Royal Mash at Harveys

Her Majesty the Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited Harveys Brewery in Lewes when they came to Sussex on 31st October. The Royal party toured the brewery with Head Brewer & Joint Managing Director Miles Jenner and Chairman & Joint Managing Director Hamish Elder.

On the mash tun floor, the Queen started the Steel’s masher to initiate a brew of Elizabethan Ale. Originally brewed to celebrate her coronation in 1953, Harveys has continued brewing it to the present day.

 

The Royal visitors paused to sign the Brewing Book containing the day’s entries before visiting the copper house, fermenting room, racking cellar and bottling line where the day’s activities continued as normal.

 

Staff congregated at different points en route and spontaneous applause greeted the Royal progress. Miles Jenner commented: ‘The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh took an avid interest in both the process and the jobs that staff were performing. It was a very relaxed tour.’
 

The Royal party joined guests of the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex at a luncheon, hosted by Harveys, in a marquee erected for the visit in the brewery yard. The eighty guests, representing voluntary sector organisations and those involved in public service, enjoyed a meal comprised entirely of Sussex fare including Brill from Newhaven fish market, Sussex Best Bitter and Sussex wines. The Loyal Toast was proposed by Hamish Elder and the Royal visitors left Lewes through streets thronged with well-wishers.

As they departed, the Royal Standard, which had been flown over the brew house as they arrived, was duly lowered.

Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd
6 Cliffe High Street,
Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2AH
(T) 01273 480 209
(F) 01273 483 706
http://www.harveys.org.uk/

Lewes Con Club Beer & Music Festival

Best of Sussex Micros beer festival will take place on Friday 22nd, Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th November at Lewes Con Club, 139, High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1XS, phone 01273 473076.

 

There will be a talk and ‘meet the brewers’ tasting session on the Saturday November 23rd as follows:

 

12.00-12.30: Entry with tickets available for beer tasting and buffet lunch.

 

12.30: David Muggleton (The Quaffer) will introduce the Ale and Hearty DVD, which we will show on club’s TV, and the Ale and Hearty Exhibition.

 

13.00-13.20: David Muggleton will give short talk on the Sussex Micro Brewery Explosion.

13.20-13.45 David Muggleton introduces Mark Tranter for our first tasting session. Mark gives a brief history of Burning Sky and introduces his two beers for tasting.

13.45-14.30: Break for buffet lunch. We may show the Ale and Hearty film again during lunch.

14.30: David introduces Goldmark Brewers Frank McCabe and Mark Lehmann to talk about how they set up and lead the tasting of their beers.

14.45:  David introduces Kissingate Brewers Bunny and Gary Lucas to talk about how they set up and lead the tasting of their beer.

15.00:  David introduces Langham Brewer Lesley Foulkes to talk about how they set up and lead the tasting of their beer.

15.15: David introduces Rectory Brewer Rev Godfrey Broster to talk about how he set up and lead the tasting of his beer.

Times are approximate and David will act as M. C. and encourage questions and participation. The emphasis will be to have a fun and informative afternoon.

http://www.lewesconclub.com/whats-on/17-events/608-friday-22nd-november-2013-beer-and-music-festival-day-1.html

Brighton Bier Story

Brighton Bier is merging with cask ale wholesale specialists WithSoul and fellow Sussex brewery Franklins, in a new venture that we are all very excited about.

We wanted to combine our passion for beer with our shared ambition to play a lead role in the revival of Brighton’s once proud and independent commercial brewing heritage, and put the city firmly back on the brewing map. While continuing to brew at its historic Brighton home in Kemp Town brewpub the Hand in Hand, joining forces means that Brighton Bier will initially be expanding its proud gypsy brewing heritage by utilising the additional cask ale capacity of the Franklins Brewery.

“The quality, integrity and provenance of both the brewery and our beers are of absolute importance. Brighton Bier will never ‘contract’ brew a beer and all beers will be designed and brewed in person, whatever the location, by either myself or Steve Medniuk”. (Gary Sillence, founder of Brighton Bier)

As well as a full range of cask ales, Brighton Bier will also be producing bottled, canned and keg beers including a new lager, in response to customer demand. We are also thrilled at the prospect of collaborating with other micro breweries on exciting one-off projects; so believe us when we say we’ve got some great ideas for this. As a gypsy brewery Brighton Bier will be sourcing available brewing and packaging capacity for some of our new beers at independent host breweries with facilities best suited to specific beers. For us this is just a temporary solution until we relocate to a new location in Brighton and build a completely new brewery where all possible production will be brought back in-house, which we’ll be striving to do as quickly as possible without comprising the quality of our beers.

 “Our aim is for the new brewery to be much more than just a commercial venture. We want it to be a hub for regeneration, tourism and job creation in the city. We want to excite and educate local people about beer and brewing, and involve wherever possible local companies and suppliers.” (Steve Medniuk, Franklins Brewery owner, ex-Dark Star and Purity)

The merger will enable us to produce and directly distribute a wider range of beers across Brighton and South East England. We will be supplementing our own ales with an unparalleled range of beer from more than forty of the UK’s most exciting breweries.

"By combining the new and extended range of Brighton Biers with the existing wholesale and distribution business of WithSoul, our customers will have access to a unique range of beers from exciting breweries across the country. As well as having a choice of great beers, we want to make our customers’ lives a bit easier by offering them one point of contact, one invoice and one delivery. Many of the beers would otherwise be unavailable to order as single casks, if at all in the South East region.” (Ollie Fisher and Steve Whitehurst, WithSoul)

 

In the short-term, some Franklins beers will still be available to fulfil existing contractual obligations, which is good news for our customers as it will give them more beers to choose from.

At Brighton Bier our plan is to embrace the attitude, ingredients and flavour profiles of the progressive beer styles from Belgium, North America and beyond, but to do so in a way that respects the character and historical integrity of British ale. Most importantly of all, we also want to produce great beer at a great price for our customers.

There will be a launch party at the Craft Beer Co, Brighton, from 7.30pm Thursday 14th November.

http://thecraftbeerco.com/2013/11/brighton-bier-co-launch/

 

We look forward to sharing a beer or two with you very soon.

 

Cheers

 

Gary, Steve, Steve and Ollie

http://www.brightonbier.com/

http://franklinsbrewery.co.uk/

http://www.withsoul.co.uk/

 

Time for a Turners at JD Wetherspoon

Turners Brewery and J D Wetherspoon are thrilled to announce their joint venture in developing a new range of exclusive real ales for sale initially within the Brighton and Hove area. The officially launch is Friday 22nd November in the three J D Wetherspoon pubs in Brighton: West Quay, Post and Telegraph and Bright Helm. On the same night at the Cliftonville, George Street, Hove, you can meet the brewers celebrating the partnership, who will be only too pleased to answer any questions you may have.

After a process of refining these exclusive ales, Turners Brewery and J D Wetherspoon have produced two fantastic beers. The new J D Wetherspoon Golden Ale, 4.3% with a subtle dry bitterness, is full of crisp fresh fruits flavours. With a wonderful floral aroma and a light sweet lacy head it perfectly complements practically every meal on the Wetherspoon menu.

The J D Wetherspoon Porter has a luxuriously silky body, jet black in colour with a contrasting white creamy head. Its impeccably balanced rich flavours, light and dry bitterness with aromas of hedgerow fruits combine to make this 4.8% porter effortlessly drinkable. To add that extra touch of class each barrel is dry hopped to enrich the experience with extra flavour and aroma.

The J D Wetherspoon pubs in the region will have the beer available as their house beer with the unique metallic Turners Brewery pump clips proudly displaying the individual pub name.

About Turners Brewery

Turners Brewery is established in Ringmer, East Sussex on a Traditional Family Farm providing unique Real Ales in Sussex and the surrounding area. The brewery operates a plant that can produce 27.5 Brewers Barrel Length (BBL) a week that is 7,920 pints of Real Ale!

media@turnersbrewery.com

http://www.turnersbrewery.com/website/

0845 689 2689

About JD Wetherspoon

J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain with headquarters in Watford, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company owns 880 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music.


http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/

Lister's Littlehampton Ales

If in need of refreshment in Littlehampton, then The Little Coffee House & Bistro offers not only non-alcoholic beverages but bottles of Lister’s Ale brewed on the premises by Philip Waite, son of the family owners. Philip, a cook and self-taught brewer with an art college and oil trading background, built both the fully-automated plant and bottle-filler. The enterprise dovetailed perfectly with the commercial kitchen outlet and an alcohol license was obtained; Lister’s Brewery was registered last October and has been producing the beer since December.

Philip’s aim was to make the kind of session beer he himself would like to drink. It is a 3.9% triple-hopped best bitter, brewed with pale, brown and black malts and including Challenger and Styrian Goldings hops. The bottles have also been on sale at the China Palace restaurant in neighbouring Arundel and two London outlets: Duke’s Brew & Que, N1 (home of the Beavertown Brewery) and the Jamboree Music Venue. A cask version has appeared at the Snowdrop Inn, Lewes.







Philip will soon be rebuilding his 0.25bbl plant to double its capacity and has plans to eventually move off-site into a bigger brewery to supply more pubs within the local area. He is thinking about next brewing a golden ale. And if you haven’t already guessed from the bottle label, Lister was the family terrier, now alas departed to the great kennel in the sky but immortalised in image for what has become this Sussex seaside town’s second brewery.

Lister’s Brewery
The Little Coffee House & Bistro
44 High Street
Littlehampton
West Sussex
BN17 5ED
07775853412
waitephilip@hotmail.co.uk

Stars Behind the Bar

Stars behind the bar at the Evening Star, Brighton are (left and right respectively) Alex Monroe and Alice Sharp. When they are not behind the bar, Alex is most likely reading Scandinavian noir detective fiction. She has a degree in Scandinavian Studies from University College London. Alice is a poet, compère and event-manager under the pseudonym ‘Doctor Bongo’. She does the bar and site management for the Glastonwick festival. Not many people know that Alex is a massive fan of the singer Chris de Burgh and that Alice has been an avid knitter since the age of seven!

 

 

Sussex Drinker

There are five CAMRA branches in Sussex: Western Sussex, Arun & Adur, North Sussex, Brighton and South Downs, South East Sussex. The official ‘public face’ of the Sussex Branches of CAMRA is their quarterly magazine and campaigning tool, Sussex Drinker. The magazine is edited by my good self The Quaffer, designed by Andy Shaw of the CAMRA National Executive and produced by Neil Richards MBE of Matelot Marketing.

The editorial policy of the Sussex Drinker is to highlight, celebrate and promote to as wide and audience as possible the positive developments in the Real Ale scene in Sussex. And we are experiencing some exciting new developments. New micro-breweries continue to open up in our county and we now have our first micro-pub in Sussex – Anchored in Worthing - with others at the planning stage. But it is also the task of the Sussex Drinker to campaign against misguided measures that pose a threat to real ale, the pubs and clubs that serve it and the livelihood of those who work in the industry sector.

To meet rising demand our circulation has risen in the last four years from 5000 to 13250 while the number of pages has increased in the same period from 32 to 60. The editor personally distributes 1400 copies of the magazine outside the county boundaries - into London, Kent, Surrey and Hampshire - and is proud to say that it compares favourably with the vast majority of CAMRA branch magazines in the UK. Our regular features include comprehensive pub and brewery news, a Bus to the Pub Programme supporting the use of public transport, a History and Heritage article, Star behind the Bar, and our Cider House Notes pages. Pictured is the front cover of the current autumn issue. Our forthcoming winter issue, No. 76, is due for delivery on November 7th.

The Sussex Drinker has its own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sussex-Drinker/200356663336203?ref=hl

Part and present issue can also be viewed and downloaded on PDF files at http://www.aaa-camra.org.uk/Sussex%20Drinker/Sussex%20Drinker.html