Sussex Drinker Issue 18
Spring 1999

The Quadrant freehouse, in central Brighton, may be threatened with demolition.

Brighton Council may demolish the entire block of buildings opposite the Clock Tower, although nothing is certain until the draft report is published in April. Experts believe that more shops are likely.

The Quadrant is 140 years old, and sells its own house beer QSB as well as three other constantly changing real ales. It also sells Belgian beers, both bottled and on tap, and Thatchers real cider. The interior is rather different from the norm, as well.

Given all this, an attempt is being made to get the pub listed; we hear that a council officer has suggested this may be quite feasible.

There’s a petition available behind the bar, so please do pop in and add your name; the more names on the petition, the more likely it is that the council will leave the Quadrant alone.

More details may be available from the pub’s website at http://www.quadrant.force9.co.uk/ although this was still very much under construction as we went to press.

Local cider producer Gibbon Strangler has ceased production; we believe that the reason was a lack of outlets taking real cider. Apparently they plan to drink the remaining cider themselves!

Old Forge has changed its name to Forge. The brewery has also recently launched a new beer, called Forge Bitter, which clocks in at 3.2% ABV.

Licensing Hours

The Home Office are currently studying proposals to extend pub opening times by an extra hour, dubbed a "sobering-up hour" as no alcohol will be on sale during that time. Many publicans dislike the plan, as it would mean paying staff for the extra hour with little extra income; additionally, customers may well "stock up" with drinks before 11, leading to the same binge drinking problems that we currently have!

Hove now has a Pubwatch scheme, with participating pubs being linked by a pager network allowing details of troublemakers to be rapidly shared. People barred from one pub will be barred from all the others, as well.

Hove Police’s licensing officer said that the scheme did not imply that Hove was a particularly problematic area, adding that "Hove is a safe place to drink and the licensees want to keep it that way".

Publicans have lost up to 20% of their Christmas trade to the French, according to the Sussex Society of Licensed Victuallers, with restaurant owners also noticing a drop in the number of people drinking with meals. Will we see a duty cut in the Budget? Probably not, despite all the advantages.

By the time you read this, the Australian-themed Walkabout Inn should have opened in Brighton’s West Street, serving a range of Australian and New Zealand beers. Real ale is probably going to be unlikely, though the bottle-conditioned Cooper’s Sparkling Ale and Best Extra Stout would be a nice substitute… (hint, hint — Ed)

The J D Wetherspoon chain continues to expand, with an application in for a 720 square metre pub in Worthing’s Chapel Road, just a short distance from the Fathom and Firkin. Local police have criticised the plan, saying that they could not cope with another pub in the area.

Brighton’s licensing magistrates have rejected plans for another superpub, this one being part of Marston’s Pitcher and Piano chain. The pub was planned for the corner of New Road and North Street.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that Inntrepreneur is entitled to enforce its beer tie in full; most of the rebel pubs concerned have since been sold to Nomura (who have formed the Unique Pub Company to run them).

Speaking of Unique, they recently put the lease of the St James Tavern in Kemptown up to closed bidders, leaving Poul Jensen, his brother Mark and his girlfriend Sammi having to move out after their bid lost out. Mark said: "We have lost everything we’ve worked for. It’s a nightmare." Mark will be cycling across Australia in April to raise money for Mencap.

The owners of the Fishbowl (formerly the Greyhound) in Brighton’s East Street have been ordered to remove an 8ft sign that depicts a goldfish in a bowl. Brighton Council said that the sign was out of character with the conservation area. Bizarrely, an identical sign on another side of the pub can remain!

Sadly, the former King’s Head in Cuckfield will never open as a pub again, as it has been converted into six apartments; four have already been sold.

The Whitehawk Inn, which closed in 1990, is to reopen as an Internet café; we don’t currently know if it will be licensed, though. Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour is to gain a Harvester pub/restaurant.

The Black Dog & Duck, Bury, has reopened — two years after a fight to prevent it from being delicensed.

The Wick Inn, Hove, has reopened after a three month refit, and has been renamed Nan Tuck’s Tavern by owners Scottish & Newcastle Retail. Local historian Averil Older has objected to the changes, saying that the pub was there when the area was still open farmland. Landlord John Wildey says that the pub has been named after a witch from Lewes; it has a horror theme to match. Hopefully the old etched windows have been saved. Real ale is still being sold, though as we went to press we didn’t know which ones (Enville Gothic would be appropriate!)

The Friar’s Oak, Hassocks, has now reopened after its recent refurbishment, and is now called the Pilgrim Goose as reported in the previous issue.

The Public Houses Names Bill, which aims to stop pub owners from changing the names of pubs without consulting regulars and locals, receives its second reading in Parliament on March 5. The bill is a Private Member’s Bill, so it still has many obstacles to overcome; last year’s bill to outlaw the selling of short pints was defeated all too easily by one MP saying "object".

Greene King has turned the once-excellent Rose & Crown in Bexhill into a Hungry Horse; our correspondent reports that "it’s as bad as it sounds". Interestingly, we still haven’t had a reply from Greene King to our article in issue 15, though they seem to have managed to talk to What’s Brewing about it, saying that the changes only affect managed houses, not tenancies.

The Senny Lind in Hastings Old Town is now under new management, and has three real ales, with a possibility of more in the summer.

The Aldrington in Hove has been nominated for the Community Pub of the Year award; regulars have raised £4,000 for the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital over the past seven years, despite thieves having stolen a collection bottle containing over £700. The pub winning the award will receive £10,000 to donate to the charities of its choice. The Sutherland Arms in Brighton’s Kemptown has also been nominated.

Enterprise Inns are running their own charity award scheme for their pubs, and the Burstead Tavern, near Bognor, has been nominated for one, after raising around £1,500 for St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester.

Martin Holohan, landlord of the Half Moon, Crawley, has won an award for training from Allied Domecq Inns.

The landlord of the Hogshead in Burgess Hill has offered staff £1,000 for one night’s work — the night in question being New Year’s Eve, of course!

The Cleveland in Brighton is now selling Rother Valley Level Best on gravity dispense.

On the first May Bank Holiday weekend, the Duke in the Silverhill area of St Leonards will be holding a beer festival with 20 beers.

The New Inn, Hadlow Down, is holding a mini beer festival on the second May Bank Holiday weekend (that would be May 29/30/31) with 15 beers; they’ll be open all day on the Saturday and Sunday.

The festival, held in Hove in late February, was once again a great success, with record attendances at most sessions; most of the 148 real ales were sold. All of the cider went as well — unfortunately, it sold out an hour before we closed — sorry about that! Your unused beer tokens were donated to charity once again, with a record £733.29 going to the Martlets Hospice in Hove.

The Beer of the Festival award went to Alchemy’s Aurum Ale; Salopian’s Puzzle Wheat Beer was second, and Abbeydale’s Absolution was third. The best-placed locally-brewed beer was King & Barnes Sussex Bitter, which was equal fourth overall.

In last issue, we reported the dates of the London Drinker festival as being March 4 – 6; that should have read March 24 – 26! Hopefully none of you had a wasted journey…

The Brighton & South Downs Ale Trail will run from May 29 to September 30, once again with forty pubs taking part. The prize structure is likely to be along the same lines as in previous years — a sweatshirt and either a glass or T-shirt for doing all forty (plus free entry to a prize draw), a sweatshirt for completing thirty and a T-shirt for completing twenty. Everyone completing a trail will receive a cartoon map sponsored by Gales.

The launch night will take place on Friday, May 28 at the Royal Oak in Lewes; this year’s theme is Sale of the Century — £19.99 Ale Trail. More details and attractions later.

We will be planning more bus trips this summer and a vintage bus will be taking people from Brighton to the launch; again, more details later.

Shepherd Neame’s decision to ditch the bottle-conditioned version of its 4.5% ABV Spitfire and replace it with a brewery-conditioned one has been greeted with anger by many CAMRA members.

Spitfire was the country’s most widely-distributed bottle-conditioned ale, and had been in the headlines recently when What’s Brewing columnist Lynne Pearce was accused of writing "insulting drivel" after attacking its "macho" advertising.

But Edinburgh CAMRA member Kim Rennie echoed a sentiment felt by many when he said: "What surely is ‘insulting’ is not the current Shepherd Neame advertising campaign for Spitfire bitter, but the decision to replace the bottle-conditioned product in my local supermarket with an ersatz version in almost identical packaging.

"Though there had seemed something a bit different about the labels, I put it down to the frequent makeovers beloved of the brewing industry. Only on reaching home did I realise the magic words ‘bottle-conditioned’ and ‘pour carefully’ were missing, together with any trace of sediment — and taste.The similarity of the two beers’ labelling seems designed to fool the unwary, and as I can attest, was singularly successful — once."

But Shepherd Neame production director Ian Dixon revealed the brewery had plans to build Spitfire into a national contender in its class — and the "bottle-conditioned" tag was holding it back.

"We felt that bottle-conditioning restricted it to a niche," he said. "We wanted to make it much more widely available, but quite a few people — particularly buyers for supermarkets — looked on it as being a bit of a speciality.

"And unfortunately not all drinkers are as knowledgeable as CAMRA members, and we did get quite a few letters from the public complaining that the beer was hazy and had bits in it."

Reproduced from What’s Brewing

I awoke at some hitherto only dreamt of hour, a mechanical alarm clock battering my tympanic membrane. My left arm made an autonomic gesture in a futile attempt to remove this source of profound annoyance, sending the offending beast crashing to the floor, where it continued its war cry in wounded defiance before ending its death-throes.

My mind began to surface as I retrieved the timepiece from the floor. I stared it half-blankly in the face and looked at the time. It didn’t register so I repeated the exercise, confirming that I had asked it to wake me up at 7:15 on a Sunday morning. Why? In an instant, I remembered the Ballards Brewery walk that Cyn had taken the trouble to organise. I hauled myself out of bed and opened the curtains to a crisp and decidedly autumnal morning. Thank God it was not raining. It promised to be one of those great days that occasionally happen, and we were both now looking forward to it.

We picked up the minibus at Durrington station at 9:00, with Pat, Allan and Angie already aboard. Next stop was Broadwater Green where Roger and Sue joined us. After this we picked up Jerry, stopped off at Findon for Ian then picked Stuart up at Chichester. We were on our way, and there was not a cloud in the sky.

To anyone unfamiliar with the "Ballards Walk", it is a highlight of the beer lovers’ calendar. It is always on the first Sunday in December, and starts at the brewery, taking in a country walk and up to four pubs. This year was my first and Ballards’ eleventh. The brewery use this as an occasion to raise money for charity, this year BIBIC, the British Institute for Brain Damaged Children. They also use it as a vehicle to unveil their annual "Beer of the Year", which until this date is a secret guarded so closely that even the KGB don’t know the name of it. The only thing which was not a secret was its alcoholic strength; in 1997 it was 9.8% (for 1998) so this year it was going to be 9.9% ABV. Crikey!

We arrived at the brewery at about 10:30 in knife-sharp sunshine and Siberian temperatures. The brewery is at Nyewood, in Industrial Unit C, The Old Sawmill. It is in Sussex (according to my OS map; the address puts it in Hampshire). We eagerly piled out of the minibus to join the already quaffing hikers, and I anxiously joined the beer queue. As my turn to get served approached, it became apparent that the new brew was called "Trout Tickler". It was still a bit early for me, so I wimped out and had a pint of Wassail. I have to say that when I was asked £1.25 for it the shock damn nearly killed me. It was gorgeous, but when time for a refill came I had a pint of the Best Bitter. Call me old fashioned if you like, but when walking in terra incognita I do like to at least be able to string two words together in case I need to ask the way. I tried some of Pat’s Trout Tickler and re-affirmed to myself that ridiculously strong British beers are OK provided someone else gets the job of drinking them. This year’s offering is made with locally grown hops, from a new hop garden in Sidlesham, and sugars and colour are supplied entirely by the mash, which uses only barley malt, so its quality is assured. Following the fermentation, it is matured in the cask or bottle for at least six weeks.

After my 2.5th pint, my mind started getting involved with such metaphysical problems as "Will the Millennium Bug hit Ballards? Will next year’s beer be 10% ABV? Will it be 0% ABV?" My brain was clearly becoming as numb as the hands that grasped the sub-zero glass. Fortuitously, at about 11:40, the walk began.

It was a lovely walk; we left the brewery yard and took the footpath out of Nyewood, across some extraordinarily crunchy fields. I was becoming grateful for the intervention of winter’s icy hand upon the erstwhile rather soggy landscape. The walk proceeded past the Great Plantation, by Loaders Copse and through Woodhouse Farm. Most of the time it was easy going, but for a rather steep bit at The Hassocks, where I was glad of my trusty stick.

Walking through Elsted Churchyard, we emerged back onto the road, and very soon found ourselves at the Three Horseshoes, where I opted for a pint of Ringwood Fortyniner. I then showed my appreciation by opting for another, and some food. The ambient temperature was by this time soaring above zero, and many of our party were soaring above several pints. This, coupled with being hot from the walking had a generally divestitive effect. The day felt positively sultry.

I was just settling down in the afternoon sun, when it was time to leave for the Elsted Inn. I lazily donned my coat and prepared for the off.

The walk between the two pubs is just sufficient to work up a good thirst, two miles at the most, down Elsted Road. I had been to the Elsted Inn before and was looking forward to a return visit. As we squeezed through the doorway, the pub seemed fit to burst, though after fighting our way in there was plenty of room for all. My eyes lit up as I saw the Harveys Sussex Bitter pump clip. This was rapidly followed by a malevolent glare at Jerry, who had just bought the last pint. "Round hairy things" I thought to myself, accusing the unfortunate man of not knowing who his father was.

I can’t remember what beer I drank, or how many, but I do remember enjoying myself. This will, hopefully, teach me the value of making notes as I go along, in future. We stayed at The Elsted Inn until 4:00 when our carriage awaited. I didn’t tickle a lot of trout on 6th December, but had a marvellous time nonetheless, and was truly gone fishin’. Next year’s trip is already pencilled in.

Does your pub stock a guest beer? If so, take a good look at it now, because it might not be there much longer!

Freehouses are being bought up at a startling rate by pub chains and medium-sized breweries, as are pubs formerly owned by the large breweries. The legal right to a guest beer only applies to pubs owned by breweries who hold over a certain number of pubs — smaller breweries are exempt, as are non-brewing chains. The result of this is generally a reduction of choice; many chains are offering publicans a choice between discounts and guest beers. Unsurprisingly, publicans choose discounts, as without them there would be no profit.

Who suffers? You do, when the only beers available are national blands like John Smith’s. The smaller brewers do, when their sales drop (the number of reports of Harvey’s being dropped seems to grow every week). Ultimately, if this continues, the only way for smaller brewers to survive will be to expand their tied estate, so they have somewhere to actually sell their beers — or to merge with other brewers. If a brewer wants to expand its tied estate, they will probably buy up even more freehouses, or end up with the castoffs from the big players (and probably, they’ll do a much better job with these pubs, too!)

It’s time this absurd practice was stopped. The threshold for a brewer’s estate to qualify for the guest beer right is around 2,000 pubs; this needs to come down to 1,000 or possibly even less. Chains should be treated the same way as brewery-tied estates — particularly if the chain has effectively tied itself to a particular brewery in any case! (Brewery X sells 3,000 pubs to Chain Y, who agrees to stock only beers from Brewery X — and suddenly the guest beer right is no more! Crazy!) We would also need to outlaw the practice of giving greater discounts to publicans who waive their guest beer right, or agree to buy it from the pub’s owner.

Perhaps an even bolder step is needed: that of allowing all pubs to stock a guest beer, regardless of who owns the pub. I personally find it hard to believe that allowing one guest beer in even a small brewery’s tied estate will bring that brewery to its knees — of course, please feel free to write in if your views differ.

(Given the fuss over our recent front page article, I’d just like to point out that we’re not targeting Greene King here, but certain pub chains. — Ed)

A trashy pun, I know, but that’s what you get when print deadlines are looming…

Not the best of months, really: the Chancellor’s failed to cut beer duty again, developers are threatening to flatten characterful pubs for yet more shops, the superpub tide seems to continue unabated and many chains seem to want to force their customers to drink heavily-discounted, bland national beers, presumably working on the basis that people can’t simply go elsewhere once all the chains are in thrall to the likes of Courage and Whitbread (at least, that is while Whitbread still has breweries…) Oh, and bottled Spitfire is now fizzy and pasteurised, just like the rest.

Thank goodness, then, for those pubs, breweries and chains who are still prepared to make an effort: J D Wetherspoon, despite having given up on lined glasses, is still an example of how to run a national chain that doesn’t just sell John Smiths and Boddingtons. Many breweries are still making good quality, tasty beers as opposed to taking the easy option and turning out stuff that tastes like it’s been filtered through a goat. And there are still pubs selling a wide range of varied beers, as well as those who not only still qualify for the guest beer right, but use it to full effect, too!

Speaking of lined glasses, as we were a moment ago, we’d like to compile a Hall of Fame listing those Sussex pubs that actually give you the full pint (or half) that you’ve paid for. We know of some pubs that use these, but I’m sure we don’t know of them all, so please do drop us a line. It would help if you mentioned whether lined glasses are used for pints and halves, or just for one or t’other.

We’re now producing five issues a year rather than six, hopefully easing the workload around Christmas. Copy deadline is now the first day of a month, with publication on the first of the next month. It’s difficult to produce Sussex Drinker without copy, as it tends to look a bit blank. So, if you fancy a go, why not write something and send it in? 400 words is all it takes to fill a page…

If you went to the Sussex Beer & Cider Festival this year, you might have filled in the survey form that was in the programme, possibly in the hope of winning free tickets for next year. If you’re one of these four people, then you’re probably very glad you did! The tickets will be in the post.

The Sussex Drinker website is on the move — but if you’ve bookmarked our http://welcome.to/sussex-drinker address, you won’t need to change a thing. You’ll be able to download current and back issues free of charge — except for the phone bill, of course!

The email address will change, as well: the new address for the editor is drinker.editor@gronk.force9.co.uk, while advertising enquiries should go to drinker.adverts@gronk.force9.co.uk. We’re planning various other developments for Net-connected readers — more news soon…

David Arno’s Sussex CAMRA website continues at
http://welcome.to/sussex-camra, with monthly competitions (not to mention all those branch diary dates that missed our deadlines!)

Unfortunately, you can’t download beer yet, so don’t forget to get down to the pub at some point…

As well as the Wetherspoons planned for Worthing’s Chapel Road, a Yates’ Wine Lodge was planned for the Fludes carpet store. The plan had been assumed to have been quietly dropped, but now that Fludes are moving down the road, it’s looking like the plan might not be as dead as we thought. More next issue, hopefully.

The Jolly Brewers in Worthing’s Clifton Road is now owned by the J T Davies pub company, selling Young’s Special, Bass and two guests (currently Harvey’s Best and Old), while O’Connor’s is selling Fraoch Heather Ale on draught at the moment, with plans for the Grozet when it’s in season.

In Petworth, the Stonemason’s (formerly the Mason’s Arms) is now an Eldridge Pope house, selling the Thomas Hardy range plus King & Barnes Sussex.

The Lamb in Angmering is selling four real ales, now including the new King & Barnes Best; over in Littlehampton, the Crown, a Marston’s house, is now selling Bank’s Mild following the recent takeover.

The English Shuffleboard Company can now customise boards with the 4-digit number of your choice (ABV, birth year, etc — get creative!)

Wolverhampton & Dudley’s victory in the bitter takeover battle for Marston’s will mean a new life for leading premium bitter Pedigree.

The last beer to be fermented in traditional Burton Union sets, Pedigree has achieved wide national distribution and its sales have been catching up on the neglected leader of the sector, Draught Bass — and, according to some accounts, have actually passed it.

But wide distribution has meant consistency problems for a beer which is notoriously hard to keep, and now Wolves says the brand is in line for some heavy investment.

"It’s a cracking pint when it’s on form, and we are unswervingly committed to it," said a spokesman.

"But it’s going to take serious investment to remind people what a great beer it still is."

The takeover will mean an immediate shot in the arm for Marston’s Brewery — currently working at about three quarters of its 400,000 barrel capacity — as Pedigree will now be distributed throughout the entire 1,700-strong joint estate.

Wolves’ management is currently pulling the Marston’s books to bits to find out exactly how the company ticks before announcing its final integration plans. But the spokesman said: "There are fantastic synergies, and there isn’t even as much overlap of tied estates as you would imagine, since Marston’s never really penetrated Birmingham and the Black Country, and Banks’s doesn’t have nearly as many country pubs."

The spokesman said the successful takeover was "a victory for tradition", and that managing director David Thompson was committed to the company’s "unspoilt by progress" motto.

"David’s view has always been that a good tenanted estate, managed properly, coupled with good quality ales, is the mainstay of the company."

CAMRA is warning Wolves to stand by its takeover commitments to safeguard all three breweries and their brands.

"The reality is that the beer market is shrinking," said Head of Communications Mike Benner.

"I fear there will be more consolidation at regional level. This will inevitably lead to reduced choice for consumers and brewery closures.

"When viewed in isolation, it may be possible for Wolves to maintain existing breweries — but what happens in three or four years’ time? We want long-term commitments from the Wolves management."

Thu 5–11; Fri–Sat 11–4, 5–11. No prices available. Nearest tube Epping since LU closed the branch line. Prices and further details from Graham Darby — (01279) 680233 [w] (01279) 415895 [h] or email grmdarby@easynet.co.uk

Thu 4:30–11 (£1); Fri–Sat 11–3 (£2), 4:30–11 (£4); Sun 12–6 (free). £1 discount to CAMRA members, NUS, Motorcycle Action Group. Over 100 real ales; music every evening. STAFF REQUIRED. Details: Peter Adams, 19 Belmont Rd, Reading RG30 2UT. Cheques (with SAE) to "CAMRA READING BEEREX".

Fri 6–11, Sat 11–3:30, 6–11; Sun 12–3. Tickets £3.50 except Sun £1 (no advance booking for Sun). £1 tokens for CAMRA members. Cheques (to "CAMRA Western Sussex Branch) with SAE to Yapton Beerex, 12 Burns Gardens, Felpham, Bognor Regis, PO22 6QS.

Wed 5–11, Thu–Sat 12–11. Over 70 real ales. Live music Thu, Fri, Sat eves. STAFF NEEDED - contact Roz Cox (0181) 697 6939 before 9pm. Other queries contact Mike Lee (0411) 459215.

Fri 11:30–3, 6 –11; Sat 11–4, 6–11. Free entry Fri lunch (glass £1). Sat lunch £3.50, eves £4.50 (all tickets 50p extra on door). £1 tokens to members. Ticket enquiries: Petern Horn (01703) 769873, other enquiries Ian Black (01703) 778906 / 704904.

Also early June is the Glastonwick Beer, Music and Poetry festival at the Barn Theatre in Southwick. More details next issue.

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