About us

So, a little bit about us. Hops & Bubbles was formed in 2018 by myself and business partner Simon. We have both been involved in the hospitality trade over 30 years, although not always as our main profession.

For the past seven years, we have both been heavily involved as volunteers in the development of our local sports and social club, increasing its membership from around 250 to over 1000 members, and turnover from £100k to over £300k. Before setting up Hops & Bubbles as a business, all our events would come from word of mouth. As we started building up some regular clients, we decided it was time to make things more official, and so Hops & Bubbles was born.

Our involvement with the club means we have gathered a wealth of knowledge in what consumers expect when they go to a bar, and our continued relationship with various brand managers ensures we’re always up to date with the latest drinking trends.

Products

We’ve checked out our competitors’ offerings, and we would argue that many offer a small selection compared to what we would consider a full bar!  Wherever possible, we like to provide the full-on pub experience to our clients and guests. We want to ensure there is a drink available to satisfy everyone’s tastes.

As a comparison, our fully stocked bottle bar offers the following as a minimum:

  • Four different lagers including alcohol-free and Gluten-Free options
  • A minimum of 6 different real ales from the big brands and local brewers
  • Seven different flavoured ciders, including an alcohol-free option.
  • Over 40 premium brand spirits
  • A selection of wines and Prosecco
  • A massive range of soft drinks including only premium mixers
  • Bar snacks (well, it’s not a proper bar without a bag of crisps!)
  • Hot drink offerings available upon request

The above is our tried and tested core range of products. We can add virtually any product to this list should you require it. Our ethos is to make sure that every guest enjoys their experience at our events. As our product list is quite extensive, we supply printed menus for our events to help your guests choose. We also have back bar display screens to display our menu should you require them.

In trying to do our bit for the environment, our bars have been designed and hand-built by ourselves using as many upcycled materials as possible. If you choose plastic glasses, we use biodegradable versions wherever possible. We also make sure all our glass bottles are recycled rather than put into landfill.

Service & Equipment

As for service and equipment, this is what you can expect from a Hops & Bubbles Bar:

  • An event manager who is also a Personal Licence holder and Food Hygiene certificated
  • A minimum of 2 trained staff
  • Application for a Temporary Event Notice where required
  • A wooden bar of your choice from 2 metres to 6 metres long, customisable to your theme. Our 5-metre bar unit is wheelchair friendly
  • A back bar with LED-lit bottle display
  • A full EPOS till system with reports on all sales (for cash or pre-paid bars)
  • All stock listed above plus any additions requested by yourselves
  • Our standard printed menu for your guests. These can be customised to your event theme at a cost
  • Back bar screens used to display our menu or to show a photo slideshow of your supplied images. These are removable should they not fit in with your theme
  • Cash and card / Apple / Samsung payment options (subject to venue wifi or 4g service)
  • Biodegradable plastics or glassware at the cost of hire
  • All garnishes, ice and consumables
  • £5 million Public Liability insurance
  • 4 product draught dispense system (additional cost involved)
  • Site left as found – we remove all our recycling and any refuse when we leave

Costs

We believe your event is unique to you, and so do not offer packages that are designed to fit all occasions. Instead, we will work with yourself to tailor your bar to your requirements. A few of the popular options are:

  • A cash bar – Your guests pay for their drinks. We have some of the lowest bar prices around with bottled lagers at £3, Real ales £3.50, Wines £3.50, House Spirits from £3, and premium branded spirits (Sipsmiths, Silent Pool, Whitley Neil, Bumbu Rum etc.) currently at £3.50. For cash bars we ask for a deposit of £250, which is fully refundable at the end of the event should the bar have a minimum spend of £1000. We have yet to do an event for more than 70 people where this has not been achieved!
  • A pre-paid bar – You put a certain amount behind the bar for guests’ drinks, and when this has been spent, the bar will change to a cash bar.
  • A token system – You decide how many drinks you would like each guest to have free and give them tokens for drinks. We will run a tab on our EPOS system for you to pay at the end of the function.
  • Dry hire – Either you supply the drinks yourself for us to serve, or we can arrange them for you on sale or return. We provide all the bar equipment and staff. Costs will vary depending on the brands and equipment needed.
  • Equipment only – We deliver and install all the stuff you need for your staff to run the bar.

As both Personal Licence and Premises Licence holders, we are well versed with the Licencing Act and all the legalities required by it. We’ll make sure that your bar service is both responsible and legal to ensure the safety and enjoyment of each one of your guests.

We hope the above is of interest to you and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards

 

Dan & Simon

Frequently asked questions – Hops & Bubbles bar hire

Wherever possible we like to offer the full-on pub experience to our clients and their guests. We want to ensure there is a drink available to satisfy everyone’s tastes. As a comparison, our fully stocked bottle bar offers the following as a minimum:
  • • A selection of different lagers including alcohol-free and Gluten-Free options
  • • A selection of real ales from the big brands and local brewers
  • • 5 different ciders including an alcohol-free option.
  • • Over 60 premium brand spirits
  • • A selection of wines and Prosecco
  • • A vast range of soft drinks including only premium mixers
  • • Bar snacks (well, it’s not a proper bar without a bag of crisps!)
  • • Hot drink offerings available upon request
    • The above is our tried and tested core range of products. We can add virtually any product to this list should you require it. Our ethos is to make sure that every guest enjoys their experience at our events.
    All events vary. If you'd like a quote please fill our Quotation request form. A copy of our standard equipment hire rates can be downloaded by clicking Hops & Bubbles - Hire prices January 2022 which will give you a good indication on costs, although we offer discounts depending on how much equipment is hired.
    Our current 'bottle bar' stock can be seen on our menu page. These are all tried and tested over many different events and thousands of guests and what we would class as our core range to satisfy most tastes. Prefer draught beers? No problem, just ask us and we'll add them for your event!
    If you're planning on a cash bar, then most definitely yes. Don't worry; we can advise and apply for this on your behalf, we just need at least 15 working days before your event but would recommend giving us as much notice as you can in case there are any issues with your local authority.
    We're happy to quote for wine and fizz for your wedding breakfast and can also arrange tasting sessions.
    Yes, our public liability insurance offers £5 million of cover.
    For cash bars, this will depend on the times applied for on the licence and the local authority. If you require a bar to serve past midnight, we would recommend at least six weeks to organise the licence in case there any issues with the licencing authority.
    We can accommodate for every occasion including indoor and outdoor – from weddings to birthday parties, festivals, hen or stag nights. All our equipment is suitable for the hospitality trade so we welcome trade enquiries from pubs, restaurants and venues for 'equipment only' hire.
    Yes, we supply everything required to ensure a smooth bar service.
    We can find a way of making a bar work in most spaces, but ideally, we need a minimum of 3m x 3m for our smaller setups. For outside events, a 6m x 3m space is perfect for our self contained pop-up gazebo bar which will happily serve up to 500 people.
    We have regular bookings each year which cater for 2500 people, so anything up to that number we can handle! We always like a challenge though, so if you need something bigger, let us know 🙂
    Every bar we operate will have a minimum of 2 staff members, one of which will be a Personal Licence holder, DBS checked, and Food Hygiene certificated as a minimum. As each event is unique, so will the staff requirements be. We make sure we have plenty of staff on hand so your event runs smoothly.
    All equipment only prices are based on a weekend hire. We are quite flexible though, so if you have a bar booked for a Saturday, but want it set up on a Friday and taken down on a Monday, we can usually accommodate this at no extra charge. As long as the equipment is not booked for another event, we are happy to do this for cash or pre-paid bars too.
    Of course! Get in touch with us and we'll give you a quote.
    Hops & Bubbles was formed in 2018 by Dan and business partner Simon. We have both been involved in the hospitality trade for over 30 years, although not always as our primary profession. For the past seven years, we have both been heavily involved as volunteers in the development of our local sports and social club, increasing its membership from around 250 to over 1000 members, and turnover from £100k to over £300k. Before setting up Hops & Bubbles as a business, all our events would come from word of mouth. As we started building up some regular clients, we decided it was time to make things more official, and so Hops & Bubbles was born. Our involvement with the club means we have gathered a wealth of knowledge in what consumers expect when they go to a bar, and our continued relationship with various brand managers ensures we’re always up to date with the latest drinking trends.
    We can source virtually any keg available in the UK. We have a number of draught dispense options available, from keg beers to cask systems, single product to 10 products. Check out our keg hire request page for some of our more popular lines.
    We attend a number of public events throughout the year, so if you'd like to come and see us in action let us know. We're also happy for clients to come and view our bar units at a mutually convenient time.
    We have a number of options depending on the type of bar and space restrictions. Our favourite way is probably using ice baths as this method is the most effective, but we can also supply fridges should they be required.
    Our current prices (August 2021) are listed below:
  • Bottled lagers (Corona, Peroni, Bud etc) £3
  • Draught beers (pint) from £4.50
  • Bottled Ales (Doombar, IPA, London Pride, local brews etc) £4.00
  • Bottled Ciders (Old Mout, Bulmers etc) £4.50
  • Single serve wine (187ml) £5.00, Prosecco (200ml) £6.00
  • House Spirits (Bacardi, Smirnoff, Gordons etc) £3.00
  • Premium spirits (Sipsmiths, Silent Pool, Whitley Neil etc) £3.50
  • Soft drinks & Fever Tree (200ml) mixers £1.50
    • All our staff receive in house training to ensure they are up to our strict standards and compliant with any relevant laws, Covid regulations and safety guidelines. A minimum of one member of staff at your event will be a Personal License holder. In addition, our technicians are NCDD (National Certificate for Drinks Dispense) qualified, as well as CSCS card holders.
    A deposit will secure your chosen date and service you have requested. Deposits vary depending on the equipment and service you have requested. All details will be given in your quotation.