Brew-on-premises concept stages comeback

Twenty years after the first Brew-on-Premises (BOP) shops opened up in parts of Switzerland and the U.S. – before quickly declining – the concept is enjoying a revival.

The London DIY brewery UBREW (a pun on ‘You Brew’) has pre-sold over 75 percent of memberships for its second BOP site in Manchester before it is even open, U.K. media reported in June 2016.

It may be an indication that lots of people are willing to put money behind a not-as-yet-explored hobby that UBREW managed to collect GBP 112,000 (USD 145,000) via a crowd-funder.

This allowed UBREW’s founders Wilf Horsfall, 27, and Matt Denham, 32, to set up their first site in Bermondsey, South London, just over a year ago. What they do is let people use their equipment to make their own beer, while providing ingredients and guidance to soup up the homebrewing experience.

You need to be a member, though, to use their facility. UBREW London has about 150 memberships and a waiting list of over 800 people, it was reported.

Typical UBREW members in London, the founders say, are young professionals in their 30s, who are looking for a community to join. Two thirds of them have no prior brewing experience at all.

UBREW recently received GBP 140,000 (USD 141,000) in investment from private angel investors to fund the Manchester operation. They are also considering exporting their BOP concept to Berlin, Germany.

Most likely, several of these BOP members will eventually want to join the ranks of Britain’s 1,700 or so microbrewers. In the U.S. these BOP shops were merely a stepping stone for homebrewers who later became fully-fledged microbrewers. That’s why they went out of fashion.