The Archives, Brighton

I walked past this building many times when it was a restaurant and wine bar, but never felt the need to go in and have a look even though I could see a couple of draught taps on the small bar. It is now called the Brewery Tap which stocks craft beers at street level and cocktails in the downstairs bar. Upstairs there is extra seating and the toilets. There is also a disabled toilet at street level. The seating is made up by standard chairs and tables which all bear a wax covered bottle that holds a candle. This isn’t the biggest place, but there was plenty of room on my recent Saturday night visit as there were only two other customers. There may have been more in the cocktail bar downstairs, but I didn’t descend the stairs although I could hear the music. The service was friendly, but I found this place to be a little bland and do not plan to revisit.

A bar/restaurant and cocktail bar spread over 3 floors. American style taps on the wall behind the bar.

Converted out of a restaurant / wine bar, Brewery Tap is one of they new-style craft beer bars. On the ground floor, behind the bar counter, an aluminium panel holds a long line of taps (unlike the Euston Tap, there's no cask ale here) while, alongside the windows, are squeezed a row of small tables and some seats. To the back, a spiral staircase leads, also Euston Tap-style, to a larger area upstairs with more comfortable seating. The toilets are also up here but, fortunately, unlike the Tap, there's more than one. So: to the bar offering then. A quick scan reveals that, while the taps go up to 31, the blackboard above the counter can only give a name to 11 and even that seems unable to keep up with the diminished range. Rogue Dead Guy Ale in Sussex? Oh, yes please! Well, no, as that's all gone. I have heard others bemoaning the unavailability of anything like the expected number of beers and it seems that this is a problem yet to be solved. On a positive note, there is a Happy Hour offering: £1.50 for a half of strong and interesting beer before 7:00 is certainly well worth investigating and a couple of tasters were offered without prompting. The summary, though, is of a nice idea, poorly executed. Worth a look-in if you want to try out a different set of craft beers to those available at the Evening Star, Craft and elsewhere, but be prepared to choose from a range more limited than the number of taps might suggest.