Home-brew kits fly off the shelves as credit crunch starts to bite

Published on Saturday 20 December 2008 18:37

FOUL-MOUTHED chef Gordon Ramsay has done it, Rangers boss David Murray is taking it up as a hobby, and Neil Morrissey is even trying to make a living out of it. The trend for brewing your own wine and beer has been embraced by credit-crunched drinkers and celebrities alike.

Shops in Scotland selling home-brew kits have reported sales doubling in the run-up to Christmas, customers lured in by the prospect of drinks that cost a 10th of pub prices – as little as 29p a pint and bottles of wine that are just over 1.

Dozens of starter kits, from 8, are being snapped up, not only by drinkers eager to make their own tipple, but as Christmas gifts.

Retailers say the credit crunch and the rising reputation of home-brewed wine and beer are encouraging the boom; Scottish shops are sending out orders all over Europe as they run out of supplies.

Home-brewing, which became popular in modern times when the economy hit the wall in the 1970s, is proving especially popular with men and women in their 20s. The trend follows the growing popularity of drinking at home, according to drinks analysts, who add that it could be a further blow to the declining pub and off-licence industries.

Scotland's four specialist home-brew shops – two in Edinburgh, one in Glasgow and a fourth in Forfar – noticed a sudden increase in sales three months ago.

David Martin, owner of Edina Home Brew in Edinburgh, said: "Business is through the roof now. We are selling hundreds of beer kits every week, and wine kits are just as popular. In a normal week we would take 1,000 but at the moment we are taking 2,000 easily.

"We didn't used to get women coming in to the shop that often, but I'm getting more and more. We had a lady in earlier this week looking for Christmas presents for seven people. I think it's the credit crunch, because people who don't want to pay 2.90 a pint in the pub and would rather pay 29p a pint."

He added that people were investing in higher-quality kits, around 19 for both wine and beer, because the booze was so cheap to make after the initial investment.

Scott Williams, manager of Glenbrew in Glasgow, said home-brew was losing its reputation for bad quality. "The stigma about home-brew is generational.

"Its been a while since people have talked about making it, and back in the 1970s and 1980s people were making a complete arse of it by fermenting it in a bath or something like that. But the stigma is so old that people are coming back to it with fresh eyes, and modern kits are so straightforward you can't get it wrong really."

The range of wines, in particular, has increased, according to Terry Philips, owner of Villagebrew in Edinburgh. "Cantina kits are very popular, and they do Pinot Grigio, Chablis and lots of other grapes. It's a five-day kit, and it costs 23.50 for 30 bottles of wine. I would put them up against anything you buy in Tesco."

Gordon Ramsay promoted homebrewing on his Channel 4 show The F Word, when Scottish brewers Innis and Gunn helped Ramsay create a beer to complement veal.

Meanwhile, Rangers boss David Murray recently bought a press from which to make cider direct from apples. And actor Neil Morrissey tried to turn home-brewing into a money-spinner in the Channel 4 programme Risky Business, as he set out to create a brewery to rival the best of British beer.

Gavin Partington of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association agreed people were cutting costs as a result of the credit crunch. "There has been a significant drop in the amount of wine purchased," he said.

But Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, warned against the new home-brewing trend. "Not only is home-brew possibly stronger than what you buy in the shops," he said, "but people also tend to pour larger measures at home and they are not controlled in their drinking."