I went behind the scenes at a Black Country homebrew shop with big plans for the future

The concept of homebrew is one which suffered from a negative stereotype over the years.

It’s been a source of fun on TV comedy programmes and radio shows, of people making homemade nettle wine or making a beer which has a funny colour and not a particularly great taste.

Over the years, plenty of people have brought homebrew kits and made 30 pints of beer or cider or bottles of wine which may take decades to mature and it had seemed a niche hobby.

However, as time has gone on, the technology, equipment and methods for homebrewing have changed and evolved, with better results coming and better brews being made.

One of the leading shops in the Black Country for selling homebrew kits and equipment is Dark Rock Brewing on Zoar Street in Gornalwood.

The business began as Harris Home Brew in the early 1970s under the ownership of Robert Harris, with a shop opening in the 1980s, and has since passed onto his son Robert and, since his death in 2024, his son James.

James Harris spoke about how the shop started, saying that his grandfather, who died in 2013, was one of the earliest distributors of equipment, and how the kits and equipment had improved.

He said: “My grandad manufactured the first wine filtration equipment and we used to manufacture wine filters for country home winemakers and sold them around the world to retailers in the USA, Canada and Europe, as well as the big supermarkets when they sold homebrew.

“We later opened up the shop and that’s when we got into supplying home wine and beer making kits and, yes, if you go back about 30 years, the quality of the kits was questionable.

“It was basically make a beer or wine as cheap as you possibly could and the quality wasn’t anywhere near as good as it is today, but then a lot of people got into making their own wines or beers during Covid and people realised the quality of the kits are a lot better now.”

Mr Harris said there was a feeling of pride among homebrewers about crafting and making something they liked, as well saying how what they made was better than what could be bought in supermarkets.

He said his own preferences were for craft beer, being able to play around with different ingredients from around the world and creating beers from those ingredients, and spoke about how the shop itself had evolved over time.

He said: “We got into the home brewing supplies in the 1980s and then, just before lockdown started, we rebranded as Dark Rock Brewing and started putting together our own craft beer kits and blending our own different hop varieties, grains and multi extracts.

“We began creating premium quality kits that people can make themselves at home, so we have 40 pint beer kits and we do six bottle kits as well if anyone wants to make small batches of beer at home.”

The shop is a place which provides equipment and kits for cider, beer and wine, as well as a large shelf full of bottles of spirit flavourings and even sells vacuum packed hops.

Among the future plans for Dark Rock is a planned taproom and tasting area, which Mr Harris said was a way to try out brews by having people taste them.

He said: “The idea is that when we try new recipes, we brew back different batches of beer, so we can sell bottles of beer in the shop that we’ve made and we’ll have different limited edition releases each month of different beers we’ve made.

“We’ve got a 200 litre brown moisture brewing system and the plan is that we’re going to start producing bigger amounts of craft beers and, hopefully, open a tasting room so that people can come in, sit down and try some of the different beers that we produce ourselves.”

With the cost of living crisis still a concern among many households, Mr Harris said he felt that homebrewing was an industry which could continue to grow due to how it could help people save money in the long run.

He said: “The future of homebrewing, to me is that it’s going to keep gaining popularity and as soon as we can get the brewery going and people can come in and try our beers, they might realise that they can have a go at this and, hopefully, that will get more people involved in crafting their own beers.

“It works out at less than a pound a pint to make your own beer at home and, as I say, the quality is as good as what you can buy in the pub, so I think people can try it and see how good the quality is and how easy it is to make.

“It’s an industry which has come on a long way and I think my grandad would be very proud.”