Poets Ale & Smoke House, Hove

A trip to Sussex isn't really a trip to Sussex without visiting a Harvey's. This corner pub in a residential area can be found in the Good Beer Guide. Unsurprisingly, Sussex Best Bitter is the regular beer. In addition, they also had their Old Ale & Armada Ale. Keg options were Harvey's Wharf IPA & Pells Pale & Beavertown Neck Oil. There was no real cider that I could see. Basic pub grub is served. Wednesday is 2 for 1 on wings. So, we had 4 portions between us to keep us going for the final run-in of our crawl. There are a couple of rooms and I thought it was quite a nice atmosphere in here with friendly bar staff and some fairly inobtrusive music playing.

A fairly large corner pub, it's two roomed, a larger public bar with a couple of TV's and a smaller, quieter saloon bar, there is a small sun trap beer garden to the rear. There are ten handpumps in all across the two bars but not all it seems are in use nowadays, three beers were on which were Harveys Olympiad, Armada and Sussex Best. A pleasant pub.

Close to Aldrington station, this is a cracking two bar, backstreet pub that has branched out with its own smokehouse which helps them churn out smoked meat across an American comfort food style menu. Of the two bars, the left-hand side is much larger, occupying quite a large open space with high tables and stools to the front and through the centre, chairs, and low stools along the left-hand wall and to the rear and the servery over to the right. The bar has a typical wood panelled counter front, albeit painted blood red, with a nice dark wood bar back topped with two matching ceramic lions. The room is bare boarded on the bar side, but carpeted elsewhere, whilst the décor comprises lots of blackboards, a few quirky beer themed items and lots of World Cup bunting. Two TV screens were showing the evening’s fixture with loud music in place of any commentary. A passage behind the bar connects the two rooms and gives access to the beer garden as well. The other room is a little more compact and quieter, with a similar servery to the left, plenty of seating around the perimeter and more of the same décor, including what appeared to be butcher’s hooks on the ceiling and some art that ties in with the whole smokehouse theme. They had three Harvey’s beers on cask – Sussex Best, IPA and Old Ale – plus a real cider on the final handpull. The IPA was okay – not my favourite from the Harvey’s range but in good nick at least. The barman was extremely friendly and the pub was absolutely rammed – not a free seat in the house – on my Saturday evening visit. I was a little apprehensive about this place, as the name suggested it might be a little too food focussed, but on a Saturday night at least, it was very much dominated by drinkers, which made this a pleasurable visit. Some well-kept beer and interesting food options add to the attraction, and I’d say this is worth a look if you’re on a crawl around the wider Hove area.

An old Sussex CAMRA guide says that as the Eclipse it was a Bass Charrington pub named after the famous racehorse. I've not always been impressed with Harvey's urban outlets but they seem to have done a good job here. It's a back street corner local that has retained two completely separate bars. I went in the right hand saloon bar as the public sounded noisy and busy. This was a nice traditional carpeted room with wooden-panelled walls and a roaring fire. The bar is on the left and had five hand pumps offering Harvey's Best, Old, IPA, Wild Hop and Armada. I went for the Armada (£3.90) and was shocked to find a beer with a big hop taste. Have they changed the recipe? It was probably the best beer I had all day in Sussex. It was expensive but I wouldn't expect anything else in the Brighton area. It's well worth a visit if you can afford it.