There can't be many pub or beer lovers in the country who haven't heard of The Evening Star near Brighton Railway Station. It is the only other pub I went to in Brighton. I wish I'd gone more often but it was a good walk from the hotel.
Back in the 1990s it was one of the pioneering real ale pubs selling rare beers from the length and breadth of the isles. Drinkers flocked there from all over in search of their ticks and scoops.
Then Dark Star Brewery and its offshoot Skinners went into production in the cellar, and guest beers were less prominent. Having said that though Dark Star and Skinners produced loads of different ales to keep the scooper satisfied. Skinners fell by the way side and Dark Star relocated, and their beer range diminshed but the pub still carried on as a beer lovers haven, still in the Dark Star estate.
Nowadays there are six or seven real ales available (about half from Dark Star), a couple of real
ciders, a couple of keg Dark Star beers, a few foreign draught beers and a selection of around 50 bottled beers from Germany, Belgium and the US. All the beers are carefully chosen with definitely no crap.
To my mind as a foreign beer lover, the beer range now is better than it's ever been. Of those foreign draught beers two from USA were available when I visited last week: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot and Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA. I have never seen either of these beers available on draught in the UK before and suspect if they have been it has only been in The Rake.
It's testament to the excellent beer range that the pub always seems busy. The clientele is reasonably diverse but one thing they all seem to have on common is the love of a good pub and good beer. If you're reading this in the UK, the chances are you've visited the pub before. If you haven't been then what are you waiting for?
3 comments:
Waiting for my next trip to Brighton! I happened across the Evening Star on BITE a couple of years back and have been meaning to visit since.
Dark Star is up there amongst my favourite micros and I'm fortunate to have a pub not too far away (The Bull, Horton Kirby) run by a landlord who shares my love of their beers and more often than not has a couple of them on at a time. He's organised a brewery tour this Saturday, followed by a visit to another top pub from their estate - the Stand Up Inn in Lindfield. Can't wait!
It did seem like a great pub, in ters of beer selection. I've only spent half an hour in there - I was rather put off by some of the other customers who couldn't deal with the fact that a woman might want a drink, on her own, undisturbed.
But I don't think they were regulars and it's hardly the pub's fault. I'd like to go back with some friends.
I think it's a lovely little pub and would never leave Brighton without a visit. However, the clientele is not reasonably diverse. An ex of mine and her sister found that out when I dragged them there one sunny Saturday afternoon two summers ago. They were the only women, and the three of us the only under 35s!
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