The Pond, Brighton

A lively craft bar set in a traditional building, ten beers on tap from top end brewers, the beer was good, the rest of it nothing special.

Primarily focused on craft keg, as well as a Baby Bao concession, The Pond in the North Laine also has a handpump serving up, on this occasion, a very passable pint of "Bird": a Hand Brewery best bitter. The keg featured several from Pressure Drop, it being part of a tap take-over event and the prices were much as we've come to expect. Pondwater Pale, a 3.5% sessionner is the house beer. The pub was busy on a Bank Holiday afternoon, but with enough turnover to ensure seats could be had. The music volume was at the upper end of "background", but that aside, it's not a bad place and worth a pit-stop.

Our final stop of the day in Brighton was the Pond - another new pub for me. Their website states that groups of 6 or more have to pre-book a table. With 6 of our group remaining, we entered in stages and grabbed a table well away from the bar. Nobody seemed too fussed. I suspect this rule is to deter stag and hen parties from visiting. But in truth, despite us being well oiled late in the day, there were much noisier smaller groups in than our party of 6. The bar has a ground floor room, with stairs leading upstairs presumably to further seating space, as toilets were at ground floor level adjacent to the bar. 2 real ales on handpull were 360° Bluebell & Only With Love Harlequin. Craft beers were Cloudwater/Rock Leopard Step Up, UnBarred Session Pale: Azacca & Ekuanot, BRZN I'm Like The Terminator But For Helping, Silver Rocket Hazy Paving, Drop Project/Gravity Orbit, Drop Project Shifty, North Field Recordings & Pioneer Pondwater Pale. With a lively atmosphere, friendly staff and a good range of beers, I quite liked this place. But I soon had to rush to make the penultimate train of the night back to London Bridge. Indeed, its proximity to Brighton station means that I'll probably be back another time for a slightly longer visit.

Nice looking pub from outside but a bit bland inside.Busy and friendly. Good cask beer.Downlands,Franklins and Hawkshead.

Official site of The Pond - www.thepondbrighton.com

Official site of The Pond - www.thepondbrighton.com