Abyss Brewery Tap, Lewes

A recent conversion, located in the former maltings building for the now defunct South Downs Brewery, this is a substantial industrial place, bang on trend with even a converted Airstream caravan as food outlet. Perfectly described below, it would seem that there were cask options so my choice must have been gravity fed as there are no pumps. I ended up with something called Cloud Island DDH Pale, a costly £3.25 a half, freezing cold as expected and ‘tropical’; I couldn’t finish it.

A good sized venue, which looked interesting along with the amount of beers and range. However all the beer names and type was displayed clearly across the back of the bar, but no pricing. I got stares of disgust from two staff members, for daring to ask the beer price. I found my beers to be non-descript and well overpriced. Back in the day a brewery tap was a place where you'd get a discount on the beers, obviously not here.

A fairly typical industrial unit setup with plenty of outside space, the inside area is a fair bit smaller and given its apparent popularity would prove cramped in poor weather, luckily not the case on our group visit. All beers were from Abyss with no guests that I could see, I quite like Abyss beers so not a problem for me but a bit more variety may be the way forward. These type of venues are not for everyone but I don't mind one now and again, although I've been to better, this one was reasonably good.

The large courtyard outside with pic nic benches was packed with a younger crowd on my Friday early evening visit,the food van was proving popular too.It's a real sun trap in good weather.Inside past the brewing vessels the bar is to the left offering 11 Abyss indie beers on keg such as a rice lager,two pilsners,a helles lager,three IPA's ,three pales and a Rave sour which was refreshing but a lack of style variance sadly.There are a few inside benches if you need shelter from either sun or rain. Tasting flights of 5 served on old skateboards was an option which I declined ,how many pale beers can you tolerate ?

This is a large brewery and taproom located in an old industrial premises on the outskirts of the town centre. The operation comprises two main areas for the public – a large warehouse type room that contains the bar and lots of seating, plus the old parking area out the front which now acts as a beer garden of sorts and has the toilet and street food facilities. The main room is slightly more characterful that in most industrial unit taprooms, thanks to a high gabled ceiling and clear demarcation between the public and staff areas, with large shelving units full of brewing ingredients, partitioning drinkers from the factory operation. Long canteen style tables with lots of low stools provide ample seating options, beneath colourful bunting and with muted lighting, which all comes together quite nicely to make this a pleasant spot to settle down in. The servery is to the rear left and has a basic counter, white tiled bar back with the taps across it and a dark surround with the brewery name along the top. Moving outside, there is loads more seating, mostly in the form of rickety canteen-style benches, across a large tarmac area, with a food truck to one side knocking out tasty, if rather pricey, burgers. The place was doing a roaring trade early on a Saturday evening, with no seats to be found inside and plenty more punters filling up the beer garden area. A board next to the bar listed the beers on the eight keg lines, but I forgot to make a note whilst making my choice, so I can’t recall what any of them were. I do know that I tried quite a pokey IPA, which I really enjoyed, and that the burger was excellent too and served by a friendly and chatty bloke. Despite the large crowd, the very first thing I saw when I first approached the bar, was a mouse scuttling between a load of totally oblivious people’s feet! I thought this was a pretty good taproom, with some nicely put together seating areas, a solid keg range and a great Saturday night atmosphere. The place does a lot of the basics well and having enjoyed several of their beers in other pubs around Sussex in recent years, I’m confident that there will always be something worth trying on the bar. A nice place to add to any crawl around town, as it offers a good contrast to Lewes’ plethora of traditional boozers. Date of visit - 12th October 2024

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