Brewers Droop

Brewers Droop is a little old beer brewing shop on Gloucester Road that’s been there for yonks. It’s a great place to pop in and peruse if you’re taking a wonder on a Saturday afternoon.
You can buy everything you need to brew up the tipple of your choice from beer and lager through to cider and wine. Whether you’re a novice starting out with an all in one kit or you want to do it all from scratch it has all the gubbins. The guys there are a quirky bunch and they’re more than happy to pass on any brewing tips.
As well as all things home brew it also has a vast selection of ciders and ales that would be difficult to find anywhere else, some real beauties!
They also have a number of local ciders straight out the barrel sold by the flagon, which is evidently perfect for the pre Glastonbury booze run!
All in all, whether you fancy a couple of hard to find ales or you’re brewing up a storm yourself, Brewers Droop is a great little quirky shop that’s well worth a visit.

Brewers droop is a tiny little shop on Gloucester Road that sells everything you need to brew your own beer, cider, wine or champagne.
I heard that you could make wine from Ribena, which got me very excited; I love wine and Ribena — who doesn’t! So I popped in to ask them what I would need and how to do it. The guys were really helpful and after adding up all of the equipment I would need, it came to about £35 — bargain! Just add Ribena (and a few other things)
Not only do they sell brewing equipment but they also sell a variety of beers, ciders and wines.
It’s pretty cramped inside, with bottles and stuff all over the place, but that kind of adds to its appeal.
I’ll update my review when I finally get round to brewing my Ribena Wine :)

I have used this little shop for about 25 years, Its a good shop for all your brewing needs wine or beer. It does smell a bit farty in there but thats just the hops he sells {I hope}

A veritable playground for cider-​heads and fans of home brewing, the fantastically named Brewers Droop (which I hear is an old-​fashioned term referring to the way in which a man’s, ahem, performance, can be affected after drinking too much booze) is full of every bottled beer and cider you could want, plus all the ingredients and accoutrements needed to brew your own from the comfort of your home.
I wandered in just for a browse, because I was intrigued by the name, and found a very friendly, charming and informative man behind the counter who told me they stock 33 different ciders in the shop. Atop that, they also have wines, beers, and «beginner kits» for novice brewers. I was tempted to have a go, I have to say, such was the charm of the man working here and of the shop generally.
Any of the beers in here would make great presents for people, particularly the older males in your life; choose something with a funny old man ring to it, such as «Milestone Old Home Wrecker» or «Muntons Premium Gold Old Conkerwood Black Ale».

As I write this I am supping on a luscious bottle of Sheppey’s Cider with Somerset Honey. It is bliss in a bottle and I am one happy lady. They say local honey helps with hayfever and by george have I been suffering with bad hayfever recently. On the downside apples have an enzyme which make it worse. Guess this cancels itself out. Anyhow, the point is that this rare gem was bought for a respectable £1.99 in Brewers Droop. I was firmly of the opinion that Corks of Cotham was the best off licence in the world but Brewers Droop certainly gave me something to think about. Inside looks a bit like an old man’s garage. There’s brewing gear and a mis match of hilariously named local ales, English wines and casks and casks of my favourite local ciders which, and this is what just might clinch it for Brewers Droop, you can by by the litre. Purchase one of their containers or take in your own vessel. It’s your call. Blimey, it’s going to be dangerous living so close to this place!

This has got to be one of the only shops of its kind in Bristol, specialising in everything a man could possibly need/​want/​fantasise about when brewing alcohol. I say man because in few occasions I’ve been dragged in here, I’ve never once seen a woman in the shop!
As well as kegs and caskets, funnels and bottles, Brewers Droop sells a large range of bottled and boxed cider and ale, making it a great place to shop for friends who love a good drink.
The staff here are friendly and know their stuff — when I was charged with going in to buy a specific and supposedly rare type of bottled cider, the man behind the counter talked me through all the products and helped me pick out the one that best matched my criteria.

Well I now grow my own rhubarb so who knows, I may be tempted to start home-​brewing one of these days. I’m a bit wary of home-​brews since student days when friends brewed a beer that fermented in their stomachs however! So if you don’t trust your home brewing skills, you need not fear as the Brewers Droop have a fantastic range of ciders and beers and even liquors, hazelnut brandy, yum, yum!

I have long chuckled every time I walked past this wonderfully-​titled shop. It resembles an antiquity and from the outside seems brilliantly down at heel and almost Dickensian. Chalkboard signs outside promise draught ciders to take away as long as a selection of stout and ales. Inside it is like a pharmacy for the drink-​addled with various utensils for home-​brewing on display.
At first glance there is a great array of bottled pear ciders and ciders from all over the West Country on sale. There are also barrels of Westons Vintage, Old Rosie and Thatchers on site and customers can buy them in plastic flagons to take away at incredibly cheap prices.
And if you want to learn more about home-​brewing and the origins of what you are drinking, the friendly staff are always happy to help.
A great place to buy presents for Dads and husbands as well as somewhere to pick up an interesting tipple for an afternoon picnic.

Not just a fantastic name, but a great shop too. Brewer’s Droop is made for anyone who’d rather have a homebrew to own-​brand and loves anything and everything about alcohol. The friendly, helpful and, surprisingly, not inebriated staff are always at hand to ask even the most basic of questions.
They stock everything from beer to champagne so you’re bound to find something to tickle your fancy.

A shop for the ale officianado. At Brewers Droop, you can buy all the goods needed to take home and start brewing your own tipple — on your head be it. There’s a few kits on offer, but there’s also individual tubing and parts, I guess aimed at experienced brewers. I’ve only ever seen one old gentleman staffing the place, and he’s not overly friendly — in fact a bit gruff. If you don’t fancy, or can’t be bothered, trying your own hand at some beer making, there’s a good selection of sizeable kegs on offer. They’re mostly cider though, which was disappointing on my hunt for christmas keg of ale. Nevertheless the range was impressive, and despite the gruffness, the owner is very knowledgeable and will tell you in detail about each tipple.

I’ve tried a fair few dodgy home brews in my time. Not a big fan of suspiciously cloudy ales that later turn out to be much stronger than you realise, but I can see the fun in it and I’m sure you could make something decent from the various contraptions and other bits and pieces on offer at Brewers Droop.
They’ve got the tubes, funnels, and all other paraphernalia needed to set yourself up as a home brewer. The staff are friendly and happy to explain what to do and the chemistry behind it all. The shop doesn’t, impressively, have that yeasty smell that I’ve smelt whenever going into a bedroom where a concoction is brewing.
If you’re not that ambitious (or, like me, don’t trust yourself not to end up making several pints of poison) then you can just get some of the beers on offer here. There’s a reasonable range of real ales (if you’re looking for more head to Threshers at the bottom of Gloucester Road, which has a decent selection) and a few other sorts of drink as well.

If Hugh Fearnley-​Whittingthingy has got you skipping through country lanes collecting sloes, elderflowers and nettles for some sort of home-​made alcoholic brew then this is your second stop. Friendly staff will guide you through the alchemy of gin/​champagne/​beer making and stock you up with the potions and pipes needed.

I wasn’t interested in brewing my own beer– I’m sure there are hundreds of bearded men who have many years’ experience brewing beers much better than I could come up with– but this shop also advertises the ready-​bottled beers that it sells, which I wanted to check out as I’m fond of some unusual tipples. Their range of off-​the-​shelf beers is half-​decent, but limited only to a handful of different breweries, so the range isn’t as exciting as you’d like it to be– but there’s a reasonable range of nice beers, better than you’d find in Threshers, at the same sorts of prices you’d be paying in a Threshers.
Though I haven’t asked about it myself, the staff always seem to be talking to somebody about the brewing process when I go in, so it sounds like they’re very helpful. A shop that’s probably essential to the home brewer, and decent enough for the home drinker like myself.

If you want to make your own beer or wine (or even mead), then this is the place to go! It is crammed full of demijohn’s, tubing, funnels, and packets of various mysterious powders. You can get the whole kit here, which is what I did, including books on how to do it. The people who work there are incredibly friendly and helpful, they didn’t mind answering my newbie questions and giving me advice when everything went wrong (which it did again and again, I’m not very good at this sort of stuff!).
They also sell already-​made beers, ales and mead. These are always very tasty and always worth trying out now and again. All in all a great little place!