Celebrating the Real Ale Scene in Sussex Sussex Drinker Summer 2019 Free 23rd South Downs Beer & Cider Festival Published and Financed by the Sussex Branches of the Lewes Town Hall Campaign For 21 – 22 June 2019 Real Ale 23rd South Downs Beer & Cider Festival Brighton BN2 3ES.Please state which session tickets are required for and enclose a stamped SAE; no SAE, no tickets. Please make cheques payable to Brighton & South Downs CAMRA. The following outlets will also be selling tickets: - Evening Star, Brighton; Harvey’s Brewery Shop, Gardeners Arms & Brewers Arms, Lewes. The Charity this year will be The Bevern Trust based in Barcombe. There are full disabled facilities in the hall. For further information call 07450 656148 As always there will be an excellent E-mail [email protected] selection of 80 different beers on sale at the Web site www.brightoncamra.org.uk South Downs Beer & Cider Festival to be Peter Mitchell held at Lewes Town Hall on the 21 – 22 June. Publicity Officer for There will also be a selection of ciders and South Downs Beer & Cider Festival perries available. Hot and cold food with veggie options will be on sale together with soft drinks, tea and coffee at all times. Tickets for the popular Friday night and Saturday lunchtime sessions always sell very quickly so early purchase is advised. The Festival will be open on Friday lunchtime from 11.00am to 3.00pm; on Friday evening from 5.00pm to 10.30pm and on Saturday from 11.00am to 6.00pm after which there will be FREE entry on the door until the beer runs out or 8.00pm, whichever is earlier. The Festival will close at 8.00pm. Please note that admission will be by advance ticket only for all three sessions and there will be no refund for unsold tickets for any reason. Tickets will go on sale from the 1st of May and will cost - Friday lunchtime £5; Friday night £7 and Saturday lunchtime £5. Included in the price is a FREE festival glass, and a programme. Beer tokens to card carrying CAMRA members for two FREE halves will be available at the Membership Stand but not after 6.00pm on Saturday. Postal sales applications please to South Downs Beer & Cider Festival, 139 Elm Grove, Sussex Drinker: Summer 2019 3 News of new developments and updates on ■ BOGNOR REGIS the Sussex pub scene will be gratefully The Unicorn is temporarily closed for received by the Editor for consideration in unknown reasons. Scratchings. The standard disclaimer on p46 applies to all items. ■ BOREHAM STREET This village is ■ ANGMERING just about as At the ‘in the centre’ Spotted Cow, of East the new pub Sussex as you company can get. On lessee, Justin, the bus route has widened from Bexhill the choice of to Hailsham it ales available is the site of from his six Harvey’s first ever tied house, theBull’s hand pulls, with Bedlam appearing recently. Head. With five hand pumps, one of which He is also testing the market for regular is usually serving a Thatcher’s real cider, the beer festivals following his first in April and range of Harvey’s ales continues to attract has also introduced live music. drinkers from the village and its surrounds as well as further afield. In early April the ■ ARUNDEL line-up at this award-winning pub was Best, Arundel brewery has opened a new pub Old, Georgian Dragon (the monthly special) called the Brewhouse Project that can be and Bull’s Head Bitter, a permanent feature found close by to the A27 interchange at on the handpumps, which has been brewed Crossbush. It also features an Edgcumbes especially for the pub for the past five Coffee Cafe and shop. Two house cask years. beers (Brewhouse Best and Brewhouse American Pale Ale) are complemented with ■ BRIGHTON a choice of eight keg beers from Arundel The Argyle Arms, Argyle Road, has a Brewery. tenancy available with Ei Group, estimated start-up cost of £8,500, with a guide rent of ■ BARCOMBE £22,000. Following a change of The Free Haus, Howard Road, (formerly the hands in Reservoir, the Edwardian) was re-opened January, the 22nd Mar 2019 by Brighton Bier. Four hand Royal Oak is pumps, seven keg fonts and eight real offering ciders are on offer. Unlike sister pubs various food Brighton Bier Haus and Haus on the Hill, evenings beers will be mostly from other including Tiny Thai on the first Tuesday of independent breweries. A screen behind every month and visits of the vans of Pizza bar has details of available drinks with Amore and Cairovan (offering Egyptian strengths and prices, with a blackboard street food). Harvey’s beers including listing what’s just gone and what’s coming. seasonal ales are still on the bar, and Gin The food offering is cooked on premises by and Prosecco promotions are also featured. Papa Pitta. 4 Sussex Drinker: Summer 2019 Sussex Pub Scratchings — continued The Hop & Vine, Five Ways, has been sold ■ CHICHESTER and is to become a restaurant. The Belle Isle, a café/bar/restaurant in Chapel Street, which opened in 2012, The Wellington Pub Company is offering a appears to have closed from April 11th, as fully repairing and insuring 20-year lease on did its sister establishment in Southsea. the Jolly Brewer, Ditchling Road for £10,000 with an annual guide rent of By the time you read this, £30,000. the Hole in the Wall will have been re-opened by The Park View, Preston Drove has re- the Big Smoke Brew opened after a short refurbishment is Company of Esher, Surrey. apparently focusing strongly on craft keg They already run three beer. pubs in the South London The Prestonville Arms, Hamilton Road, is suburbs, all of which offer reportedly available either as a lease or a five real ciders, 10 real ales tenancy with Fuller’s. and even more keg beers. If the offer is the same in this , Windmill Street, (formerly the Setting Sun new venture then it will be an interesting Sir Lion of Beef, the Miller’s Arms), has re- addition to the Chichester pub scene. opened after a £314,000 refurbishment. The work has ■ CLIMPING been The Black Horse, a Grade II listed 17th undertaken century property, has been bought by by Star Pubs Historic Sussex Hotels. Fleurets marketed & Bars who the property on behalf of Ei Group, off a are owned by guide price of £500,000. The Black Horse is Heineken. The the fourth property in Historic Sussex new licensees Hotels’ portfolio, reports The Caterer, are Fynn joining the Spread Eagle Hotel in Midhurst, Chamberlain Ockenden Manor Hotel & Spa in Cuckfield and Kathryn and the Bailiffscourt Hotel in Climping. Joyce – who manage the Fountain Head on North Road. ■ CRAWLEY The work included a new kitchen, an Crawley overhaul of the toilets and a ‘modern welcomes industrial’ feel inside. There is a new Valerie covered pergola area with heaters, and new Dobinson and furniture and planters in the garden. The her team to beer range will include two cask ales. Fynn the Swan, and Kathryn are looking to reconnect the West Green. pub with the local community. We are really pleased to see this pub return from the dark, where you will find four The beers most of the time. Seven Stars, The Brewery Shades will soon have Ship completed a two-week refit. Street There are plans to run Crawley pride this has re-opened after a refurbishment with a summer which will involve all the pubs on couple of real ales available. the High Street. 6 Sussex Drinker: Summer 2019 Sussex Pub Scratchings — continued ■ EASTBOURNE independent brewers. Card-carrying The Windsor Tavern is still flourishing CAMRA members get a 10% discount on following the recent refurbishment by Craft cask beer too. Union. It offers real ale at very competitive prices; well-kept Taylor Landlord and ■ FERRING Sharp’s Doom Bar were found on a recent The visit. Highdown is a well-known ■ EAST DEAN hotel, The Star and restaurant Garter is now and listed under the public same gardens ownership as recently purchased by the upmarket the Blue Bell Brunning & Price pubco. It offers up to six across the ales including Harvey’s Best and others county from the likes of Arundel, Downlands, border in Hammerpot, Langham, and St. Austell Emsworth. It is offering Sharp’s Doom Bar and two changing real ales from local ■ HAILSHAM breweries. The welcome is still as warm and The King’s the food as good. Head, South Road, now ■ EAST GRINSTEAD serves light The Engine snacks and Room is the meals, brewery tap including a for High home-made Weald curry, on Fridays from 4pm to 9pm plus Brewery, Saturdays and Sundays from 12.30 to 5pm. offering a Their Annual Beer Festival, the only one in range of the Hailsham area, comes around again for four of High the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, kicking- Weald’s own beers along with an ever- off on Friday 24th May. changing selection of other cask ales and some real cider. ■ HAMMERPOT The Woodman Arms, a Fuller’s pub, was ■ FELBRIDGE noted to be closed in March. Technically the village is ■ HASTINGS in Surrey, but Hastings is ready for the summer season straddles the influx of visitors and day-trippers. With two border with micropubs, a brew-pub with a wood West Sussex, burning pizza oven and five pubs in which runs CAMRA’s 2019 Good Beer Guide, it’s a destination for those interested in real pubs past the Star Inn.