Celebrating the Real Ale Scene in Sussex Sussex Drinker Spring 2017 Free Sussex CAMRA Branches 27th Beer and Cider Festival 2017 PUBLISHED AND FINANCED BY THE SUSSEX BRANCHES OF THE Thursday 23rd to CAMPAIGN FOR Saturday 25th March REAL ALE Brighton Racecourse 27th Sussex CAMRA Branches Beer & Cider Festival The 27th Sussex SUSSEX CAMRA CAMRA Branches Beer & Cider Festival BRANCHES will be held at Brighton 27th BEER and CIDER Racecourse, Elm Grove, BN1 1UE from FESTIVAL 2017 Thursday 23 – (* Or until the beer runs out!) Saturday 25 March (**On door only with valid NUS ID) 2017. This is a much larger venue than last Doors will open 20 minutes before official year, is fully opening times to allow time to pick up your free wheelchair accessible and has lots of seating glass and programme and to buy tokens. and tables! Advance tickets will be available from Monday Free shuttle buses will be 23 January 2017 – Friday 17 March 2017 available from the rear of inclusive Brighton Station to and from the from each session (not following Saturday evening). A full outlets: timetable will be issued Evening on the website & in pubs Star, selling tickets nearer the Brighton; festival. Brighton & Gardener’s Hove buses number 2 Arms & and 22 stop outside the venue and buses 21, Brewers Arms, Lewes; Duke of Wellington 21A, and 23 stop nearby (see B&H website Arms, Shoreham-by-Sea; Selden Arms, www.buses.co.uk for full details). Worthing; and Beer Essentials, Horsham. For postal sales, please state which session(s) you There will be around 160 beers from across the require and enclose a 9x4 SAE with your UK, including new beer launches from some of cheque, made payable to “Sussex CAMRA the 59+ Sussex Breweries; plus a large selection Beer & Cider Festival” and send to SBB&CF of ciders and perries. A variety of food will also Ticket Sales, 16 Connell Drive, Woodingdean, be on sale, including vegetarian options. Brighton, BN2 6RT. Sorry, NO REFUNDS. The beer will be cooled throughout the festival. If you are lucky enough to look under 25 years This means that it should be in the same old, bring photo ID and please note that you excellent condition on Saturday evening, as it is must be over 18 to gain admission. when we open on Thursday night. A minimum of 50 tickets for each session will Opening Times & Ticket Prices: be available on the door. Those who buy their Thursday 23/03/17 5pm - 10pm £5.00 tickets in advance will enter the venue first. Friday 24/03/17 11am - 3pm £6.00 5pm - 10pm £8.00 A BIG thank you to our main sponsors Dark Saturday 25/03/17 11noon – 7pm* £5.00 Star Brewery & Harveys Brewery, much 3.30pm – 7pm* £2.50** appreciated! Sussex Drinker: Spring 2017 3 27th Sussex CAMRA Branches Beer & Cider Festival Dark Star Brewery has opened a new pub in BEFORE ‘time’ is called at the bar. Surplus Haywards Heath, The Lockhart, 41 The tokens may be deposited in the festival charity Broadway, RH16 3AS. They have kindly box. offered a prize of a main meal for 4 people plus a pint each, which is worth around £70. In For more information see the festival website addition, they are supplying their vintage www.sussexbeerfestival.co.uk. If you would shuttle bus to the racecourse. Big thanks Dark like to volunteer to Star! work at the festival and have not done Harveys Brewery has a 3 year waiting list so in the past, (which is currently closed) to tour the brewery! please see the They have kindly offered 2 brewery tours, for website. All 2017 which tickets will be available to purchase at festival enquiries the festival. If you are unable to attend the to: [email protected] or festival but would like to purchase a ticket, 07450656148. Please also follow our Twitter please text us at the number below. In addition feed: @SussexBeerFest. anyone who joins CAMRA by Direct Debit at the festival will receive a free ticket to the tour. We look forward to seeing both old friends and Big thanks Harveys! new in March! All bars will operate a token system. Token Ruth Anderson refunds will be given for whole £’s only Festival Organiser ADUR VALLEY BEER WALK Spurred on by the success of the Ballards Beer Walk each December, plans are well advanced for an Adur Valley Beer Walk this summer, with not one but possibly three breweries. Adur, Riverside and The Stonemasons Inn Downlands Breweries are within a few miles of each PUBLIC HOUSE . DINING . ACCOMMODATION other in the lower Adur valley, with Steyning and some lovely pubs in between. Footpaths and country A warm welcome always awaits you roads connect them up and you can walk alongside the at this lovely 17th century Inn lovely River Adur for part of the way. The breweries Local seasonal menu would be open from noon to 6pm offering their beers at brewery prices and of course the pubs would be Real Ales open too. The proposed date is Saturday 27th May (Cask Marque Award & featured in CAMRA Best Beer Guide 2015) 2017 which is a Bank Holiday weekend, but for 2018 Good Wine Cellar Roaring log fires it may be the weekend after and be part of the Steyning Festival, if successful. So far, Riverside and Adur Comfortable en-suite accommodation Breweries are signed up, with Downlands ’thinking about it’. If they come on board there will probably be a half-hourly minibus to connect the breweries, for those unable to walk the full distance. The No.2 bus from Brighton and Shoreham stops right outside Riverside Brewery then goes into Steyning, with a Compass bus connecting Small Dole and Steyning. Opening hours: Mon-Sat noon-11pm, Sun noon-6pm More details will be in the next Sussex Drinker when North Street, Petworth GU28 9NL • 01798 342510 everything is finalised… and probably with a route [email protected] map too. Adrian Towler www.thestonemasonsinn.co.uk 4 Sussex Drinker: Spring 2017 Contributors: Peter Adams, Graham Bean, Pat Higgins, Steve Obey, Phil Packham, John Quick, Ian Robertson, David Seall, David Muggleton, Mike Hedgethorne News of new developments and updates on the committee. More than 300 people invested to Sussex pub scene will be gratefully received by take ownership of the pub, which was listed as the Editor for consideration in Scratchings. The an Asset of Community Value. Enterprise Inns standard disclaimer on p. 46 applies to all asset and development director Richard items. Broadribb said: “There was considerable interest in The Half Moon and we are delighted ■ ALCISTON the local community has been successful in its The new owners of the Rose Cottage Inn bid to take over ownership. As a business we approached South Downs National Park regularly review our pubs and unfortunately Authority for pre-application advice as they there are occasions when some of our pubs no wish to change the pub to residential use. longer fit the criteria to remain under our However, the planning officer’s reply was not ownership. It’s pleasing to see the community positive as the pub is inside the National Park, has managed to take on The Half Moon to in a Conservation Area and is a Grade II listed secure its future as a pub. We wish them the best building. The reply can be viewed on the of luck for completion next week and have Authority’s web site. Firm policies which offered to support them over the coming months prevent change of use of ‘community should they need it.” The BCP is now looking infrastructure’ were cited. A previous for a publican to run the business. Secretary application was refused in 2014, when an Rodney Saunders said: “Village support has investigation commissioned by the Authority been critical and our success is a testament to concluded that the Rose Cottage Inn was a the strong community spirit in Balcombe. More viable business so should continue as a public than 300 villagers invested to keep our pub a house. pub. We are also grateful for the advice and ■ ASHURSTWOOD support from The Plunkett Foundation. With The Three Crowns reopened as ‘La Pergola’, their help we didn’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ only to close again. It has since reopened again and we are proud to have joined the growing as a Mexican/Italian Food establishment, but ranks of community-owned pubs.” The sale does stock two cask beers. was handled by agent Fleurets. ■ BALCOMBE ■ BOGNOR REGIS Enterprise Inns The Aviator Bar and Grill at the Carlton has has sold the been sold by Fuller’s to Marston’s. Half Moon, to ■ BRIGHTON the local The future of the Caroline of Brunswick, community Grand Parade looks more rosey with the current after residents management having been offered a 5-year raised almost lease. £300,000 to buy the pub. Contracts have been exchanged and the sale is due to complete on The William IV, at the corner of Bond Street Monday, 23 January following a campaign by and Church Street, has closed. the Balcombe Community Pub (BCP) 6 Sussex Drinker: Spring 2017 An ever changing range of five cask conditioned Five Bells ales that always includes Smock Alley one mild, one session bitter, two best bitters West Chiltington and one strong bitter. West Sussex Plus one changing craft keg beer, Hacker Pschorr RH20 2QX genuine Munich lager, 01798 812143 and Westons Old Rosie Cider on gravity. Homemade traditional Arun & Adur food, plus 5 en suite CAMRA bedrooms. Country All of this in a very Pub of the traditional pub! Year 2016 www.thefivebellsinn.com Sussex Drinker: Spring 2017 7 Sussex Pub Scratchings — continued ■ BURWASH Inn to celebrate its listing as an Asset of The new tenant at Community Value (ACV).