Homebrew Brighton FAQ

The homebrew group, how does it work?

We meet monthly every month (apart from January) on the first Tuesday of the month. Details are usually posted in the FB and WhatsApp groups. Since 2023, we’ve been at Unbarred and The Rook.

The format is fairly loose, and it’s a relatively small, community. We’ll have between 5-10 brewers at the meets normally. We tend to go from lighter beers to dark, with mixed fermentation/sours/ciders somewhere in the middle.

As well as some of the other brewers at the meet, I (James) will try to give some feedback on your beers, but please don’t be disappointed if it’s not positive, or I’m not able to give you my full attention during the meets. I’m a certified BJCP judge, have run a couple of competitions locally and now over 50 of these meets, so hopefully have enough experience to give you some decent feedback on the beers and how to make any improvements, if necessary. My opinion is only based on my sensory evaluation, so, horror, could always be wrong. If you like your beer and I (or others) don’t, it’s not the end of the world. I’m also happy to give feedback on any bottles privately as well, message me here on the FB group and you can drop them to mine or leave one with me at the meet. I’m happy to give you a full BJCP scoresheet, or just a few paragraphs via private message.

Please read through our meets page for more information.

We do occasionally have challenges for our brewers, as well as competitions. This does depend my energy and willpower, so don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen often enough.

I don’t have any beer to bring, is it OK to come?

Of course, we welcome new brewers along. Feel free to turn up empty-handed and grill the more experienced brewers about getting started.

Where can I get CO2 in Brighton?

Without a doubt, the most asked question on the HBB Facebook group! There’s a few local choices:

• Seller Gas - £18 for 6kg, no deposit. Happy hardcore background music as you order.
• Four Seasons Fuel in Billingshurst. £50 deposit, £18 fill. These guys deliver, useful if you don’t have a car. My supplier. Gas supplied by Bargas.
• Eltham Welding also mentioned as an option.
• GP Barnes no longer sells CO2

What’s the Brighton Water Like? How do I treat it?

• You can find out your local Brighton water ion composition in the water calculator page. If you don’t want to figure out how to use the map, just scroll to the bottom and check out the average figures at the bottom of the table.
• You can use the predicted ions and mash pH calculator to work out how the salts, malts, and acids will affect your mash pH and ion composition.
• I also wrote a tutorial and spreadsheet. Check out the Brighton Water Spreadsheet tutorial for more information. There’s a bunch of Brighton water reports (and a couple from Worthing) have been collated in the first tab. If you have one, feel free to share it with me or the group and I’ll add it on there. The tutorial should talk you through how to use it in relatively simple terms. If you don’t understand it, best place to ask is probably on the FB group

I’m missing xxx ingredient, where can I buy it locally?

My recommendations, in order of preference:

1. Buy it Online: My advice is to plan in advance, or delay your beer to another day when you have all the ingredients you need. Most online homebrew shops are pretty good at getting supplies shipped out quickly, though covid has definitely had an impact on turnaround.
2. Ask in the Group: We do occasionally get asked for emergency last minute ingredient requests. By all means, use the group for this, but please don’t rely on this as a consistent resource! Facebook, WhatsApp.
3. Buy it Locally. There are no sane options to buy homebrew gear locally unfortunately.
4. Get Friendly with a Brewery: The other option is to have a connection to a brewery for the odd pick up. I personally don’t do this as I think brewers are financially tight and busy enough as it is without the odd homebrewer coming in and asking for a few hops. That’s just my perspective though! A while back I did ask at the Harvey’s shop for some hops and they happily gave me some.

How can I become a BJCP judge?

Unfortunately, I’m the only local judge. I’ve tried several times to get small training groups going, but they’ve always frittered out as I think the time commitment on the part of the trainees was a bit more than expected. We do have contacts with the London organisers LAB, so I think the best method may be to self-teach and try and get a spot on one of the exams. They’re quite rare, so if you’re offered one and serious about it, take it. You’ll need to take an online multiple choice exam, then you have the tasting exam. Get involved with the scene up there as well: enter comps, proctor exams, they always need volunteers. It’s not a HUGE commitment and it’s not as difficult as it might appear. If you’re already familiar with the different styles in the BJCP style guidelines, have an intermediate knowledge of the brewing process and some idea of off-flavours, you’re pretty much there. We may be able to get off-flavour kits as well if we can get a small group to pool together.

Otherwise, if folks are interested in setting up a training group, I’m very happy to help structure, offer feedback and attend any meetings (if available) that folks may want to set up, but I’m afraid as it’s not worked out in the past, I’ll decline to be the sole organiser of BJCP training. Herding cats and all that.

Can I advertise my brewery/product on the group?

HBB is very happy to support local businesses, but keep it relevant and not spammy. Basically, please ensure:

1. The product/brewery is relevant to homebrewers and/or beer lovers (preferably both) in the Sussex/South East area. In order of increasing preference:
   1. If you’re releasing a beer, we might be interested. Chuck it up and don’t worry too much about it, please don’t do it too often.
   2. If you’re opening a brewery in the Sussex area, we’d love to hear about it.
   3. If you’re offering our group to have a tour around your new brewery OR If you’re a local yeast rep and want to let us know about a new product, we’d definitely be interested in hearing, but we’d be really happy if you could come and have a chat with us about it and throw in a few samples to boot.
2. The frequency of promotion isn’t more than once every 6-8 weeks. Goes with the don’t spam us message above. Any folks posting irrelevant advertising in the group will be banned. If you’re borderline, I’ll probably just post a message, it’ll be obvious if you’re not.

When did HBB start?

HBB was started in October 2014 by myself, with the aim of meeting nice people, and building a small community around my new favourite hobby, brewing beer.

Are there any other local brewing groups?

• The Lewes Homebrew Club has actually been running for longer than HBB, starting in June 2013.
• Beer No Evil runs a quarterly meetup in Worthing. Gareth is a friend of the club and a LAB alumni.
• London Amateur Brewers meet on the first Monday of the month around Bermondsey and are also friends of HBB!