Lovibonds Partners With Henley Rowing Club to Open Bar
Lovibonds Brewery has found a new venue to open a bar at the Henley Rowing Clubhouse overlooking the river.
Lovibonds Tap Room, in Greys Road car park was closed in 2019 after a planning appeal was overturned to build luxury flats on the site. The venue offered a community space for many different events including the Henley Youth Festival and a charity Mountain Bike Challenge. Since then Founder and Head Brewer, Jeff Rosenmeier, has been looking for a new site. He said, ‘We’re thrilled to partner with Henley’s Oldest Rowing Club to help them revive the social side of their Club. They have one of the best locations in Henley for stunning views of the river and a cosy clubhouse. We’ve worked with The Club and local authorities to allow members of the public to use the bar and it has been great having our local fans back together.”
The opening hours for general public use of the bar are Friday 18:00-21:00, Saturday 14:00-21:00 and Sunday 14:00-19:00. The bar has a selection of fresh Lovibonds beers on draught, wine, spirits and a range of soft drinks. A portion of the proceeds of the bar help fund The Club including their strong Juniors programme.
Lovibonds Brewery was started by Jeff in 2005 and was one of the first craft breweries in the UK to go against tradition and packaging its beers like the global brewers, but without filtration, pasteurisation or other adulteration. The Brewery is based at Friar Park Stables in Henley. There are now nearly a thousand breweries in the country doing just that.
Henley Rowing Club was founded in 1839 and is one of the oldest open rowing clubs in Great Britain. The Club now has about 350 members and continues to be successful locally, nationally and internationally. The Club’s annual total of wins repeatedly puts it as one of the top Clubs in the Country.
Lovibonds is planning an Oktoberfest Party on Saturday 16 October from 4.00-10.00pm. With the Bavarian Oktoberfest cancelled for the second year running due to Covid-19, Lovibonds are bringing the party to Henley. Lovibonds will be tapping this year’s version of their Festbier (a deep golden, easy drinking lager). Lovibonds will be serving authentic steins of their Festbier alongside other Lovibonds beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks.
The first stein of Festbier, homemade pretzels and a range of other German snacks are included in the ticket price. Attendees will receive a discount on all drinks if they arrive in authentic German Festwear. Tickets are priced £15.00 and available from Lovibonds web shop https://www.lovibonds.com/product/lovibonds-oktoberfest-ticket/
Lovibonds has also begun producing a range of naturally fermented foods for the local market. Jeff explains, ‘I’ve been fascinated with fermentation most of my life, the most obvious is in my love for the fermentation of beer which led to the formation of Lovibonds in 2005. As a child I remember my Grandfather letting us snack on what he called ‘dilly beans’, but sadly I never got an understanding from him about the process. What I was witnessing was the age-old tradition of naturally preserving the bundance of the yearly harvest by utilising naturally occurring micro-organisms on the fresh vegetables. These techniques have mostly been lost for two generations. I’ve been playing with lactobacillus fermentation of many fruits and vegetables for a decade or so now and we’ve always toyed with making these ferments available to the public. We’ve started Lovibonds Ferments very much like I started the brewery, on a very small scale, testing out several recipes while refining the art and science of our process before hopefully investing in scaling things up.”
Lovibonds current range of products include traditionally fermented and raw Red Sauerkraut, a Yellow Sauerkraut and a Kimchi. Jars are currently available at Bosley Patch at Swiss Farm on the Marlow Road.
