In November The Hop Shed were visited by Ben Fogle who was filming for his new series ‘Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country.’ In this series he visits couples who have left London and moved to the countryside to start new businesses. His visit came 3 years after the setting up of the then ‘Unity Brew House’. In May 2018 the brewery changed its name to ‘The Hop Shed’ to make people more aware of the brewery being based on a Hop Farm and using only locally grown hops in their beers. The purpose of his visit was to find out how business and life is going for the founders Hani and Sarah Saleh and he discovered a hard working couple running a thriving business, producing award winning beers!
There are now 5 people working at the brewery as well as some casual bar staff and it is brewing to current capacity limits. In 2019 The Hop Shed won a total of 10 stars in The Great Taste Awards, the highest number achieved by any brewery last year. There have also been awards from SIBA, Visit Worcestershire and The British Bottler’s Institute in the last 2 years. Their Tap room, which is open on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons, is a very popular destination, especially when there is a local pop up food offering! The local community have adopted it as their weekly meeting place and the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming.
The series began on Channel 5 on Tuesday 11 February at 9.00pm and The Hop Shed will be the subject of episode 4 on Tuesday 3 March and can be seen on My 5 once it has been aired.