Harvey's Sussex Best - a much missed personal favourite

Apart from missing cask beer in general, I am particularly missing what is probably the most widely available cask ale, in this part of the country. I am not talking about Doom Bar, and neither am I referring to Greene King IPA both personifications of blandness, as far as I am concerned. Instead, I am looking at Harvey’s Sussex Best, a beer that without a shadow of doubt, represents all that I find enjoyable in a pint of cask-conditioned ale, and a beer that has remained consistent and reliable over the past 40 years that I have been enjoying it.

You can’t say that for many beers, especially when fads come and go, and certain beers seem to go go through periods of achieving almost cult status, only then to fall from grace, when too many outlets clamour to stock it and brewers struggle to keep up with supply. Taylor’s Landlord is a good, fairly recent example, but here are others, and let’s not forget that Doom Bar was a beer with far more character and appeal, when it first appeared on the market.

Harvey’s Best is a beer that has survived the comings and goings that have afflicted the brewing industry and has escaped the fickleness of fashion. Never quite achieving that mythical cult status – definitely a good thing and escaping to a large estate the attention of “influencers” in the beer market.

A few highly respected, beer writers have sung its praises, and have even featured the beer and its brewery in magazine articles, but fortunately the trendy Rate Beer, “you have to try this one” types have tended to ignore its charms, either because they fell it’s not hip enough, or because it doesn’t match their obsessions with the latest zingy citrus hops, barrel-aged, chili-addition or Brett-infusion that, in their eyes, marks a beer out as extra worthy of attention. Some might call them “influencers,” but the name I have for them, the one that rhymes with "bankers," is far more appropriate.

Fortunately, Harvey’s are not a company to take notice of such nonsense, but neither are they a brewery that’s afraid to move with the times. For example, they were one of the first of the family-owned brewers to introduce a range of seasonal ales, and incidentally one that never stopped production of a dark and warming winter beer in the shape of their delectable XXXX Old Ale.

Drinkers like me, who have been enjoying Sussex Best these past four decades, can confirm that the brewery have not been tempted to tinker with the recipe, or to change the brewing process.  Unlike modern breweries which have silos for bulk supplies of malt, Harvey’s still use malt supplied in sacks, and these have to be hoisted to the top of brewery before brewing can commence.

They also use whole hops, packed either in traditional “pockets” or more often now, in tightly compressed blocks, are used, as opposed to the hop pellets favoured by many breweries today. Harvey’s source their hops locally, from growers in Sussex, Kent and Surrey, and contracts are placed up to four years in advance. This ensures adequate supplies of their preferred hops, which in the main are long established varieties such as Fuggles, Goldings, Progress and Bramling Cross.

The yeast that Harvey’s use, is now unique to the brewery, although it originated from the John Smith’s Brewery in Tadcaster.  It is re-pitched on a weekly basis and has been in use for the past 60 years. The care and dedication that is applied to the ingredients, works its way through into the consistency of the finished product, ensuring that Harvey’s Sussex Best tastes as good as it did, when it was first brewed, back in the 1950’s.

I first became acquainted with the beer back in the late 1970’s, as despite living and growing up in East Kent, I had never heard of Harvey’s Brewery, or its beers. It was only after I joined CAMRA, that I discovered there was a small brewery, based in Lewes, that was turning out some interesting sounding beers.

CAMRA’s first (1974) Good Beer Guide was rather dismissive of  Harvey’s because of the company’s flirtation with top pressure dispense. The one-liner, in the sparse Brewery Section at the rear of the guide, simply read, “Difficult to find real ale,” but despite this, I began hearing only good things about the Lewes based brewery.

It was my return to Kent in 1979, following four years “exile” in Greater Manchester and three in Greater London, that gave me the chance of finally tracking down some Harvey’s. Even then, outlets for the brewery’s beers were few and far between, and the nearest outlet to Maidstone, where I was living at the time, was the Crown Point Inn, a prominent free house on the busy A25, between the villages of Seal and Ightham.

I didn’t possess a car at the time, so a visit to the Crown Point meant a cycle ride. This wasn’t a problem, as the previous Mrs Bailey and I were both keen cyclists. I have vague memories of arriving at the pub for a lunchtime drink, on a sunny Sunday. Harvey’s Best was indeed on tap, but I can’t pretend that I was overwhelmed by my first taste of the beer.

It wasn’t until my career took me to Tonbridge, and the town’s relative closeness to the border with Sussex, that further opportunities to enjoy Harvey’s presented themselves. The Beau Nash Tavern, in nearby Tunbridge Wells was one pub which regularly stocked Harvey’s, as was the legendary Sussex Arms, just off the town’s historic Pantiles area.

Slowly, but surely, Harvey’s started to grow on me, and as the years went on the company’s beers became much more widely available in West Kent. My access to them also increased measurably, following my move to Tonbridge in the autumn of 1984, as did my acquaintance with Harvey’s seasonal beers.

I will end the post here, as due to the widespread availability of Harvey’s Sussex Best - until the start of the pandemic that is, this beer has continued its regular presence on the bars of many local pubs and remained a firm favourite of mine. So much so, that I honestly can’t wait for pubs to reopen, so I can sink a few pints of this delectable beer.