Brighton Independents Beer Crawl '23
Last November, I saw a poster in a pub advertising a Verdant Brewing backed beer crawl around Brighton encompassing 10 of its independent venues. The premise is simple - visit a venue, buy a beer, collect a stamp. Unfortunately, I was busy when it came around but, I did still manage to visit a few of the pubs that made up part of the crawl and made a note to attempt it in full in 2023 if it returned.
And return it did. Bigger, better and beerier (definitely a word) and this time, I was ready to get involved.
The Brighton Independents Beer Crawl is the brain-child of the operations manager for three independent pubs in Brighton (The Pond, Easy Tiger and The Star & Garter) and the manager of The Pond. Martha (aforementioned ops manager of the three pubs) and Emily (aforementioned manager of The Pond) work closely together to draw up the plans and they self-fund and run the event between them.
Planning begins roughly four months ahead of the weekend when they select the venues - the criteria is any free-of-tie Brighton pub that sells craft beer and is willing to dedicate a few beer lines for the event when it runs. Following the success of the event last year, it has expanded from 10 venues to 17 with selection being a mixture of the duo contacting various independent pubs, bars and bottleshops to ask them if they are interested in taking part and also, venues reaching out themselves and asking to be involved.
From there, work begins on map design (local designer Alex Olford created the maps for both this year and last year), printing, brewing schedules and beer ordering (in collaboration with Verdant Brewing and craft beer distributor Pig’s Ears) to ensure the beers are brewed and delivered to each venue on time.
This year saw the BIBC take place over the August bank holiday weekend which was probably a blessing considering there are now 17 stamps to collect, so the extra day helped with spacing it out (and drinking responsibly).
As a Brighton resident with a free bank holiday weekend, a passion for planning a pub crawl, a love of Google Maps and an even bigger love of beer it felt like the perfect event for me to indulge in.
I had already booked the Friday off of work and had family plans on Monday so knew I had three days to work with. I fired up Google Maps and added the 17 venues to a map along with a colour code for each day and formed a rough plan of action.
The plan for Friday (the red/burgundy beer icons on the map image above) was to tick off a few near Brighton train station before doing a loop - venturing to Hanover, moseying down to the Sea Lanes and then strolling back along the coast and into the city centre before grabbing a beer from The Wine Barrel bottleshop and jumping on a bus home.
Saturday’s plans (the green/khaki beer icons on the map image above) would be more sedate as we were meeting some friends in the afternoon. I decided to keep the list shorter due to this and concentrated on the North Laine area with a final call to The Hole in the Wall before heading home.
Finally, Sunday (the purple beer icons on the image above) would be a leisurely saunter around the final four venues in Hove where, on completion, I would be carried aloft on the shoulders of my fellow drinkers and showered in confetti whilst everyone chanted my name. Probably.
What follows is a breakdown of each day’s shenanigans. I’ve also included two images for each day detailing the planned route and the actual route I ended up taking - to paraphrase Robert Burns, the best laid plans of drunken men, often go awry…
You can also view a visual diary of the route I took via our Instagram story highlight.
Here we go!
Friday
Planned route
Actual route
As with any multi-day drinking event (beer festivals, stag/hen trips, long weekends away), the one thing that always happens, even if you don’t plan to, is you always go big on the first day. With that in mind, I intentionally lined up 8 venues for Friday. Two were bottleshops offering cans to takeaway so I figured having 6 beers in a day was more than achievable.
My first stop took me to Seven Cellars in Brighton station (they have another, flagship shop in Seven Dials but as I’d got the train, it was a no brainer which one I was going to) for a couple of takeaway beers. I grabbed a can each of Sniffing the Wrong People and Examine Our Allocations from Verdant and secured the first stamp of the day. After a brief chat with the server (I was the first stamp of the day 😎), I made a beeline for stop two.
Next up was a short stroll up to Unbarred (EPIB review) for a delicious schooner of Pressure Drop & Verdant’s The Experiment Requires A Conclusion. Sadly brewed to commemorate the closure of their joint venture The Experiment in Hackney, it was a slightly poignant start to the day. I’ve had some great times at The Experiment and will be sad to see it go but the beer was a fitting tribute and was tasting super fresh and extra punchy. I soon snapped out of my melancholic reflections - come on mate, you’re on a beer crawl - and hotfooted it to the next location.
I swung by The Drop on my way to Hanover as I’d spied they’d taken delivery of some Vault City bubblebum sour blue beer daftness so secured a can for imbibing at a later date.
I began my ascent of the always-steeper-than-I-remember Southover Street into the heart of Hanover but was met with disaster when I arrived at the next planned drinking spot. It turns out The Greys doesn’t open until 4pm on a weekday and it was only around 12:45pm on this fateful Friday. I quietly cursed the beer gods and took a quick assessment of my plans. It wouldn’t fit into the plans for the rest of the day so would have to slot into Saturday or Sunday somewhere. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
I also walked by The Montreal Arms and was heartbroken to see the destruction the dickhead owner had needlessly caused in real life. On the plus side, he has been ordered to restore the tiles, so hopefully it’ll be returned to its former glory (pending a lengthy appeals process I imagine).
Disappointment turned into relief as I reached the apex of the hill and the beautiful sight that was The Independent. They didn’t open until 1pm but mercifully let me in five minutes early. I regaled them with my beer crawl plans and they got setup for the day and a delivery driver began unloading various crates of bottles from his truck into the pub. As I was being served, a table that was temporarily holding a crate of tonic water started to topple over and, before anyone could reach it, it crashed hard onto the floor, sending a deluge of glass and fizzy liquid across the room. The delivery driver was mortified but the staff at The Independent shrugged it off and reassured him that these things happen. I grabbed my half of Verdant & Green Cheek’s Cheeky DIPA and hastily made my way to the beer garden to keep out of the way whilst the debris was cleared up. The Independent is a fantastic little pub and I look forward to reviewing it properly at a later date.
After observing a stag do contemplate entering the pub but deciding to head further into town, I decided to do the same, said my thanks to the bar staff and began the descent to the seafront and to the Sea Lanes. The Sea Lanes is a new development consisting of a 50m heated outdoor pool and associated facilities. Alongside this are a number of commercial buildings housing cafes and bars. Yes, fear not, I wasn’t here for a swim, I was here for Bison Beach Bar.
I wasn’t much of a fan of the Sea Lanes space itself - it all felt a bit sterile and lifeless - but I did enjoy the walk down there. It’s not often I walk that far along the seafront so I really enjoyed the stroll. Being two beers deep with the sun shining may have been another factor here. I had a pint of Verdant’s Sundialer and sat inside, taking full advantage of the air conditioning following a pretty sweaty schlep down from Hanover.
I made tracks for the Black Dove as the internet told me they opened at 2pm. I arrived around 2:15pm to find the staff setting out the tables and chairs and was told they weren’t quite open yet. I didn’t mind waiting. They weren’t actually open for another hour I was told. I did mind waiting that long - there were stamps to be gained! I decided to walk to the next venue and come back here afterwards. I had the luxury of time so it wasn’t catastrophic to the route.
I trundled along the seafront again until I hit the tourist crowds near the pier and got annoyed. I did my best to weave my way through but the combination of crowd and road closures due to the recent fire at the Royal Albion Hotel made this trickier than I’d hoped.
The Star & Garter provided a welcome respite from the masses and I opted for a pint of Pressure Drop’s Pale Fire to calm my inner old man. It’s a lovely pale and one I don’t drink nearly enough so this was a pleasant reminder. I sat and people watched out of the window before retracing my steps back to Kemptown.
Approaching the end of St. James Street, I saw that the Black Dove was open and claimed a stamp and a pint of Verdant’s Lightbulb for my troubles. The pub itself was superb and I can’t wait to return properly. However, I chose to sit outside on a table a little bit too close to the road, therefore, my beer drinking was interrupted by the stop-start St. James Street traffic courtesy of the traffic lights at the end of the street. I didn’t mind too much - I had 6 stamps, baby!
Reassessing the route home, I had planned to be at the Star & Garter now so the walk to the final stop of the day wouldn’t have been too bad. Instead, I was much further east than I’d hoped to be so had a moment of inspiration. Likely fuelled by five beers, sunshine and an empty stomach (the Hedges trifecta!).
Feeling very pleased with my improvisation, I made short work of the walk from the Black Dove to The Hole in the Wall (EPIB review). It was, sort of, on the way home and is one of the best pubs in Brighton so it was inevitable really. I perched on a stool at the bar and chatted to a chap who was also doing the beer crawl but The Hole in the Wall was his first stop compared to my seventh. I ordered a pint of Verdant’s Argal on cask(!) and had myself a lovely time trading Brighton recommendations with a few people at the bar. I was talking to strangers now so after making light work of my pint, decided it was time to head home. Sort of.
I made my way to Western Road as that’s where my nearest bus was but there was one more stop planned before that. Helpfully, also on Western Road. Almost like I’d planned it. I staggered into the Wine Barrel and perused the fridge for a takeaway beer. I opted for Pressure Drop’s Life Sized and, randomly, a can of Schöfferhofer Weizen-Mix Maracuja (a passionfruit radler). The person that served me warned me that the radler was pretty divisive. I thanked him and said it was worth a gamble for £1.95 and then proceeded to chew his ear off for the next ten minutes as he served a few customers in between my digressions. I was talking at strangers now so decided it was definitely time to head home. I apologised for my ramblings, hopped on the bus and was home not long after.
I assumed it was super late by now but noticed my wife was watching the gameshow Pointless when I came bounding into the lounge. I looked at the time. It was 5:50pm.
I had some much-needed dinner and, for some reason, a few more beers (one was the radler at least - the Wine Barrel guy was right, it was pretty gross).
At the close of play on Friday, I was standing at 8/17 with only nine more stamps to collect and two days to do so. I had to fit in The Greys at some point but I was pretty happy I still managed the planned eight anyway.
Saturday
Planned route
Actual route
The original plan for Saturday had been to visit all four locations in the North Laine before ending the day at The Hole in the Wall. After yesterday’s shenanigans, this changed slightly. The Hole in the Wall had been conquered on Friday, so that was off the map and in its place, the elusive The Greys added.
My wife and I had arranged to meet some friends around North Laine. I surmised neither they nor my wife were daft enough to want to traipse over to Hanover, climb the hill, sink a beer and amble back to North Laine, so the first stop was a solo affair.
The Greys was fairly busy when I finally made it for my stamp and a beer - another schooner of Pressure Drop and Verdant’s The Experiment Requires A Conclusion. I settled down in the corner as a DJ played chilled jazz tunes and several tables tucked into some food. I realised I’d been here before when we were house hunting but at least this visit meant I got to tick it off for EPIB. There wasn’t long before I had to meet my wife at the next spot, so I saw away my beer and barrelled back down the hill to North Laine.
When I rounded the corner towards The Evening Star (EPIB review), it was looking pretty lively. Brighton were playing West Ham in the late kick-off and so the pub was a mix of claret-and-blue and blue-and-white as I made my way to the bar. The Evening Star was only the second venue thus far to have cask Verdant so I obviously opted for a pint of their Citra hopped pale ale, Penpol. They had three to choose from and I half-wanted to just stay here but my wife soon arrived and reminded me we had plans.
The Evening Star is only a few hundred metres from The Pond (EPIB review) so we arrived in double quick time. Almost all of the taps here were dedicated to the beer crawl which meant a long dalliance at the bar on my part. I eventually settled on Pressure Drop’s Rhinestone Rodeo, a delicious NEIPA, and as there were no tables available downstairs, we checked upstairs hoping we’d get lucky. We did! I’d never been upstairs in The Pond before so it was great to finally see it - I’d assumed it was a dining space but I was wrong. Soon after, our friends arrived and I got to bore them with my beer crawl tales, although they were genuinely interested which only made me waffle on more. We stayed for one more and I had another NEIPA from Pressure Drop - this time, View From A Train.
We made our moves down the road to Vine Street Tap + Bottle for stamp #12 and a berliner weisse in the shape of Pressure Drop’s Fast Fruits. This was lovely and refreshing with the strawberry being the star here, complimented by a little pineapple punch. I loved how enthused the bar person was when they saw my beer crawl card and they showed a genuine interest on how it had gone. We managed to snag a high table but only a few stools and did more great chat as usual.
We bid our friends goodbye and headed for the final venue of the day, Bison Beer North Laine (EPIB review). Verdant’s Examine Our Allocations was the tipple of choice here and it was tasting bloody brilliant. So fresh, so juicy and just so well-rounded. It was pretty quiet in Bison so we grabbed a booth and enjoyed our beverages.
I had a cursory check of the route for Sunday and then a check of the time. It was only 6:45pm - surely we had one more stamp in us? I bribed my wife with the promise of dinner and, after reassuring her it was a very good idea, we were on our way to Easy Tiger.
Easy Tiger is an excellent pub just off of Western Road offering Indian street food dishes and small plates. I ordered Verdant’s Sniffing The Wrong People which was exceptional - New Zealand hops are really delivering at the moment and this beer packs in three of ‘em. It was incredibly light in colour and very, very moreish. It was paired with some Kerala fried chicken, samosas and spiced fries which was a match up for the ages. Both beer and food delivered in spades and we returned home content and ready to get the final set of stamps on Sunday.
I ended Saturday with 14/17 stamps collected leaving just three venues to go on the following day. A lovely Sunday saunter around Hove for the remaining three awaited us.
Sunday
Planned route
Actual route
The original plan for Sunday had been to head to Easy Tiger and head west, ending at Bison Beer Hove. However, due to my heroics in the preceding days, we’d already been to Easy Tiger. I decided to flip the route around so we’d end up on Preston Street near a plethora of food options. This worked perfectly as our bus stopped basically outside the first port of call.
It was the early afternoon when we got to Bison Beer Hove and sat outside in the boiling sunshine. A man on a table near us was matching every pint he had with a bag of crisps like an absolute champion. I opted for Verdant’s I Played Trumpet On That Tune which was every bit as good as I remember it being when I last had it. Mango mango mango. Having stupid, delicate skin, I convinced my wife we should move on swiftly. The next venue had an outside space anyway (and some shade for the pink skin gang).
The penultimate stop took us to The Brunswick where lots of people were ordering Sunday roasts (a man literally ordered by shouting ‘PORK BELLY’ at the bemused staff) which looked great. Alas, there was drinking to be done before we could consider chowing down. The bar staff here were very excited that I was close to the finish line which was very gratifying. I actually had two beers here (Pressure Drop’s Catamaran and Verdant’s Invisible Ceiling) as we sat outside in the now very agreeable weather (read: it had gone from sunny to sunny intervals). There were some great dogs here dotted beneath the wooden benches. What a life. The smell of food was making us peckish but there was one final stamp in the way of some celebratory food.
A short victory walk along the seafront took us to The Brick. The barman seemed very chuffed that I was his first completed stamp card and the group next to us at the bar were equally effusive, although I was not paraded around on anyone’s shoulders, for shame. Being in a lager-centric pub, I had to end on the crisp Helles from Verdant and the victory was mine! No one cheered, although my wife did fist-pump which was greatly received. To round off the weekend of beer, I had a Budvar Nefiltr because why bloody not?
Celebratory margaritas and tacos happened soon after over the road at Halisco before we made a contented retreat home as the sun went down. An excellent end to a very enjoyable weekend of beer, Brighton, pals and sunshine.
Summary
The Brighton Independents Beer Crawl was an absolutely fantastic way to spend a weekend. I experienced the full gamut of drinking - drinking on my own, drinking with friends and drinking with my partner - which helped enhance things and allowed me to justify this whole thing as a social experience as well as a beery one.
There’s a lot to be said for taking a day off, cutting about the city you live and soaking it all in. It’s not something I’ve done in the year or so since we moved down. I had an absolutely delightful time experiencing the city on my own and over-romanticising my whole day (as the above attests). Equally, is there anything better than going to the pub with your pals? I appreciate that’s not exactly a new discovery or a particularly hot take but it’s just unbeatable. Similarly, taking your long-suffering partner out for the day as a reward for putting up with your bullshit is just as fun.
If the length of this blog post wasn’t evidence enough - I’ll be floating around Brighton in 2024 when the next Brighton Independents Beer Crawl is on. See you at the bar!
