June 2005 Excursion Report

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A brewery tour is a rare treat. So when Harveys in Lewes kindly opened their doors to the East Sussex Saab owners club they had to fight back the stampede.

Harvey & Son Brewery in Lewes, established in 1790, is one of the oldest independent breweries in the south. It brews and supplies beer to the local area through 45 tied public houses and various local free houses. Harveys consider beers to be regional products, and as such do not market their beer in any pubs more than 50 miles or so from Lewes.

On a hot and balmy evening in June we gathered outside the John Harvey Tavern in Lewes, East Sussex. This is Harveys main pub in Lewes and is situated a stones throw away from the Brewery itself on the other side of the cobbled street. There was just time to savour a pint of the amber nectar that is Harvey’s Best Bitter before the tour started. As we chatted about the days events and sipped our beer, Joint MD of Harveys, Hamish Eldar came over to the pub to start the tour. Dressed in a white lab coat and with an eccentric turn he started to regale us of the history of Harveys Brewery.

The tour moved on to the Brewery itself where we tasted different malt barleys and savoured the smell of crushed hops as Hamish explained how the different ingredients were combined with Harveys own water, drawn from a bored well in their brewery, to produce the various different Harveys beers. The tour then moved through the brewing process from the mash tuns where the ingredients are mixed and onto the large vats where Harveys own yeast culture is left to ferment through the liquor.

The final stop on the tour was the pleasantly cool bottling room, where the final cask conditioning process was explained and we were able to sample Harveys range of draft and bottled beers. Harveys traditionally brew best bitter and Armada ale (a slightly stronger pale ale) during the summer, and Old ale (a traditional dark ale) during the winter months, in addition to these, they also brew a different seasonal ale each month. In July, the season ale is Tom Paine, brewed to commemorate the bicentenary of Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man". CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ales) designated July as a celebration of British Independent Brewers of which Harveys is one. This is a dry hopped strong pale ale awarded the Silver Medal at the BBI Awards in 1993. Personally this is one of our favourite Harveys ales, so we felt particularly lucky to be sampling this in the brewery itself.

We finished the evening with a few more pints of ale back at the John Harvey tavern, before we were pleased to see our sober girlfriends with our 9000 Aeros to transport us home.

Report by Matthew Jones, Gareth Jones and Chris Trick