Gipsy Hill Brewery Community Tap Room

The Project - Social Inclusion

“Social inclusion is about offering opportunities to people to engage in society, where they have previously been excluded as a result of being a member of socially, and/or economically, deprived community.” – Charity Commission.

Going for a drink with friends is the most popular way British people socialise, celebrate, and build relationships. As a brewery, we know pubs, and we know how many of them are lacking in appropriate facilities to support vulnerable people. We know how many events happen that are unaffordable for individuals.

The aim of our project is to build an accessible space that actively promotes social inclusion. The Community Taproom will be open for anyone to access during opening hours to meet and socialise. There will be a private, bookable space for local NGOs and Community groups to hold education and awareness sessions, training, and fundraisers. On top of that, we will run one event per month that will focus on:

• Regeneration activities to highlight and improve social/economic circumstances (workshops, fundraisers);
• Co-ordinating and increasing opportunities for local communities to participate in society (awareness and education sessions);
• Linking community groups together that have a shared interest, encouraging social growth (music evenings, comedy, lectures, seminars and events).

To achieve this we will:

• build a space that delivers more than the minimum legal requirement for disabled access (recommended size disabled toilet, wheelchair access bar, wheelchair access tables, level access throughout with pathways);
• work with the communities around us to plan and deliver events that are important to them;
• subsidise activities and events where possible to ensure they are affordable to individuals with lower incomes.

The funding we are looking for from Crowdfunder will help us deliver each of these elements.

The Brewery:

Back in 2014 Charlie, Simon and Myself (Sam) opened the doors to The Gipsy Hill Brewing Company. Our initial vision was to create medium strength, full flavoured beers. Beers that you could enjoy throughout the week, with friends. Our message was ‘Drink it and talk to people’.

Now three years in, the brewery, the team and the product range have grown, developed…matured even. We make strong beers now alongside our core range of mid strength craft ales. The guiding principle of ‘Drink it and talk to people’, or to be enjoyed with others, remains core to our philosophy.

From the start, when we used to roll our casks up and down the hills and pavements of South London, we’ve had incredible support from our local community. We couldn’t have achieved this without them. Now we’ve decided it’s time to do something for them.

We’ve just been given the keys to a new unit, literally across the yard from where we make our beer. The aim to is create a space that is accessible to all.

Certitude:

Certitude are a charity that work with people who have learning disabilities, autism and mental health. We were approached by their outreach services, that focus on social exclusion. Last year, we worked with one of their groups to produce a small batch beer to launch at our yard party and raise money. We planned the brew day in a way that was more tactile and accessible. Swapping out paper and pen, for tasting ingredients and building recipes through what flavours we liked the most. Sam Mason, Community Fundraiser, Certitude wrote “A wonderful, inclusive occasion, capturing perfectly what we’re all about: coming together to enjoy time with each other. Not a disability event, just an event, one that’s better because we are there.”.

The Site:

We want this space to be an immersive nirvana for beer enthusiasts and craft newcomers alike.

• We want this site to be haven for craft beer in South London. Alongside the 20 taps that will offer the best beers from around the world, we’ll have beer education sessions - sensory training, recipe building and brewing workshops; a host of Meet-The-Brewer, beer launches and other events for our friends in the industry.
• We will open a nano-brew site, making small batch beers for R&D purposes. We will open this out to the public to do collaborations with us, or for individuals and homebrewers to do their own brews, which we’ll keg at the end and serve through the bar.
• Along the walls, we will have our barrel-ageing program. We plan to dive head first into old techniques of ageing using traditional vats, foeders, and barrels, alongside cement eggs and other wild ideas to mature our beer.

Thanks for your support,

The Gipsy Hill Team