After the tour visitors will be able to enjoy some BBQ food in the yard, whilst enjoy some sunshine (hopefully!) and chat more about the Ginger Beer.

Love Pop Ups London tour experience

Last year Love Pop Ups London community had the privalege to sample their first batch of Ginger Beer. Nearly a year on some of us have now had the pleasure of attending a tour of their brewery to help promote.

Ginger Beer the tour

Umbrella Brewing Ginger Beer Matt Armitage the owner

Like all tours he gives we was told the story of how they started out.  We learnt about the process of the ginger in how it gets grated down in a special cutter, then strained along with lemons through an industrial sieve and finally into large tanks to ferment.

We learnt that during the fermenting process flies love to hover around because of the sweet smell straining out from the cylinders. Each container holds 3,800 litres of liquid and is kept at a temperature of 70 degrees. According to Matt one litre makes just over 3 bottles of Ginger Beer.

Umbrella Brewing Ginger Beer Love Pop Ups community group learning

After fermenting the Ginger Beer is then sieved through very fine paper filters which are vegan and vegetarian friendly to remove the yeast before being shipped out to be bottled and labelled at a factory in Tunbridge Wells.

At the end of the tour we all got to try the Ginger Beer. It is a fiery 5% alcoholic ginger beer with a perfect balance of ginger, sharp lemon citrus with a subtle hint of malt which is all gently carbonated.

Since tasting it last year when it was in it’s early stages it has vastly improved making it a pleasure to drink and making this the best Ginger Beer on the market to buy. Very refreshing.

Best

Labels

Umbrella Brewing Ginger Beer label

All the labels are based on old style album sleeves of the 60’s and 70’s. Mainly based on the original series of ‘Decca Records’ inspired labels and the ‘Too Bad’ series (both of which are based on the vinyl sleeves to the owners’ favourite tunes) to collaborations with luxury umbrella crafters Studio Ruuger. They see the labels as a chance to showcase artwork that can be held in your hands, artwork that is tangible and not lost in the digital world. Even though the Ginger Beer bottles are labelled with various different style labels the Ginger Beer is all the same.  Click here to see all the different artwork labels they have currently and past designs.

Cider

We also had the privilege of being the first people to try out their very first batch of cider which is not even been released yet as it is still in it’s fermenting process. Within their cider they use Rusip apples as it has a better taste. The Cider was sweet tasting and smooth on the tongue. It will be great to try it when it has finally been processed to its final stage.

BBQ

After the tour we got to eat some BBQ food consisting of sausages, halumi and grilled vegetables all looked and tasted great.

Umbrella Brewing Ginger Beer

Also we got to try a gin and Ginger Beer cocktail which Matt made for us all that wanted one.  It was amazing.

Dart competition

After eating Matt set up a darts competition in which we all competed to win 12 bottles of Ginger Beer.  Closest to the bulls-eye wins.  Some of us could not hit the board with our dart and landed either on the door or floor. Was so much fun but there could only be one winner and as Laura was the nearest to the bulls-eye she won the beer.  She was highly delighted.

Umbrella Brewing Ginger Beer Laura winner of darts