An American and Australian, longing for the more adventurous beer tastes of their homelands, create a method of brewing for the smallest of homes
Posy Parsons and Claire Russell are raising a glass after launching HomeBrewtique, the simplest method of making brewery-quality beer in the house.
The kits, launched in Spring 2015 and already selling in quantities of up to five each day, use an “all-grain” method, allowing enthusiasts to brew IPAs, wheat beers, porters, stouts and hybrids to the same quality as the UK’s leading craft ales. However unlike its competitors, HomeBrewtique is designed to be as easy as possible. The ingredients come pre-measured, the liquid only needs to be switched between vessels once, and the beer can be bottled directly from a tap built in to the fermentation tank – cutting out most of the work for the home brewer.
Posy Parsons said: “Previously, people wishing to get into brewing had two choices: so-called ‘extract’ kits, which are good, but essentially involve mixing water and pre-prepared ingredients as if you were making orange squash; or ‘all-grain’, which gave a more authentic taste but required laborious measurement, many transfers of hot liquid between containers, and messy syphoning. HomeBrewtique aims to give the convenience of extract kits with the taste and fun of creation of all-grain.”
The simple process has a second benefit – the equipment takes up almost no space at all.
Posy said: “If you say ‘home brewing’ to most people, they think of Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad in a large garage with vats and a bottling plant. HomeBrewtique kits take up a tiny amount of space, bringing them within the reach of people who live in the smallest flats.”
The two women met in 2010 as neighbours in St Albans, and quickly discovered they shared a love of craft beer. Posy had been an enthusiast since living in Boston in the 1990s in the wake of an explosion in US microbrewers; Claire, from Australia, grew up in a culture where beer brewing was more common than in the UK.
Claire Russell said: “We both shared a love of UK pub culture and some traditional UK ales, but missed the creative and extremely flavourful beers from back home. We began brewing together, and eventually hit upon a method of making great-tasting beers in a very simple way.”
HomeBrewtique’s ingredients arrive with cookbook-like instructions, guiding buyers step-by-step through recipes previously invented, tested and perfected by Posy and Claire in St Albans.
The two are an example of the growing popularity of craft beer amongst women in the UK.
Posy said: “I was recently judging a beer competition and discovered that five times as many women had entered this year compared to last year. However, we don’t see brewing and beer-drinking as a gender issue – it’s time everyone in the UK, male and female, young and old, discovered that life is too short to drink bad beer!”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
If you would like pictures or more information about this topic, are interested in joining us for a brew or to sample some of our finished product, please contact Posy Parsons at 07866797194 or email atPosy@HomeBrewtique.com.