Brew days

Ever fancied having a go at brewing? If you're a complete novice, or an experienced home brewer (or beyond), you can sign up with us for a brew day.

Why choose a brew day with us?

Shop around and you may well find a cheaper brew day than what we offer. As the old saying goes, you do get what you pay for. Here's what we offer compared to many of these other offers you will find:

Unlike most breweries who offer brew days that use small scale equipment (slightly bigger than a home brew setup making a maximum of 40 litres) and use malt extract (similar to a home brew kit) to supplement your brew ingredients, shortening the experience and making it cheaper to run, we use the actual microbrewery apparatus we make all of our beers with. We will make a batch of approximately 360 litres of beer using all grain processes - i.e. no cheating or getting you to work on small scale equipment. You want a real microbrewery experience? Look no further than a brew day with Faking Bad Brewery!

Faking Bad Brew day

  • Full scale microbrewery equipment - you'll use it all. Most other experiences use cut down equipment barely larger than a home brew set up.

  • Brewing in the actual brewery. Often other experiences set up a side room for their experiences, so as to keep you away from the real brewery.

  • We use an all grain process. Most other experiences use malt extract (similar to cheap home brew kits) fully or supplementing the grain bill to make it cheaper and quicker to run, but it also makes your beer more generic as this is used as the backbone of your beer.

  • 360 litre batch process (using our 400 litre fermenters)

'Other' Brew days

  • Small scale equipment (usually slightly bigger than home brew apparatus)

  • Brewing in a side room in a 'brew room'

  • Sometimes grain, but often with additional malt extract sugars (to make the process quicker and cheaper, but also more generic ingredients

  • 40 litre batch process (just less than twice the volume of a basic home brew)

We offer two different brew day options:

  • "Join the brewers" experience

  • "Ultimate brew day" experience

WHAT HAPPENS AT A "Join The BREWERS' EXPERIENCE" DAY?

An introductory brewing experience day designed for 1-3 people to join the head brewer(s) in the brewing experience. It's a great option for those who want to find out about how beer is made and get involved in the process.

Brew day:

  • A cut down version of the ultimate brew day (we will brew a beer of our choice) from weighing out the grains, setting up the mash, sparging the grain, boiling the wort, hopping the beer, to transferring the wort into the fermentation vessel ready for the yeast to turn it into beer.

  • Depending on the time of the brew day, breakfast rolls or a light lunch will be included.

  • At the end of the brew day you will receive two beer tokens each that you can use in the pub to sample some of our previously made real ale (we can put them behind the bar if you want to come back later). For an additional fee, you can each take away 3 bottles of the beer made (this will not be ready to drink for approximately 2 weeks from the bottling date / 4 weeks from the brewing date).

Estimated price per person £40 (*additional £6 per person if bottled beer is requested).

What happens at aN ULTIMATE brew day EXPERIENCE?

An ultimate brew day experience is an excellent group activity (we suggest a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5 people) that allows you to come and brew a beer of your choice with us starting with grains and hops of your choice, right through to bottling and or barrelling your beer a few weeks later. This does require a commitment from you and your group to each stage below. The beer won't wait once you've started!

Preparation:

  • The head brewers will discuss with you (usually via a social media group chat, email, or video conference) the type of beer you want to make, thoughts about strength, flavours and ingredients and get some initial decisions made about the dates of your experience. We'll then order in any ingredients ready for your experience.

Brew day:

  • Over breakfast, we'll discuss your beer preferences and help you design your very own recipe based on the style and ingredients you've already planned with us. Don't worry - the brewers will give you advice here!

  • We'll weigh out your ingredients and start the mash (extraction of sugars from the grain).

  • While waiting on the mash, we'll find out about the background of brewing and the history of brewing in Prestonpans, along with the Chemistry involved in beer production and testing.

  • After mashing the grain, we'll sparge (rinse) it and transfer the wort (sugary liquid that will become beer) into the copper (the boiler). Then it's time for adding the hops, before boiling the wort to fully invert the sugars (preparing them for the fermentation).

  • Next up is a chance to discuss your label design over lunch.

  • We'll then empty the spent grain from the mash tun

  • After the boil has completed, we'll cool it down and transfer it to the fermenter where the yeast will get busy for the next week or so.

  • Clear up (we won't force you to do this, but you did want the full experience didn't you?)

After the brewing process:

  • Approximately 2 weeks after your brew day, you'll need to return to bottle and label your beer bottles. We'll also transfer some into casks that will be put on tap in the Gothenburg pub. You can take the bottles away, but they won't be ready for drinking for about 2 weeks.

  • If you want additional bottles (24x500ml are included in the experience, but you can increase this up to a maximum of 72 bottles in total), you can add these on to your group cost. We can also substitute mini casks (5L) for bottles.

  • After an additional 2-3 weeks (maybe longer for certain beer types), we'll invite you back to the Gothenburg pub where we'll put your beer on tap (Fridays are best) and you can have the privilege of tapping your casked beer and pulling (and sampling) the first pints. You will also receive three beer tokens each to use to pay for your beer in the pub. A great chance to get friends and family along to taste your beer!


Basic cost (for a group size of 2): £240

Additional member joining the group: £50

Additional optional bottles (24x500ml are already included): £2 per bottle (up to a total of 72 bottles maximum), or £20 per minicask (up to 5 maximum)

Additional optional party keg of your beer (36 pints) with hand pump for the weekend: £100 + £35 refundable deposit


E.g. For a group of 5 people wanting to buy a total of 50 bottles:

  • Basic fee (£240) + 3 additional members (3 x £50) + 26 additional bottles (26 x £2) = £442

  • Price per person works out at £88.40

If you are interested in joining us for a brew day, please contact us. We'll let you know availability.

Because we have day jobs as Chemistry teachers, we tend to brew in the evenings , weekends or during East Lothian school holidays. You will need to work around our availability I'm afraid - no skipping school for us....