The story behind “Farnbrewer”

I’ve started calling myself Farnbrewer, a playful shorthand for “Farnborough brewer.” Say it quickly and it almost sounds like Farnborough itself.

Tucked into the corner of my garage is my small home brewery, built from three repurposed appliances: two fridges and a chest freezer. Each has its own job, and together they provide everything I need to ferment, condition, store and serve the beer and cider I make.

A brief history

I started brewing back in the early 80’s but a busy life and a career in IT took over and my hobby was side-lined for many years. Fast forward to 2023 and I got the bug again. I made five beers that year and with very basic equipment. I suffered my first brewing failure as well, so let’s call it four beers. It didn’t put me off, but I felt the need to improve my set up to mitigate the risk of further failure! On and off, I spent most of 2024 working out how to set up a better brewing environment, so no beer was made that year as I didn’t think I was ready yet.

2025

I purchased my first dedicated fridge for the brewery. I added an external temperature controller that can turn the fridge on when the inside is too warm and a small electric heater for maintaining fermentation when the garage is too cold. It can easily be set to anywhere between 3 and 25 Celsius which is something the built in fridge thermostat cannot achieve. So, I started brewing again in late 2025 and made three beers and five ciders. I soon realised I was limited by having only one temperature controlled fridge, I could ferment or condition beer and cider, but not both at the same time.

2026

The year things really took off. At the time of writing (the end of July), I have already brewed 10 beers and 18 ciders. This year has also seen the addition of a second temperature controlled fridge with added beer taps for serving the beer and cider. The final addition to the set up was a small chest freezer also with external temperature control. Its sole purpose is storing the beer and cider at 3 Celsius to condition and carbonate. I’ve also made the move from bottling the final products, to kegging them instead. My beer kegs are 19 litres and enable me to keep beers oxygen free and fresh for months. I’ve also standardised making cider in 7.5 Litre batches, fermented and stored in 8 litre PET kegs. Beer and Cider can be dispensed either using CO2 or 70/30 “Mix” gas which is 70% Nitrogen and 30% CO2.

The Future

Brewing is a hobby that is constantly evolving and requires plenty of research , something I enjoy, especially when there is something nice to drink at the end! All of my beers to-date have been made from beer kits, the next logical step will be to experiment with extract brewing, which would allow me to try out different recipes. Finally, when I’m comfortable, I want to get into all-grain brewing, this is how the professionals do things. It’s a lot more work but probably worth it for the results.