Sussex Drinker: Summer 2009 - Arun & Adur CAMRA

same as last year’s, starting with thevery traditional Mild for May, then thearomatic Summer Solstice and thenthe eccentric flowery Hylder BlondePeter F Mitchell.FALLEN ANGELBattle, 01424 777996www.fallenangelbrewery.comNothing new to report this time.Bill LaytonFILOat The First In Last Out, Hastings,01424 425079.www.thefilo.co.ukBeers: Crofters (3.8%, all year);Ginger Tom (4.5%, brewed withorganic ginger, all year); Gold (4.8%,normally a premium summer ale);Cardinal (4.6%, brewed as a darkwinter beer); Mike’s Mild (3.4%, a darksummer mild). A special brew, MadJack’s Mild (3.4%) is to be available atthe FILO’s beer festival over the weekend30th April – 4th May, to coincidewith the Jack-In-The-Green Festival.Regular beer festivals are held at theFILO on most bank holiday weekends.Further details are available on thepub’s websiteRon Williams.FULL MOONCatsfield, 07832 220745At Sharpes Farm, Henley Down,Catsfield, Battle, East Sussex TN339BN.Beers are Dark Side (4.4%),Darker Side Porter (4.2%) andHopdance (3.9%). Recent contactwith James at the brewery revealedthat several local pubs have showedinterest in stocking their beers. Latestbeer to be produced Celestial Blonde(4.3%). (Both this and Dark Side havebeen on at the Evening Star)BLO TBCGRIBBLEINDEPENDENT GRIBBLE BREWERY,Oving, nr. Chichester, 01243 789123.Brewery is now run by David Stone,who took over when Brian Elderfieldretired last year. 1000th gyle recentlybrewed and Spring Beer Festival heldover weekend of 24-26 April.Jerry Marchant.HAMMERPOTPoling, nr Arundel, 01903 883338www.hammerpot-brewery.co.ukSales of Vinery Mild went exceptionallywell. The Pale Ale will be availablefrom June and the web site is nowupdated weekly, please check for currentoutlets for Hammerpot beers.Roy Bond.HARVEYSLewes, 01273 480209.www.harveys.org.ukAdrian Heft handed over the reinsto me in the sample room of the breweryafter the CAMRA AGM tour of thebrewery on Saturday evening (18th).As I am sure you all know, Harveyssponsored the AGM weekend. Theyare very generous towards CAMRA,sponsoring our branch Ale Trail eachyear and the glasses at the SouthDowns Beer Festival, amongst otherthings. I know Miles Jenner is veryappreciative of what CAMRA do, andhopefully the sentiments are mutual.We must, however, be careful not totake this for granted.As well as sponsoring the AGMweekend, Harveys, in the form ofMiles himself, entertained the NationalExecutive on the Friday lunchtime andhosted two tours of the brewery on theFriday and Saturday evenings. Adrianand I helped shepherd the crowds andserved them the eight available beersfrom the sample room after the tours.The Old Ale and Star of Eastbournewere particularly popular. The participantsall seemed to enjoy themselvesvery much. Although the microbreweryis not yet up and running, we wereable to view it and most of the equipmentis now in position.A special beer was provided for theGardener’s Arms in Lewes to celebratethe 3,000th different real ale sincethe pub reopened in 2001. It was ablend of Porter and Imperial RussianStout and the pub decided to call itYou Won’t Like It. This is a bit of an“in” joke, and I am sure most regularswould have understood it. The beercame out at 7.14% and was extremelypleasant.The summer beer, Olympia, isnow available in many pubs andshould be around until the Old Alereturns in October. The next monthlyseasonal beers are Knots of May andCopperwheat.Jack WilkinsonHEPWORTH & CoHorsham, 01403 269696.www.thebeerstation.co.ukHepworth marked the 1000th brew(10 Million pints) at the end of January2009. Francis Maude, ConservativeM.P. for Horsham was present, at thismomentous occasion for the brewery.The actual brew itself was HepworthsBlonde Lager. Andy rightly took theopportunity to talk with Maude aboutthe question of tax on beer.Hepworths draught cask ale salesare up 25% percent on this time lastyear. Bottled beer sales are also up10%. Sales of Old Ale have trebled.Andy feels that locally-brewed darkcask ale is popular with the youngerdrinker at this time. Consequently, thebrewery will be producing Dark Horse,which at 3.8% will enable it to enterinto the Spirit of Camra’s Make Maya Mild Month Campaign. Also availableto certain pubs during May will beHepworths famed Old Ale. HepworthsSpring Ale this year is Super Horseat 6.1% ABV. Summer Ale will be outin June.John Keller.KEMPTOWNat The Hand in Hand, Brighton, 01273699595.The beers brewed at the Hand inHand have changed slightly recently,as drinkers at the pub may havenoticed. The hops used have changedto Pilgrim for the flavour & Celia forthe aroma. This has also given thebeers a more golden colour. Matt (thebrewer) is extremely pleased with allSussex Drinker: Summer 2008 11