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Previous News (2011 Festival)
There will be no Sussex Branches Beer &
Cider Festival in 2020; hopefully back in 2021!.
| 22nd
June 2011: St Dunstan’s receive donation Thanks to the generosity of the festival goers who donated unused tokens, the festival charity for 2011, St Dunstan’s based at Ovingdean, benefited by £1,500, with an additional £711 collected in cash boxes. The cheque was handed over during Blind Heroes Week at an event called “Memories from the Dark”. The picture shows festival organiser Ingrid Sharp with Melinda Dixon who organised the stall at the festival and Betty Chalmers, one of the St Dunstaners speaking about her experiences at the event.
Ingrid Sharp |
8th June 2011: More information about the Cider presentation trip Here is the proposed itinerary for the Cider of Festival
trip on Saturday 30 July for those who worked at Hove Beer
Festival: *Email address updated 9 June - sorry for the wrong one! Jackie Johnson |
2nd June 2011: Festival photos now online Pictures from throughout the 2011 festival are now online in our Photos section. |
30th May 2011: Two Award Presentations Await, plus a video clip... The "Thank you" trip for volunteers who worked at Hove for the Sussex Beer & Cider Festival will be on Saturday 11 June. We will be meeting the brewers of the Beer of the Festival, Green Jack's Baltic Trader, in the FILO in Hastings. Please get in touch by email (Ingrid.sharp7@gmail.com) or 'phone (07960 741390) if you are interested in coming along. There is also a possible trip on Sat 30th July to: Middle Farm (cider barn), Firle; JB cider, Maplehurst (to present the Cider of the Festival certificate), with lunch at White Horse, Maplehurst; Gospel Green Cyder, near Lurgashall (champagne-style cider). Please use the Contact Us link if you're interested with your name and contact details, but note, none of this will be confirmed unless we get a reasonable number of responses. Finally, the Argus has a video clip from the 2011 Festival on its website (http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/videonews/110539/ - opens in a new window), although you will need to sit through an advert before you can watch it! Ingrid Sharp |
24th March: The results are in for the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival The promise of good quality real ales and ciders nearly proved too much for those attending the recent 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival. “We very nearly ran out of both beer and cider on Saturday night” says Ingrid Sharp, Festival Organiser “this only shows that the popularity of both real ale and cider are increasing”.
Thanks to the generosity of the festival goers who donated unused tokens, the festival charity St Dunstan’s based at Ovingdean benefited by £1,500, with an additional £711 collected in cash boxes. Next year's festival will be held on the 8th-10th March 2012. Peter Mitchell |
13th March 2011: All over for another year... Many thanks to everyone who attended, and all who volunteered to help out, at the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival at Hove Town Hall over the last weekend! We'll bring you news of the Beer of the Festival award-winner in due course over the coming weeks however, if you missed out (or simply mislaid your programme!), you can still check out the original beer and cider lists on their own pages.
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9th March 2011: Advance ticket sale CLOSED The advance sales period has now ended. The following tickets (out of 1,000 available for each session) are remaining for sale (as of this evening):
The table on the Tickets page confirms times and prices for each session.. Please note that this information will not be updated again before or during the festival, and ticket availability (particularly for Saturday) will change during this time. |
6th March 2011: Advance ticket sale period drawing to a close Advance tickets are now only available from The Evening Star (Friday lunchtime session only, until close Tuesday evening) and the Brighton Centre Ticket Office (until Wednesday). Details of any tickets remaining for sale on-the-door will be published online by Wednesday at the latest. |
5th March 2011: Sussex brewers represented at the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival All of the county's breweries will be represented in the LocAle Bar at the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival due to be held at Hove Town Hall on 10th – 12th March. “Hopefully all the breweries in the county will have their beers on sale at the festival” says Ingrid Sharp, Festival Organiser,” but there can be last minute changes and some ales and breweries may not be available”. Provisional lists of the real ales, ciders, perries and bottled beers are available on the respective webpages, with Sussex beers grouped together (and the county of origina listed for all ciders and perries). There are still tickets left for all sessions of the festival except for Friday night. Ingrid Sharp |
2nd March 2011: Ciders, Perrys & Cider Perry List now online Hot on the heels of last night's provisional beer list, we now have details (including county of origin, ABV and tasting notes) of a storming line-up of 30 ciders, 14 perries and 1 cider perry lined up for the Festival. |
1st March 2011: Beer List now online The Beer List - still technically provisional, but as confirmed as it will be! - in now available to be viewed online on our Beers page. You can also download version 2 of the programme tasting notes (pdf file, opens in new window, 125kb, 20 pages), which has been updated slightly since yesterday's version. And remember - time is running out to buy advance tickets for the Festival! |
28th Feb 2011: Advance Ticket Sales Deadline reminder Just a reminder that time is running out to secure your tickets for the Festival (Friday night's sell-out notwithstanding):
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28th Feb 2011: Provisional Beer List Tasting Notes now online! There's a little work to be done in uploading the Provisional Beer List to the website in table format but, to whet your appetite and help you work up a thirst, the pdf file of the draft programme tasting notes is available to download from here (124kb, 16 pages). The HTML list will be published on the Beers page in the next few days. |
14th Feb 2011: Anniversary Ale brewed for the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival The Kissingate Brewery based in Lower Beeding brewed a special anniversary ale over the weekend helped by members of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale). Under the guidance of Head Brewer Gary Lucas, members helped in the brewing of Ruby XXI, a beer of 5% strength brewed to help celebrate the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival. “As this is the 21st festival it was appropriate that this beer was brewed by one of the many micro breweries in Sussex” said Ingrid Sharp, Festival Organiser. The ale will be on sale in the Sussex Bar at the festival which is due to be held at the Hove Centre on 10th – 12th March. For all enquiries call 07807 105803 or email sussexbeerfestival@yahoo.co.uk or check back on this website for further information. Ingrid Sharp |
31st Jan 2011: Friday night session now SOLD OUT! In just two weeks, all 1,000 tickets for the Friday night session of the 21st Sussex Beer & Cider Festival have been sold. “Tickets for this popular session always sell out very quickly” said Peter Mitchell, Festival Publicity Officer, “such is the demand for good quality real ales and ciders”. There are still plenty of tickets left for all other sessions of the festival which is due to be held at the Hove Centre on 10th-12th March, and the latest known information can be seen at-a-glance on our Tickets page. Ingrid Sharp |
27th Jan 2011: Staffing Form now online Thinking about volunteering to work at the festival? Have a look at our Help Out page where you can also download a staffing form - please try and send it back to Ali, our Staffing Officer, by 21st February to help her planning! |
26th Jan 2011: Friday night nearing sell-out All ticket venues are reporting that they've sold out of Friday night tickets, and only a small amount (40, as at 26 Jan) of mail order tickets remain. Please contact us for the latest ticket situation before mailing in your order. |
17th Jan 2011: Tickets on sale now! There will be double celebrations at this years Sussex Beer and Cider Festival which will be held at Hove Centre, Hove on 10th-12th March 2011. CAMRA the Campaign for Real Ale was formed 40 years ago and this is the 21st Sussex Beer and Cider Festival. To help the celebrations, a special and unique Anniversary Ale, brewed by the Kissingate Brewery, will be on sale. Real ale has never been so popular and sales are booming. To cope with the expected huge demand there will be over 220 on sale plus a large selection of ciders, perries, wines and British and foreign bottled beers. The downstairs bar has been designated as the LocAle Bar and will be selling only beers from breweries in Sussex. The festival sessions with ticket prices are as follows:-
As record attendances are expected and to avoid disappointment on the day, it is advisable to buy tickets in advance for ALL sessions. The ticket price includes a souvenir programme and, for CAMRA members, beer tokens worth £2 on presentation of their membership card. For the Saturday evening, half price tickets will be available to students buying tickets at the Hove Centre on production of a Students Union card. If you look under 25, please bring ID. Rhythm Method will be the live entertainment on Saturday night in the Main Hall. Hot, cold food plus vegetarian and vegan options will be on sale in the balcony area as well as soft drinks, teas and coffees. This year the festival charity will be St. Dunstan’s, Ovingdean. The Hove Centre has full disabled facilities and is a short walk
from Hove Station. * Stop press 17/01/11: the Brighton & Hove Centres box office has already sold out of tickets for the Friday night session |
22nd Nov 2010: November News Update Advance tickets available from 17th January to
5th March in all our usual ticket outlets. CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) was formed 40 years ago and this is the 21st Sussex Beer and Cider Festival. Real ale has never been so popular and sales are booming. To cope with the expected huge demand there will be over 220 on sale plus a large selection of ciders, perries, country wines and British and foreign bottled beers. The downstairs bar has been designated as the LocAle Bar and will be selling only beers from breweries in Sussex. For the 3rd year running, the food will be provided by the local caterers Arkwrights, who offer a variety of tasty food, including vegan & vegetarian options. Smart T’s also will be back with some cool new T-shirts, and local painter Richard Stone has again designed the logo. On Saturday evening, the Soul & Dance band Rhythm Method will be playing live in the Great Hall. All bars will operate a token system. Tokens refunds can be given only for whole £s and before time is called at the bar. Surplus tokens as well as other donations go to this year’s festival charity, St. Dunstan’s, who provide support for visually impaired ex-Service men and women. For the second time, we are proud to host the launch of the Brighton Food and Drink Festival just outside the Sussex Bar on Thursday afternoon. There will be also a Trade Session on Thursday 3-5 p.m. Traders who have not received a ticket by 18th February 2011 are asked to request one. Should you be interested in helping with organising the Trade Session or getting otherwise involved, please contact us. Ingrid Sharp |
25th Oct 2010: Award presented to Crouch Vale for its Amarillo beer 30 helpers from the 2010 Festival travelled up to Essex to present the award for Beer of the Festival, and you can read all about it (with pictures!) here. |
16th July 2010: Biggest Ever Success at Hove! This year’s Sussex CAMRA Branches’ Beer and Cider Festival, which was held on 11-13 March at Hove Town Hall, was the most successful festival ever. Of the five sessions, four were completely sold out; the Friday evening session sold out in a record of 5 days and only the Friday lunchtime still had tickets left. Headway, this year’s festival charity, based in Newick, raised an extraordinary £1,500: £951 was collected in unused tokens, and the Headway team collected another £316.60 in cash. A special "Thank You" to the Kissingate Brewery, who donated a barrel of their excellent First Kiss, which raised another £200. The rest was rounded up by the Festival. The picture below shows Ingrid Sharp, newly elected organiser for next year, with Gerry Harris from Headway at the Brighton & South Downs Beer and Cider Festival held at Lewes, where the cheque was handed over.
Counting the voting slips and comment forms yielded the following results:
Most people’s comments were positive: super festival, with great beers, good food, friendly staff and a fantastic atmosphere. A very big “Thank You” to everyone who helped to make this possible. The most common criticism was that the hall had been too cold, and we shall endeavour to address that. If you would like to provide some feedback yourself, please contact the committee at sussexbeerfest@yahoo.co.uk . Next year’s festival will be held 10-12 March. For this, the organising committee is seeking dedicated CAMRA members to help with organising the Trade Session, co-ordinating equipment needed at the festival and getting involved with membership. If you are interested or simply want to find out more, please get in touch via the above email address. |
8th June 2010: Charity Presentation A presentation of a cheque for £1,200 will be made to Headway, this year’s Festival charity of the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival held at Hove in March. The presentation will be made on the Friday 18th June at 1.00pm at the South Downs Beer and Cider Festival which is being held at Lewes Town Hall. The money was raised by the donation of unused beer tokens and a charity ale kindly donated by the new Kissingate Brewery based in Crawley. Cash donations at the festival also raised over £330. Gerry Harris Chief Executive of Headway Hurstwood Park will be at the Town Hall to receive the cheque on behalf of the charity. Peter Mitchell |
25th April 2010: The results are in... There was a record attendance of over 4,400 at the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival. “The largest ever attendance at the festival proves that the popularity of real ale is definitely back” says Ursula Lockyer, Festival Organiser, “ there was very little beer left and the cider bar sold its last drop as the festival closed”. • Beer of the Festival: Essex based Crouch Vale Amarillo
Next year's festival - the 21st - will be held on the 10th – 12th March 2011. Peter Mitchell |
19th March 2010: Another Festival's Over We'll be updating the site in due course with details of the beer of the festival, any reports and photos that come our way, plus advance details of next year's festival, so please do check back soon. |
10th March 2010: Advance Ticket Sales Period now closed Advance tickets sales for the 2010 Festival have ceased, so the only chance is to pay on the door. Details of prices availability (as at today's date) are on the Tickets page - please note that the website will not now be updated until after the Festival has come to an end. |
8th March 2010: Beer Tasting Notes now available to download In addition to the Cider & Perry Tasting Notes, the Beer Tasting Notes are now also available to download as a pdf file - please see our Downloads page. And don't forget - postal sales have now ceased! |
3rd March 2010: Newest Sussex Brewery launch their beer at the Festival Beer from the newest brewery in Sussex will be launched at the 20th Sussex Beer and Cider Festival. Based in Crawley, the Kissingate Brewery is the latest brewery in Sussex and their beer will be available in the Sussex Bar at the Hove Centre. Brewer Gary Lucas describes the ale, First Kiss, as a smooth chestnut coloured lightly hopped ale with a citrus tang. Tickets are still available for all sessions apart from Friday night but please note that postal sales will stop as from 6th March. Peter Mitchell |
3rd March 2010: Champion Beer of Britain Tasting Finals The London & South East Champion Beer of Britain
tasting finals will be held at the Sussex CAMRA beer festival on
Saturday 13th March, with the results expected to be announced around
1pm. |
25th Feb 2010: Cider & Perry Tasting Notes and Beer List Updates The detailed cider and perry tasting notes are now online and available to download in pdf format. Please also keep an eye on our beer list as changes are gradually made - the date of the latest update will be shown on the Beers page. |
22nd Feb 2010: Provisional Beer List It's been a while in the making and, as always, remains subject to change right up until the last minute, however we can now bring you the final provisional beer list for the Festival. There's a total of 223 beers listed (a handful still need to be confirmed), split into 76 from Sussex brewers and 147 from the wide yonder. |
15th Feb 2010: Hotline Reminder Remember that you can call 07807 105803 for up-to-date information about the Festival. |
10th Feb 2010: Ticket Sales Update Keep an eye on our ticket availability matrix for details of which outlets still have tickets for each session. Please also be aware that all requests for postal sales need to be received by first post on Saturday 6th March 2010. |
8th Feb 2010: Brighton Food Festival celebrates Spring Harvest The Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival team introduce their first Spring Harvest Festival, to be held from 11 to 21 March this year. The event will be launched on the afternoon of Thursday 11 March at the CAMRA Sussex Beer and Cider Festival, to invited guests from local food and hospitality businesses, and local media representatives. A mouth watering programme of other events is still being put together, but already includes a Terre a Tandoori Night at Terre a Terre in East Street on 15 March, Bordeaux fine dining evening at Drakes on Wednesday 17 March, a Hotel du vin Wine Night on 18 March, and an exclusive Murder Mystery Dinner at Hilton Brighton Metropole on 20 March. Stay tuned to www.brightonspringharvest.com
to find out about events. |
5 February 2010: Address for staffing forms now online Due to an unfortunate oversight, the address to send completed staffing forms was omitted from the Help Out page. Thanks to everyone who has been in touch requesting the address already, but rest assured it's now online for anyone who still needs it. |
31 January 2010: Provisional Cider & Perry lists now online Details of the 27 ciders and 12 perries pencilled in for the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival are now online and available for perusing on the Cider & Wine page. |
26 January 2010: Friday night session SOLD OUT! In just nine days, all 1,000 tickets for the Friday night session of the 20th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival have been sold. “The demand for tickets for this very popular session has been unbelievable” said Peter Mitchell Festival Publicity Officer, “the sale of tickets has has been incredible, the Evening Star pub in Brighton sold 350 tickets in five days”. There are still plenty of tickets left for all other sessions of the festival which is due to be held at the Hove Centre on 11th – 13th March. Ursula Lockyer |
STOP PRESS 22nd January 2010: Friday Night Nearly Sold Out already! Ticket sales for Friday night have surpassed all previous expectations and several ticket venues have already sold out, including the Evening Star, Beer Essentials, the Hove/Brighton Centre ticket offices and Postal Sales. All other outlets should have tickets but could be selling very quickly. If you can't get hold of a prized Friday night ticket, don’t despair – plenty of tickets for the other sessions are still widely available, so don’t miss out and pick yours up soon! (Please note: the website will not be updated until Weds 27th Jan at the earliest due to the webmaster going on holiday) |
22nd January 2010: Staffing Letter and Form now online The Staffing Letter and Staffing Form are now available on the website from the Help Out page. Alison Clark |
14th January 2010: Ticket Update Tickets go on sale from the designated pubs from this Saturday (16th Jan), and are already available by mail order. Be warned, the Friday night session is proving as popular as ever, so please get your orders in soon! More details on our Tickets page. Any mail order requests already received will be dealt with and despatched shortly (weather permitting!) (And please bear in mind that booking directly with the Hove or Brighton Centre Ticket Office over the telephone or Ticketmaster website will incur a booking and postal fee) |
3rd January 2010: Official Press Release Sussex CAMRA Branches are proud to announce that the 20th Sussex Beer and Cider Festival will be held at the Hove Centre, Hove on 11th – 13th March 2010. Sales of real ale are increasing so to cope with the expected big demand, a record number of beers, well over 220, will be available this year plus a large selection of ciders, perries, country wines and British and foreign bottled beers. The downstairs bar has been designated as the Sussex Bar and will be selling only those beers from breweries in Sussex. The festival sessions with ticket prices are as follows:-
Tickets for the Festival will be available at the usual outlets (Brighton & Hove: Hove & Brighton Centres, Evening Star, Sir Charles Napier; Shoreham: Buckingham Arms; Horsham, Beer Essentials; Lewes: Gardener's Arms; Worthing: Selden Arms, or by post from SCBCF Ticket Sales, 13 Rudyard Road, Woodingdean, Brighton BN2 6UB (Tel: 07807 105803). For postal applications, please state the session(s) for which you require tickets, and enclose a large SAE with your payment, which should be by cheque or Postal Order made payable to “CAMRA Sussex Beer Festival”. To avoid disappointment on the day it is advisable to buy tickets in advance ,particularly for the very popular Friday and Saturday evening sessions which always sell out. The ticket price includes a souvenir programme and, for CAMRA members, beer tokens worth £2 on presentation of their membership card. For the Saturday evening, a £2 concession will be available to students buying tickets at the Hove Centre on production of a Students Union card. There will be live entertainment on the Friday night and Saturday night in the Main Hall. Hot and cold food plus vegetarian options will be on sale in the balcony area as well as soft drinks, teas and coffees. This year the festival charity will be Headway based in Newick. The Hove Centre has full disabled facilities and is a short walk
from Hove Station. Ursula Lockyer |
30th December 2009: Festival Charity announced Headway, based in Newick, have been nominated as the 2010 Festival's charity - more details are here.
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17th December 2009: Ticket Update - available SOON Tickets will go on sale from the usual outlets on Saturday 16th January, and we also have details of the address for postal sales on the Tickets page. Please remember to get hold of your tickets early, particularly for the ever-popular Friday night session!
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20th November 2009: MARCH MEANS HOVE! The 20th Sussex CAMRA Beer and Cider Festival will be held at the Hove Centre, Norton Road, from 11-13 March. A fantastic selection of flavoursome real ales will be on sale covering all types of styles including bitters, milds, stouts and porters, pale ales, golden ales and speciality beers, in fact something for everyone! There is even a Sussex Bar devoted to beers from our own local breweries. Also available will be real ciders and perries, English country wines, plus British and foreign bottled beers. There will be a food bar at all sessions and live entertainment on the Friday and Saturday evenings. Last year’s festival broke all records with the 4,200 punters consuming over 2,000 gallons of beer. So great was the demand that emergency supplies of beer and cider had to be brought in at short notice on the Saturday! So don’t delay in buying your advance tickets - available from early January - for this year’s event. The ticket price will include a colour programme and souvenir glass and, for card-carrying CAMRA members, free beer tokens worth £2. Dave Muggleton |
| 5th November 2009: Not long now... Not long to go now, only just over four months until Hove Town Hall will be full of drinkers again at the 20th Sussex Beer and Cider Festival. As we all know, real ale sales are on the increase and there will be even more beer at next year's festival. The Sussex Bar is being enlarged to take extra ales from our celebrated (and, in some cases, award-winning!) local brewers. Cider and perry won’t be forgotten either with a large selection on offer. Tickets will be on sale in early January from all the usual outlets so look out for them then. If you are looking for a good evening out with friends or wish to be a volunteer at the festival (sorry, but CAMRA members only), then make sure you keep the 11th – 13th March free. See you there! Peter Mitchell November 2009 |
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