16th July 2010: Biggest Ever Success at Hove!

This year’s Sussex CAMRA Branches’ Beer and Cider Festival, which was held on 11-13 March at Hove Town Hall, was the most successful festival ever. Of the five sessions, four were completely sold out; the Friday evening session sold out in a record of 5 days and only the Friday lunchtime still had tickets left.

Headway, this year’s festival charity, based in Newick, raised an extraordinary £1,500: £951 was collected in unused tokens, and the Headway team collected another £316.60 in cash. A special "Thank You" to the Kissingate Brewery, who donated a barrel of their excellent First Kiss, which raised another £200. The rest was rounded up by the Festival. The picture below shows Ingrid Sharp, newly elected organiser for next year, with Gerry Harris from Headway at the Brighton & South Downs Beer and Cider Festival held at Lewes, where the cheque was handed over.

Counting the voting slips and comment forms yielded the following results:

• Beer of the Festival: Crouch Vale Amarillo
• Bev Robbins Trophy: Harvey's Lewes Castle Brown Ale
• Cider of the Festival: Hunt's Cider (this was incorrectly listed as Sedlescombe
• Cider, Sedlescombe is where Hunt's are based)
• Perry of the Festival: Heck's Blakeney Red

Most people’s comments were positive: super festival, with great beers, good food, friendly staff and a fantastic atmosphere. A very big “Thank You” to everyone who helped to make this possible. The most common criticism was that the hall had been too cold, and we shall endeavour to address that. If you would like to provide some feedback yourself, please contact the committee at sussexbeerfest@yahoo.co.uk .

Next year’s festival will be held 10-12 March. For this, the organising committee is seeking dedicated CAMRA members to help with organising the Trade Session, co-ordinating equipment needed at the festival and getting involved with membership. If you are interested or simply want to find out more, please get in touch via the above email address.

8th June 2010: Charity Presentation

A presentation of a cheque for £1,200 will be made to Headway, this year’s Festival charity of the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival held at Hove in March.

The presentation will be made on the Friday 18th June at 1.00pm at the South Downs Beer and Cider Festival which is being held at Lewes Town Hall.

The money was raised by the donation of unused beer tokens and a charity ale kindly donated by the new Kissingate Brewery based in Crawley. Cash donations at the festival also raised over £330.

Gerry Harris Chief Executive of Headway Hurstwood Park will be at the Town Hall to receive the cheque on behalf of the charity.

Peter Mitchell
Publicity Officer for the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival
June 2010

25th April 2010: The results are in...

There was a record attendance of over 4,400 at the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival. “The largest ever attendance at the festival proves that the popularity of real ale is definitely back” says Ursula Lockyer, Festival Organiser, “ there was very little beer left and the cider bar sold its last drop as the festival closed”.

• Beer of the Festival: Essex based Crouch Vale Amarillo
• Two Sussex brewers, Adur and Dark Star tied for second place
• Bev Robbins Trophy for Best Sussex Beer: Harvey's Lewes Castle Brown Ale
• Cider of the Festival: Hunt's Cider from Seddlescombe
• Perry of the Festival: Heck's Blakeney Red from Somerset

Thanks to the generosity of the festival goers who donated unused tokens, the festival charity Headway based at Newick benefited by £1,200 which included a donation of beer from the new Kissingate Brewery, Crawley. £316 was also collected in cash boxes.

Next year's festival - the 21st - will be held on the 10th – 12th March 2011.

Peter Mitchell
Publicity Officer for the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival
April 2010

19th March 2010: Another Festival's Over

We'll be updating the site in due course with details of the beer of the festival, any reports and photos that come our way, plus advance details of next year's festival, so please do check back soon.

10th March 2010: Advance Ticket Sales Period now closed

Advance tickets sales for the 2010 Festival have ceased, so the only chance is to pay on the door. Details of prices availability (as at today's date) are on the Tickets page - please note that the website will not now be updated until after the Festival has come to an end.

8th March 2010: Beer Tasting Notes now available to download

In addition to the Cider & Perry Tasting Notes, the Beer Tasting Notes are now also available to download as a pdf file - please see our Downloads page.

And don't forget - postal sales have now ceased!

3rd March 2010: Newest Sussex Brewery launch their beer at the Festival

Beer from the newest brewery in Sussex will be launched at the 20th Sussex Beer and Cider Festival. Based in Crawley, the Kissingate Brewery is the latest brewery in Sussex and their beer will be available in the Sussex Bar at the Hove Centre. Brewer Gary Lucas describes the ale, First Kiss, as a smooth chestnut coloured lightly hopped ale with a citrus tang.

Tickets are still available for all sessions apart from Friday night but please note that postal sales will stop as from 6th March.

Peter Mitchell
Publicity Officer for the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival

3rd March 2010: Champion Beer of Britain Tasting Finals

The London & South East Champion Beer of Britain tasting finals will be held at the Sussex CAMRA beer festival on Saturday 13th March, with the results expected to be announced around 1pm.

Ten different categories of award winning beers will be judged to find the overall champion beer of the South East for 2010 and the winning beer will go onto the CAMRA national finals later in the year.

25th Feb 2010: Cider & Perry Tasting Notes and Beer List Updates

The detailed cider and perry tasting notes are now online and available to download in pdf format. Please also keep an eye on our beer list as changes are gradually made - the date of the latest update will be shown on the Beers page.

22nd Feb 2010: Provisional Beer List

It's been a while in the making and, as always, remains subject to change right up until the last minute, however we can now bring you the final provisional beer list for the Festival. There's a total of 223 beers listed (a handful still need to be confirmed), split into 76 from Sussex brewers and 147 from the wide yonder.

15th Feb 2010: Hotline Reminder

Remember that you can call 07807 105803 for up-to-date information about the Festival.

10th Feb 2010: Ticket Sales Update

Keep an eye on our ticket availability matrix for details of which outlets still have tickets for each session. Please also be aware that all requests for postal sales need to be received by first post on Saturday 6th March 2010.

8th Feb 2010: Brighton Food Festival celebrates Spring Harvest

The Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival team introduce their first Spring Harvest Festival, to be held from 11 to 21 March this year. The event will be launched on the afternoon of Thursday 11 March at the CAMRA Sussex Beer and Cider Festival, to invited guests from local food and hospitality businesses, and local media representatives.

A mouth watering programme of other events is still being put together, but already includes a Terre a Tandoori Night at Terre a Terre in East Street on 15 March, Bordeaux fine dining evening at Drakes on Wednesday 17 March, a Hotel du vin Wine Night on 18 March, and an exclusive Murder Mystery Dinner at Hilton Brighton Metropole on 20 March.

Stay tuned to www.brightonspringharvest.com to find out about events.

5 February 2010: Address for staffing forms now online

Due to an unfortunate oversight, the address to send completed staffing forms was omitted from the Help Out page. Thanks to everyone who has been in touch requesting the address already, but rest assured it's now online for anyone who still needs it.

31 January 2010: Provisional Cider & Perry lists now online

Details of the 27 ciders and 12 perries pencilled in for the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival are now online and available for perusing on the Cider & Wine page.

26 January 2010: Friday night session SOLD OUT!

In just nine days, all 1,000 tickets for the Friday night session of the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival have been sold. “The demand for tickets for this very popular session has been unbelievable” said Peter Mitchell Festival Publicity Officer, “the sale of tickets has has been incredible, the Evening Star pub in Brighton sold 350 tickets in five days”.

There are still plenty of tickets left for all other sessions of the festival which is due to be held at the Hove Centre on 11th – 13th March.

Ursula Lockyer
Festival Organiser
January 2010

STOP PRESS 22nd January 2010: Friday Night Nearly Sold Out already!

Ticket sales for Friday night have surpassed all previous expectations and several ticket venues have already sold out, including the Evening Star, Beer Essentials, the Hove/Brighton Centre ticket offices and Postal Sales. All other outlets should have tickets but could be selling very quickly.

If you can't get hold of a prized Friday night ticket, don’t despair – plenty of tickets for the other sessions are still widely available, so don’t miss out and pick yours up soon!

(Please note: the website will not be updated until Weds 27th Jan at the earliest due to the webmaster going on holiday)

22nd January 2010: Staffing Letter and Form now online

The Staffing Letter and Staffing Form are now available on the website from the Help Out page.

Alison Clark
Festival Staffing Officer
January 2010

14th January 2010: Ticket Update

Tickets go on sale from the designated pubs from this Saturday (16th Jan), and are already available by mail order. Be warned, the Friday night session is proving as popular as ever, so please get your orders in soon! More details on our Tickets page. Any mail order requests already received will be dealt with and despatched shortly (weather permitting!)

(And please bear in mind that booking directly with the Hove or Brighton Centre Ticket Office over the telephone or Ticketmaster website will incur a booking and postal fee)

3rd January 2010: Official Press Release

Sussex CAMRA Branches are proud to announce that the 20th Sussex Beer and Cider Festival will be held at the Hove Centre, Hove on 11th – 13th March 2010.

Sales of real ale are increasing so to cope with the expected big demand, a record number of beers, well over 220, will be available this year plus a large selection of ciders, perries, country wines and British and foreign bottled beers. The downstairs bar has been designated as the Sussex Bar and will be selling only those beers from breweries in Sussex.

The festival sessions with ticket prices are as follows:-

• Thursday evening 5pm – 11pm £3.50
• Friday lunchtime 11am – 3pm £3
• Friday evening 5pm – 11pm £6
• Saturday lunchtime 11am – 3pm £3
• Saturday evening 5pm – 10pm £5 (£3 concessions)

Tickets for the Festival will be available at the usual outlets (Brighton & Hove: Hove & Brighton Centres, Evening Star, Sir Charles Napier; Shoreham: Buckingham Arms; Horsham, Beer Essentials; Lewes: Gardener's Arms; Worthing: Selden Arms, or by post from SCBCF Ticket Sales, 13 Rudyard Road, Woodingdean, Brighton BN2 6UB (Tel: 07807 105803). For postal applications, please state the session(s) for which you require tickets, and enclose a large SAE with your payment, which should be by cheque or Postal Order made payable to “CAMRA Sussex Beer Festival”.

To avoid disappointment on the day it is advisable to buy tickets in advance ,particularly for the very popular Friday and Saturday evening sessions which always sell out. The ticket price includes a souvenir programme and, for CAMRA members, beer tokens worth £2 on presentation of their membership card. For the Saturday evening, a £2 concession will be available to students buying tickets at the Hove Centre on production of a Students Union card.

There will be live entertainment on the Friday night and Saturday night in the Main Hall.

Hot and cold food plus vegetarian options will be on sale in the balcony area as well as soft drinks, teas and coffees.

This year the festival charity will be Headway based in Newick.

The Hove Centre has full disabled facilities and is a short walk from Hove Station.
For further information call 07807 105 803 , or email sxbeerfest.logo@btconnect.com or go to www.sussexbeerfestival.co.uk for further information.

Ursula Lockyer
Festival Organiser
January 2010

30th December 2009: Festival Charity announced

Headway, based in Newick, have been nominated as the 2010 Festival's charity - more details are here.

17th December 2009: Ticket Update - available SOON

Tickets will go on sale from the usual outlets on Saturday 16th January, and we also have details of the address for postal sales on the Tickets page. Please remember to get hold of your tickets early, particularly for the ever-popular Friday night session!