Now those of you who know me, and indeed those of you who don’t might assume that I was talking about the Dark Star beer which has become prevalent in London these days. But no! I was amazed to discover another Hophead on the street – this one from a brewery called Brewsters of Lincolnshire. Well, I had to try that.

Brewsters Hophead Pump Clip

I found the Brewsters Hophead a very bitter beer but very light, and it has a similar aftertaste to the Dark Star beer of the same name. But obviously it was a completely different beer.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a hoppy beer would be called Hophead – after all, if the beer was called Best Bitter or Summer Ale for example there wold be no confusion because the brewery would be a key part of the name. But I was a bit confused.

A little research afterwards suggests that Brewsters Hophead might have had the name before the Dark Star beer. Anyway, the branding (pump clips etc) is totally different so I don’t think anyone would really make a mistake.

By the way, the Brewsters Hophead is a very good beer and I would drink it again – if there was no Dark Star Hophead available of course…

The shop stocks the full range of current Hog’s Back beers on draught – including seasonals, and they are happy to provide you with takeaway containers in which to put it. I think the smallest size is 3.5 pints. As well as the draught beer, the shop also carries the full range of Hog’s Back bottled beers too, although some people may be disappointed to learn that the Hog’s Back beers on sale are no longer bottled conditioned.

The selection of beers doesn’t stop there – the shop also carries rows and rows of bottles from many other breweries too, including a good selection of belgian brews. But be warned – the prices for bottles are steep. However the draught beer is reasonably priced though.

If you’re a CAMRA member you can get a 5% discount off the Hog’s Back’s own draught and bottled beers on production of your membership card. For non-members they run a loyalty card scheme which gets you a discount once you’ve made a certain number of purchases.

The Hog’s Back Brewery and shop are situated just south of Tongham village – close to the A31 Hog’s Back.

I’d been to Lewes before but never drunk there – not even on bonfire night which they take very seriously in Lewes. The town itself is a really attractive traditional old town – well worth a visit for things other than pubs.

Arrival in Lewes

There is evidence of the presence of the Harvey’s brewery all over the town. It starts when you get off the train and see the small distribution warehouse across the station car park.

From here I walked up a curving path that used to be, or used to run next to the southern end of the railway line that once linked Lewes with Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells. Looking back towards the station just a bit after the Harvey’s distribution warehouse there is what looks like a tunnel mouth. I’m not familiar enough with the original path of the railway or its history in Lewes, but was the warehouse directly linked to the railway here? Some historical research needed when time permits.

The Harvey’s Brewery (from the outside)

Harveys Brewery, Lewes

The path of the railway gets lost as you approach the High Street but I soon found myself at the bridge over the River Ouse. Diagonally opposite you can see the classic tower structure of the brewery itself – the view seen in many photos obviously taken from the bridge, including the one shown here.

As I wandered down into the brewery yard I was immediately struck by how small the brewery was – no bigger than a small town church really. Given the growing popularity of Harvey’s beers these days I wondered immediately how they managed to cope. I thought immediately of other small scale breweries that were forced to move by the capacity restrictions of their original premises – eg Dark Star and Hop Back. But fortunately for now the brewery shows no sign of having to move.

I had not booked onto a visit so I didn’t stay for long. I made a mental note to return to look tround the brewery one day – although I gather the waiting list is substantial.

I quickly popped into the brewery shop round the corner in Cliffe High Street. Apart from the expected merchandising for sale, the shop appeared to be surprisingly full of bottles of wine rather than beer. Takeaway containers are available here and presumably the draught beer is served straight from the adjacent brewery.

But I didn’t take advantage of that as it was straight on to the first of the pubs on the list – pausing only to explore the pumpkins outside Bill’s cafe on the High Street.

The next post in the series covers the first few pubs we visited in Lewes. A third post covers the last couple.

There’s a map of our Lewes Pub Crawl here.

Surrey Hills beer on sale at Ripley Farmers Market

Ripley in Surrey hosts a Farmer’s Market on the second Saturday of most months. It’s a great place to sample and buy local produce – vegetables, sausages, cheese, olives, curry sauces etc.

The Surrey Hills brewery usually have a stall at the market too and you can buy beer to take home in 2 pint and 4 pint containers. Business was brisk last Saturday and I got there too late for the Gilt Complex but the Shere Drop was on good form so I had that. Ranmore Ale – a slightly darker bitter was also available too.

The Shere Drop went down a treat with the sausage and mash later on.

Further details on Ripley Farmers Market can be found here.

St Peters bottles at the Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon

This picture was taken on a recent trip to the Jerusalem Tavern in Farringdon, London. Apologies for the poor quality – it was taken on my rubbish mobile.

For those who are not familiar with this pub, it is the only London outlet of the St Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk. It’s worth a visit if you like good beer and you’re in the area. The St Peter’s beers are very distinctive in their flavour tasting unlike beers from any other brewery. They usually have 4 or 5 on draught at any one time and most of the rest of the range are available in bottles.

I happened to notice these two bottles on the table on front of me (they weren’t mine) and was intrigued by the one on the left. If you’ve bought St Peter’s beers in the supermarket before you’ll be familiar with the elliptical shape of the base. It doesn’t come over so well in the picture but the left hand one has a circular base. I wonder if this is the new shape? It’s definitely got the St Peter’s badge moulded into the glass so they’re not brought in temporarily from somewhere else.

It would be a shame if the elliptical bottles disappeared.