Adur Brewery

The Adur Brewery is an independent micro-​brewery, with its offices in Shoreham-​by-​Sea and its little brewery in a lovely countryside location, 6 miles north in the picturesque village of Steyning.
I organised an informal tour of the brewery recently, accompanied (of course) by some tastings of the brewery’s wonderful products. As well as brewing some great beer, they also make an effort to use local ingredients to reduce ‘food miles’, and are planning to use barley grown locally for their malt.
Probably the best known of its brews is Merry Andrew, a strong ale with a delicious, malty taste but with enough bitter to round it off properly. At 6.2%, it’s a very deceptive brew, and it would be easy to quaff far too much
Also well known on the beer festival circuit is Velocity (4.4%), a traditional English bitter, and a good session ale.
Reflecting local historic links is Black William, a 5.0% stout with a nice chocolatey taste, but enough bitterness to make it less cloying (and rather more pleasurable on my taste buds) than, say, Guinness. The William of the name was William de Braose, the local Lord of the Manor in Bramber (next to Steyning), who was also a Marcher Lord. He was so hated by the Welsh that he was named ‘Black William’, after he the massacre of three Welsh princes, their families and their men, which took place during a feast at his castle of Abergavenny in 1175.
On a rather lighter note — almost literally — is the Ropetackle Golden Ale (3.4%), which is my personal favourite. It’s a really refreshing, slightly sweet beer, but with enough hops to appeal to most palates, and especially suited to anyone not used to drinking bitter.
Finally, and not for the faint hearted, is the Belgian-​style St Cuthman’s Red Wheelbarrow (10.5%). This would make a wonderful Christmas present, with its spicy fruit and caramel flavours capable of warming the cockles of anyone’s heart.
All the beers are real ales, and classified by the Campaign for Real Ale as Real Ale in a bottle.
Enough of waxing lyrical. Apart from beer festivals and the odd Sussex pub, the bottled beers are available from a selection of local off-​licences in the Brighton and Shoreham area and beyond — see website for a full list.