A group of home brewers who started meeting this year at The Butcher's Hook pub have teamed up with a nearby brewery to create a beer which goes on sale across a string of local outlets in September.
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L-R: Club members Philip King, Victor, Mac Ince, Kevin Robinson (from Vibrant Forest), Nick Rosser, Duncan Power and Jason Cheung at the brewery
It all started when avid home brewers Nick Rosser and Jason Cheung met over a beer at The Butcher's Hook.
They started getting together regularly to discuss home brewing, and in February with the support of the Butcher's Hook the Butcher's Brew Club was born. It now meets monthly at the micro pub.
“We had overwhelming support and filled the pub during the first meeting,” says Nick.
Sharing brewing tips
Since then members come to the club to discuss brews and kit, bring samples to try, and share brewing tips. In fact it's grown rapidly, building what Nick describes as “a great home brewing community here in Southampton.”
“We have people who are just looking to start as well, and it's amazing how many home brewers are out there – we have about 30-plus members at the moment.”
Brewing collaboration
In July the club approached Kevin Robinson of Vibrant Forest – a microbrewery on the edge of Lymington – and decided to create a collaboration brew using Vibrant's commercial facilities.
The end result is World IPA.
The brew uses hops and grains from three continents, and goes on sale on September 12 in the Butcher's Hook, at Vibrant Forest Brewery and at their beer festival at Brockenhurst Village Hall, as well as at Portswood's Cambridge Road beer shop Bitter Virtue in bottles and on cask, and in Beers and Bottles on Portswood High Street.
World IPA will also be available at Dancing Man at the Wool House and The Rockstone in Bevois Valley.
Checking the recipe
Nick Rosser: “It was great to all meet up and use upscaled equipment to create a beer that could be sold commercially. We're all used to our 20 litre batches... it was nice to get on to that bigger scale and understand how it's set up in a commercial process.
Weighing the hops
Jason Cheung cleans out the kettle at the brewery
“And it was lots of fun! Everyone had a great day. A few of us went back to help bottle, cask and keg it later, and a few of us went back again to do the labelling – the Brew Club has done the design for the beer too.”
And watch this space, as Nick says the group hopes to do collaborations with other local breweries in the future.
• The Butcher's Brew Club meets on the third Tuesday of the month from 7-9pm at the Butcher's Hook pub at Bitterne Park Triangle. More info on their Facebook page