Drink in Brighton - The Laine Brewery

Like many of the new generation of brewers, Nigel Dallas used to work in IT. He became passionate about craft beer several years ago when in Australia and started to homebrew there. After returning to the UK in 2010, Nigel took a three month diploma course at Brewlab. He cut his brewing teeth at Thornbridge and then worked for Dark Star before becoming the brewer for The Laine Brewery at the North Laine, Brighton.

This is a brewpub (pictured below) managed by Penny O’Reilly and owned by the company Drink In Brighton.

The 5-barrel reconditioned kit from ABUK first brewed in October 2012. The first beer launched, Porter (4.6%), was revived this April as the 5.3% Slaughter. A 6.9% Christmas ale was called Silent Night, while Hooker was a 4.0% Six Nations rugby-themed amber ale.

New on the pumps during March was Black Rock, an oatmeal stout at 4.5%; this and the 5.0% IPA (American-style using Columbus hops) are permanent beers. A red ale at 5.0% is to be launched during the Brighton Fringe Festival, followed by a 3.5% pale and hoppy summer ale.

Nigel is currently brewing twice a week and racking once weekly. His beers are presently only available at the brewpub where three third-pint measures can be purchased for the price of a pint.

Note that the 4.0% Laine’s Best is brewed at Horsham-based WJ King. It is a rebadge of their Brighton Best and available at all Drink In Brighton pubs. Nigel says that as production steadily increases, the beers may become available in the company’s other Brighton outlets but as this is their first brewing venture they will wait to see how demand develops.

The Laine Brewery

The North Laine Bar and Brewhouse, 27 Gloucester Place, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 4AA

Tel: 01273 683666

Email: northlaine@drinkinbrighton.co.uk

www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/north-laine

Burgess Hill Town FC, 4th Annual Beer Festival, 25th May 2013

On Saturday 25th May, from 1pm - 12am, Burgess Hill Town Football Club holds its 4th Annual Beer Festival. The club is located at Leylands Park, Maple Drive, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 8DL.

Entrance fee is £5, which includes a free pint. Tickets can be obtained from the Football Club (07969 525397) or Mooch Café Bar (01444 244888). All other enquiries to Dave Bradbury on 07794799850, or email: thedavebradbury@gmail.com

Click on the poster image for more details.

Crawley Beer & Cider Festival, 11th-12th May 2013

Gary Lucas, brewer at Kissingate brewery, and Nigel Bullen, of the North Sussex Branch of CAMRA, are to hold a brand new beer festival in Crawley from 10th to 12th May this year. They have managed to secure the use of Three Bridges Football Club, with its large pitch and comfortable clubhouse, conveniently located just ten minutes walk/stagger from Three Bridges mainline train station.

They would welcome any help that CAMRA members may be able to offer at one of the following sessions: Friday 10th May from 1800 to 2300: Open for CAMRA members and friends only as a special preview evening, where all beers should be available (a ticker’s delight!).

Saturday 11th May from 1100 to 1700: First public session with FA Cup Final shown live on a big screen in the clubhouse; Saturday 11 May from 1700 to 2300: Evening public session with no ear-splitting live music; Sunday 12 May from 1100 to 1700: Meet the Horsham brewers at 1300, drink up and clear up.

Gary and Nigel need stewards, bar staff and gate staff and will feed you and also allow free drinking (within reason)! Please advise your CAMRA members about the festival and if you could circulate the attached poster then this would also be much appreciated. Tickets are just £3 in advance (or in limited numbers on the door) and beer will be just £3 a pint for those under 6.0% ABV. There will be some excellent beers, mainly from microbreweries in the South East of England and a few from further afield as well as great ciders and perries.

Click on the poster to enlarge for ticket outlets and more details.

The Windmill Inn, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

There have been two pubs of this name, commemorating a windmill that until c 1845 stood nearby. The first pub was built in the late 1850s on the north side of Upper Shoreham Road, which in the 19th century was called Higher Road.

According to the website Directory of Pubs in the UK, the Post Office Directory lists the following licensees: 1866, J. Z. Batterbee; 1878, Henry Peirce; 1890, William Smith; 1899, T. Wood; 1905 and 1915, George Scarrett; 1930, Mrs Elizabeth H. Scarrett.

The original Windmill was owned by the Hove brewery E. Robins & Son previous to its acquisition in the late 1920s by the Kemp Town Brewery.

It remained as a pub until 1934 when the license was transferred to the new Windmill Inn. The three-storey building was used as a fish and chip shop and then a wet fish shop before being demolished in 1972 when the A27 became a dual carriageway.

 

 Following road widening in the mid-1930s, the second Windmill Inn was built at 180 Old Shoreham Road, on the south side, diagonally opposite the first pub, and on the east side of the junction with Roman Road. A Kemp Town Brewery ‘improved public house’, its first licensee may have been a P. Tesher (as recorded in the 1938 Post Office Directory). The licensee during the 1960s was Bobby Lee, ex-captain of Brighton Tigers ice hockey team.

The second Windmill Inn was demolished in September 2010, unfortunately before I was able to photograph it myself.

A new residential development now occupies the site. Grateful thanks to Ted Heasman and Loz Aslett for the photographs.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), ‘The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present’, Part Two, Sussex Drinker, 13 (summer), pp. 12-14.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/ http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/WindmillSouthwick.shtml

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

The Railway Tavern, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

A Railway Hotel, Southwick, is listed in the early 1930s Kemp Town Brewery publication, “Houses” of Repute in Sussex, but is absent from a 1948 map of the brewery’s houses. The historical website Directory of Pubs in the UK has an entry for the Railway Tavern, 77 Albion Street, Southwick, which is at 137 Albion Street by 1938. This is probably a re-numbering rather than relocation; Loz Aslett (1998) identifies the position of tavern to have been on the north side of Albion Street mid-way between Grange Road and Lock Road. He also states it to have been built in 1840, the same year as Southwick railway station was opened.

Local historian Ted Heasman (2009) claims the tavern to have been built in the 1860s and that the first recorded landlord was a David Brazier in 1866. The Directory of Pubs in the UK historical website concurs with this latter point and, using information from Census, Post Office and Trade Directories etc., identifies the following licensees: 1866, D. Brazier; 1878, William Hylands; 1890, Alfred Funnell; 1899 and 1905, Mrs Harriet Rebecca Dudley; 1915, 1930 and 1938, Richard Stevenson.

Heasman further suggests that the Railway Tavern acquired its name because the station ticket office was until 1899 at the western end of the platform and could then be accessed by a track from the west side of the pub. In the photograph, kindly supplied by Lewis Whitby, originally by way of Ted Heasman, Railway Tavern appears on the fascia but hotel accommodation is clearly advertised on the first floor. The landlord’s surname appears above the door of the Public Bar. The brewers are Abbey & Sons, which dates the photo to between the time that Richard Stevenson took over as licensee and March 1933 when this Brighton-based company registered the name Kemp Town Brewery.

When the track to the railway station was closed, houses, shops and workshops for a garage were built to the west and rear of the tavern. The tavern was a semi-detached building; the other half was later the Post Office. KTB sold the pub in 1940 and the property became offices for Warr and King, architects, before being demolished c. 1963.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), ‘The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present’, Part One, Sussex Drinker, 12 (spring), pp. 12-14.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/RailwayTavern.shtml

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

The Shipwrights Arms, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

The Shipwrights Arms was on the north side of Albion Street (A259), at No. 107, at the west corner with Rock Road opposite Southwick Town Hall. According to Southwick local historian Ted Heasman, from whom the photograph was originally obtained, the Public Bar was accessed from Albion Street and the door to the Saloon Bar was on Rock Road.

The photograph shows it when it also had a corner entrance and was advertising Worthington’s Pale and Strong Ales, Reid’s Stout and bottled Bass. It was a Kemp Town Brewery pub by the early 1930s.

The first recorded landlord was William George Crosskey in 1867, probably the year the pub was built. The Post Office Directory also records the following licensees: 1915, James Morley; 1930, Frank Henry Wilshere; 1938, George W Beall. The Shipwrights Arms was demolished c. 1962 in the redevelopment of Southwick, which involved the wholesale loss of many Albion Street properties and slip roads and the construction of a new shopping centre to the north of the A259.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present, Part One, Sussex Drinker, Issue 12 (spring), pp. 12-14.

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/ShipwrightsArms.shtml

Anchor Springs Yard Arm

Undoubtedly my favourite real ale from this Littlehampton brewery, it is sad to report that the brewing of Yard Arm has been indefinitely suspended. This seasonal, speciality beer, 4.3% ABV, 1046° OG, appeared with considerably success at regional beer festivals, but brewery owner Kevin Jenkins never really saw it fit comfortably within his pub portfolio of best-sellers.

That is probably why I have no permanent pump clip image to offer.

In the interest of recording Yard Arm for posterity, it was brewed in the autumn and winter months using Pale, Crystal, Amber and Chocolate malts. Target was the bittering hop, EKG in the middle, Cascade and Fuggles were used for aroma with vanilla pods added to the boil.


Dark copper-coloured and full-bodied, well-balanced between vanilla sweetness and bitter chocolate, this complex beer had a pronounced yet subtle vanilla end note at the back of the mouth.