Top Local Beers Produced In Kent & Sussex
With our corner of the country offering a great selection of local breweries, we’ve rounded up some local beers you might want to give a try.
Curious Session IPA, Curious Brewery, Ashford, Kent
Curious Session IPA is a triple hopped Session IPA of curiously crafted balance, finesse and distinctive drinkability. It is a refreshing and zesty Session IPA with three complementary hops – English Golding, Chinook and Cascade.
ABV: 4.4%; Price: £25, 12 x 330ml bottles
Established in 2011, The Curious Brewery’s expert team are committed to making premium beers and ciders, resulting in numerous awards over the years. They opened a state-of-the-art brewing facility in Ashford in 2019 and they also offer tours and tastings throughout the year.
One-Hop Wonder, Battle Brewery, Battle, Sussex
This refreshing, single-hopped pale ale is designed to showcase the diverse flavour profile of their favourite beer ingredient. English Two Row Barley and Wheat combine with regularly changing hops from the UK and around the globe in One-Hop Wonder.
ABV: 4.3%; Price £2.90, 500ml bottle
Taking inspiration from the surroundings of 1066 country, Battle Brewery create natural, vegan-friendly beers with no additives, filtration or chemicals supplying to customers, pubs, cafes, restaurants, festivals and shops. They produce craft and traditional beer styles, using the finest quality ingredients.
Larkins Pale, Larkins Brewery, Chiddingstone, Kent
Larkins Pale is a full flavoured Kentish-style pale ale, packed with hops grown on Larkins Farm and with not a hint of grapefruit. This thirst-quenching addition to the Larkins range is the colour of malt whisky, and is available year round.
ABV: 4.2%; £27.20, 5l minicask
Founded in 1986 Larkins Brewery produces award-winning traditional Kentish real ales. The product range comprises four standard and two seasonal beers, made using only hops grown on Larkins Farm.
Gibbon American Pale Ale, Missing Link Brewing, East Grinstead, Sussex
Crisp, light and refreshing, this sessionable pale from Missing Link Brewing is brewed with maris otter, extra pale, wheat and oats. Mosaic and simcoe hops are their favourite hop combo which were added both in whirlpool and late on dry hop shine through to give fruity berry and citrus notes with a subtle piney bitterness. Gibbon American Pale Ale is also gluten free.
ABV: 4.8%; Price: £22.80, six 440ml cans
Missing Link Brewing is an established micro brewery in the heart of the Sussex countryside and High Weald producing craft beers including NEPAs, pale ales and IPAs. All beers are brewed on site with the best available hops and yeasts using exacting brewing techniques for consistently top quality beers.
Session IPA Skylarking, Pig & Porter, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
An ultra-pale, super refreshing, session IPA hopped with Ella and Galaxy, you can get the Session IPA Skylarking from Pig & Porter in Tunbridge Wells. Expect hints of tropical fruit, mango, lychee and melon. With Ella and Galaxy hops; extra pale and carapils malts.
ABV: 4%; Price: £24, 5L minikeg
Pig & Porter combine traditional brewing techniques with contemporary ideas to give you full-flavoured beers across a wide range of styles and in a format to suit, whether that is keg or cask or direct to you in cans or minikegs.
British Bulldog, Westerham Brewery, Kent
British Bulldog is a full bodied best bitter in the Kentish Ale style, packed full of Kent hops to give this ale its distinctive aroma and satisfying flavour. Recultured yeast from the original Black Eagle Brewery recreates the flavours of Westerham Ales as they were enjoyed by Sir Winston Churchill. Its malts are pale ale and Crystal T50 with Kent grown hops of Northdown, WGV, Progress and West Kent Goldings and yeast of Westerham House.
ABV: 4.3% can / 4.1% draught; Price: £26.50, nine-pint minicask
British Bulldog is produced by Westerham Brewery which was established in 2004. Located in the historic town of Westerham which has a rich brewing heritage, they aim to support the initiative to reduce food miles in the supply chain.
Sussex IPA, Arundel Brewery, Sussex
Sussex IPA is a traditional IPA English pale ale with complex roasted malt flavours, leading to a fruity hoppy bitter/sweet finish. A vegan product, it has hops of Magnum, Goldings and Cascade.
ABV: 4.5%, Price: £3.50, 500ml
Arundel Brewery is a family-run and proudly independent brewery that has been brewing beer since 1992, and they are craft beer fanatics with an aim to create the most delicious and flavoursome beers possible.
The Canterbury Ales Pardoners Pale Ale, Canterbury, Kent
Untappd says The Canterbury Ales Pardoners Pale Ale is a “light pale ale, with honey notes giving way to spicy, orange and citrus hops”. It is brewed by The Canterbury Ales which is an award-winning family-run micro-brewery producing fine, hand crafted ales of character to pubs, off-licences and farm shops throughout Kent. You can get bottles of The Canterbury Ales Pardoners Pale Ale from The Goods Shed in Canterbury.
ABV: 3.8%, Price: £3.25, 500ml
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Above & Beyond, Kissingate Brewery, Crawley, Sussex
Last month saw the historic event of our country getting a King, and if your dad is a king in your eyes, you could treat him to a beer that has been dedicated to a right royal father. A strong pale with the classic Warminster maris otter malt flavours, it has lightly malty biscuit notes with a soft floral English hop bitterness. Above & Beyond was brewed as a celebration to His Majesty The King in the Coronation year by Kissingate, a small family-run brewery based in Crawley which has won many CAMRA awards over the years.
ABV: 6.0%
Gadds' DogBolter, Ramsgate Brewery, Kent
This sturdy dark faithful porter is brewed with six different malts for a satisfying, rich, malty body full of roasty, chocolatey flavours, all balanced by a deep and lasting hop bitterness. With a dark colour, high bitterness and low sweetness, Ramsgate Brewery say Gadds' DogBolter hits the spot like no other – and they’ve learnt to mix innovation and change with custom and consistency.
ABV: 5.6%; Price: £31.38, 12 500ml bottles
Ramsgate Brewery brew their ‘regulars’, which they have been making for years and which are predominantly enduring Kentish style ales showcasing local hop varieties, and their ‘irregulars’ – pop-up beers that appear just once or twice a year, that keep them fresh and invigorated.
Velvet Raven, Tonbridge Brewery, Kent
Velvet Raven is a classic English style stout, with a rich blend of toffee, liquorice, chocolate and coffee notes. This seasonal cask ale is produced at Tonbridge Brewery, based in the historic heart of Kent’s hop growing area, supplying conditioned ales which only use malted barley, leaf hops and yeast.
ABV: 5.2%
Tonbridge Brewery's range of ales offers a choice of ligher, darker, hoppy, malty, weaker and stronger ales.
Best Bitter, Long Man Brewery, Litlington, Sussex
A traditional Sussex Best. Long Man Brewery's Best Bitter is perfectly balanced with a complex bittersweet, malty taste, fragrant hops and a characteristic long smooth finish. Its taste is full and hoppy, with a dry finish and its smell is fruity, malty and spicy. Long Man Brewery's Best Bitter is suitable for vegetarians and vegans with a Church Farm Pale Ale malt and Fuggles and Goldings hops.
ABV: 4.0%; Price: £32, 12 500ml bottles
Long Man Brewery’s award-winning beers are crafted in a converted flint barn in the heart of the South Downs National Park, and they put environmental sustainability at the core of everything they do.
Sussex Best, Harveys Brewery, Lewes, Sussex
A superbly balanced bitter with prominent hop character. Using a blend of four local hops (which gives it a give a distinctive hoppy finish), water filtered through the Sussex Downs over 30 years, and Harvey's unique 60-year-old yeast strain, Harvey's Best Bitter is the embodiment of Sussex. It is their most famous beer – the brew evolved over decades, and the finest maris otter malted barley is supplemented with a dash of crystal malt for balance. It was awarded bronze in the 2022 International Beer Challenge.
ABV: 4.0%; Price: £33.80, 12 500ml bottles
Harvey's Brewery is the oldest independent brewery in Sussex. A family business, the brewery has been in the guardianship of seven generations of John Harvey's descendants since 1790, with five family members from the seventh and eighth generations currently working there.
As everyone’s tastes are different, this is just a guide to some ideas for local beers – if you have a recommendation you think is worth shouting about, please email us on info@indexdigital.co.uk
With thanks to the https://thethomastallisalehouse.co.uk Canterbury for help and recommendations on some of the Kent beers.
Prices and details correct at time of publishing, please check details of any beers before you choose to purchase.
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