John Harvey Tavern, Lewes

This is the Harvey’s brewery tap and it’s located in a small yard just off the High Street on the opposite side to the brewery shop. It’s a pleasant two room set up sited in the former stables of the old Bear Hotel. The main bar, on the right hand side of the front door, has a flagstone floor with lots of dark wood and ample seating including padded benches around the edge of the room and some high tables and stools in the middle. There’s a fireplace on the end wall with a stove in it and an ancient looking beam above and a couple of the bench seats have backs made from old barrels which creates quite a nice effect. The pub, much like the brewery, is situated alongside the river and one of the pillars in the main bar has a small plaque on it which shows the alarmingly high level the water reached when the river burst its banks back in 2000. To the left of the front entrance, there is a smaller room with several more tables and standard chairs, some etched glass windows bearing the pub and brewery name and a nice fireplace. A sign refers to this as the ‘History Room’, although there wasn’t much information about either the pub or brewery on display except for a few old black and white photos. A few customers were eating and a blackboard in the main bar detailed main meals which were mostly under a tenner. Stairs lead up to a large function room, split into two notional sections, which was being set up for a private party when I visited. Six casks were racked up behind the bar – four of the ubiquitous Harvey’s Best and two with the seasonal Old Ale. On hand pump, three more Harvey’s ales were available – Bonfire Boy, Armada Ale and Hadlow Bitter. A good range of the brewery’s bottled beers were also on offer. I gave the Armada a try and it was, as you would hope, well kept. This is a decent enough pub, but its proximity to the brewery means it is a big draw for tourists and casual pub goers, which can make it busy at times and difficult to find a seat. Worth a look for the good range of Harvey’s beer but I have the feeling that this place could do more.

Surprised by the fact that this wasn't actually the best kept pint of Harveys Best in town! The pub was rammed with punters on a wet saturday afternoon and we had to stand at the bar to drink our brews. I had been looking forward to the JHT all day as Harveys is one of my favourite brown beers and I came away feeling a little short changed.

Harveys brewery tap. Converted from the old stables of the Bear Hotel overlooking (just) the River Ouse. The ground floor is set over two rooms and the interior is long and rectangular, as is the upstairs room. The lower bar has stone flagged flooring and a beamed ceiling. Olympia, Hadlow and Armada plus six(!) Sussex Best on stillage. My Hadlow was as good a drop as you’d expect given the location. Surprised to only see four of Harveys range actually available though, I was expecting more. Extremely busy on my visit, so we made use of the outside drinking space (most of it unofficial) but it worked for us on a summer’s day. Big on food and a lot of it was being served, a notch above pub grub judging by what I saw. As noted elsewhere, the brewery and shop are located at the end of the street by the bridge. A decent venue if you like Harveys beer but I felt strangely unmoved by it as I usually expect a brewery tap to be a flagship for the ale, especially so in Lewes where it isn’t exactly tough finding the beers that were served here elsewhere. Room for improvement?