Demand for home brewing courses is booming in London

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UBREW co-founders Wilf Horsfall (L) and Matthew Denham pose for a photograph at their open brewery on February 16, 2015 in London, England. UBREW, opened by co-founders Matthew Denham and Wilf Horsfall, is an open brewery where members can brew their own beers with professional equipment amongst a community of like-minded beer lovers. (Photo by )

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Cheers! UBREW cofounders Horsfall and Matt Denham.

LONDON - UBREW, a startup that lets people brew their own beer, saw a 40% increase in the number of people taking its brewing courses last year.

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The company told Business Insider that 459 people took courses at its site in Bermondsey, South London, last year, compared to 326 people in 2015.

UBREW, which launched its first site in London in mid-2015, lets people use its equipment to make their own beer and provides top quality ingredients and guidance to soup up the homebrewing experience. Cofounder Wilf Horfsall joked with BI last year that it is "like a gym but you get less healthy."

As well as offering memberships for people to regularly come and use the equipment for brewing, UBREW also offers one-day courses to train people up and help them brew at home.

Horfsall says UBREW has seen a big uptick in demand for these courses thanks to the rising popularity of craft beer. He said in an email: "We've already had to add more course dates in to our calendar as we were almost sold out for the first three months in 2017."

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"We've seen a number of groups coming to us - either as work colleagues or as part of a stag do, to brew and serve their own beer at their wedding."

Horfsall says UBREW's course are increasingly attracting women.

"It's been really great to have such a diverse number of people come to our courses and taproom," Horfsall says. "Around 20% to 30% of our members are women but we also want to increase this further."

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