for beginners and novices, but their hands off approach I think works well.

Summing up

This is a fairly expensive hobby I must admit, £95 a month, ingredients last night came to about £35–40 and I don’t yet know how much bottling will cost. Split between 5 it’s not so bad, though I wish UBrew were a bit more upfront with their costs when signing up for membership, with maybe a “typical beginners UBrew recipe from ingredients to bottling will cost you…” should the Stout come out well, we’ll have about 100 bottles worth. Considering that most bottles cost £2–3 or more, I think it’s ok price wise.

I really really enjoyed doing this last night, I can’t wait to try another brew (even if the first one is undrinkable), and even if we just go up till Christmas, I’d be happy.