A couple of weeks back I caught up with Craig Umpleby, president of UWE Bar-School society.

What sort of things do you get up to at your bar-tending skills sessions?

We get up to loads of different things during our sessions, we alternate them every week so one week we will cover flairing (throwing bottles around) and the next we will cover mixology.
 

Our flair sessions are semi-structured with an element of free-style to allow our students to learn at their own pace where as our mixology sessions follow a syallbus I created at the start of the year.
 

We focus our mixology sessions around spirit categories e.g. vodka, gin, rum etc.

One session we will do a tasting of between 5 & 6 different brands of a certain spirit, as well as learning a bit about its heritage, and then the next session we will mix a range of cocktails which have promoted that spirit.
 

We have just finished our Vodka cycle and by the time this comes to print we will have covered gin and be part the way through rum. Every session we also cover free pouring (pouring exact measures of liquor without the aid of a measurer, and speed bartending.   

Do you run any other events?

We run lots of different events, We run socials which vary from chaotic nights out to some of the city’s cocktail bars and clubs to more relaxed socials such as crazy golf. We run trips as often as we can, by the time this comes to print we will have visited the UK’s Rum Festival up in London, and at the end of the month we will be organising a trip up to the world flair finals which are also held in London.

We are hoping to run trips to distilleries as well as a bartending academy in Amsterdam in the new year.
 

 How often do you meet?

We meet every Tuesday on Frenchay at 7:00 either in Core 24 or Red Bar, and for our existing members we run free style flair sessions on Wednesdays to allow a place for them to practice their flairing without causing exceptional amounts of damage to their accomadation (one member caused £300 flairing related damage last year)!
 

Do you see a lot of student interest in the society?

There is a huge amount of student interest in the society, when I first set the society up in 2007 we just had a small group who met to practice flair, this year we had 50 people turn up to our first session!
 

It’s great to see so much interest from such a range of people.

We have members who work in the bar industry and want to learn more about the cocktail side of things as well as those who have never stepped behind a bar in their life but are really keen to learn a new skill.
 

 I personally have a lot of interest for bartending in general for how far you can go with it, it’s one of those skills that you can apply to where ever you go in the world and can open so many doors.
 

Any exciting events coming up/things you’re looking forward to?

I really look forward to every session, but I must say rum cocktails are a particular favourite of mine, especially given how much there is to cover so I am really looking forward to that session. Our trip to the world flair finals is also very exciting I always come away from these events so inspired with what moves people are pulling off I come home and practice ten times more.
 

In the new year I am also looking to run bartending competitions at the SU which will be great to showcase how much our members have learned since they first joined us!

To join the Bar-School society, or for more information, please contact:

Bar-school@hotmail.co.uk
 

Or check out UWE Bar-School 09/10 on Facebook.com.