North Sussex

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

2023 Roll of Honour

2023 Award Giving Round-Up

The North Sussex Branch has been busy across the last three months, delivering awards and certificates to fantastic pubs and breweries.



We started in May 2023 at we visited the Kissingate Brewery in Lower Beeding to present Gary and Bunny with their latest Beer of the Festival award from our Spring Equinox Branch Beer Festival in March. This year they were joint winners of the Dark Beer of Festival with their 6% Horsham Ditty Porter. We visited the day before their annual Spring beer festival, so we had an even larger range of beers than usual available to try.


Also in May we held the Branch AGM at The Brewery Shades, Crawley and had the great pleasure of presenting Nikki and Ben at the Brewery Shades with Pub of the Year and also Cider Pub of the Year. An excellent achievement and testament to their ongoing commitment to real ale and cider that is well cared for.

James Thornton with Sam Then in June, it was off to the Malt Shovel in Horsham to present Sam with the Runner Up for Pub of The Year. A very strong management team provided good competition with their continued support of real ales.

Past your bedtime The other half of the joint Dark Beer of the Festival was Flying Trunk Brewery and their 6% Past Your Bedtime Stout. For a lovely change from the usual, we visited the Forest Row market in July to meet with the lovely Kate and Richard at their stand. We appreciated the opportunity to talk to them directly about their beers and to get the scoop on their latest addition to the menu!




After chatting with Kate and Richard we headed off towards East Grinstead with stops in The Swan, First Row and The Engine Room in East Grinstead to complete an excellent day out.

It is an excellent opportunity to meet the people behind the pubs and breweries we support. Keep an eye on the Branch Calender for future social visits, award presentations and festivals as there are lots more events to come.

If you are interested in being contacted about future social events, please email ku.gro.armac.xessushtron@cescos to be added to future branch communications.