OUR BITE-SIZED PUB CRAWL OF LEWES

Oh, Lewes. Brighton’s beautiful little sister. Home to Anne of Cleves, Lewes castle, the burning crosses festival and, perhaps most importantly, some of the best breweries in Sussex. 

Quantity over quality doesn't even come into the equation here. Whether it be ABYSS Brewery + Tap, Beak Brewery, Harvey's Brewery or Only With Love Brewery, all of the pubs, breweries and taprooms in Lewes are simply fantastic. 

But, with so many great places to choose from, how exactly do you fit them all into a pub crawl? 

Well, we decided to set out and answer that question for ourselves. So let's take a look at how to pub crawl Lewes, Off To The Local-style.

Step 1: Arrive in Lewes 🚂

First things first, you’ll need to get to Lewes. Us personally? We hopped on a train from Brighton station and, after a couple of heated discussions over who to include in our fantasy football teams, were there in approximately 20 minutes. Time for the adventure to begin.

Step 2: Head to The Lansdown Arms 🌲

As you venture out from Lewes station, you’ll need to head across the bridge. Then, within a couple of seconds, you’ll soon see your holy grail: The Lansdown Arms. 

Featuring a large, gold tree at its centre, and some of the quirkiest decor you’ll find in, well, Lewes, once you’ve sourced yourself a table, you’ll soon find yourself settling in for your first pint of the crawl. 

Our drink recommendation? Well, you are in Lewes after all, so it only makes sense to start your day off with a nice jar of Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter. That was our logic anyway.

Step 3: Wander to The John Harvey Tavern 🦢

While on the topic of Harvey’s, it wouldn’t be a proper Lewes pub crawl without a visit to not only Harvey’s brewery itself but also The John Harvey Tavern located opposite. 

While the pub may specialise in the best of Harvey’s beer, such as Sussex Best, Armada Ale, XX and Old Ale, we personally decided to try the brewery’s new goose-themed pint called Pells Pale instead. (It was technically a swan but we decided it looked more like a goose). 

After a swift tipple by the river, watching both swans and the world go by, we then decided to move onwards with our journey. We did a quick Google search for our next stop – The Snowdrop Inn – which was a good solid 18-minute walk away. Time to get going. 

Step 4: Get distracted by The Gardener’s Arms 🧑‍🌾

Approximately 30 seconds into our journey, we stumbled across another pub called The Gardener’s Arms. So after another 30-second deliberation, we decided to have another quick one inside. You know, just to break up the journey…

Once inside, we both enjoyed a Super Fuzz Hazy IPA from ABYSS Brewery. We also admired the toads table, had more heated discussions about our fantasy football teams and questioned how a pint glass from The Rook in Brighton had somehow worked its way to this quaint Lewes pub. 

After giving up on interrogating the bar tender over said glass, we got back on our travels towards The Snowdrop Inn. Only 17 minutes to go…

Step 5: Finally head to The Snowdrop Inn ❄️

While a 17-minute walk might sound quite long on the face of it, the four pints, spontaneous meetings with various cats and overall flatness of the walk made it feel like a lot less. Plus, when we got closer to the pub itself, the stunning cliffs came into view – so that helped a bit. 

Before getting to The Snowdrop Inn, we didn’t know what to expect. But once we got there, boy did it surprise us. 

Not only did it have an incredible range of craft beer from ABYSS, Only With Love, Beak and Harvey’s, it also had not one, not two but three pub samoyed dogs. There was also a spiral staircase, a giant octopus on the ceiling and a robotic, metal alligator to greet you on your way in. What. A. Find.

Things got even better as we made our way through the pub and were greeted by even more dogs and an absolute suntrap of a beer garden. Pint number five, pub number five, step number five. I think it’s time I made five my favourite number…

Step 6: Walk onwards to Beak Brewery and Taproom 🍺

Once we’d finished up at The Snowdrop Inn and Connor had dragged me away kicking and screaming from the Samoyeds, we finally set off towards the whole reason we came to Lewes: Beak Brewery’s These Cliffs Beer Festival. 

Offering the promise of free entry, DJ sets, a wide range of incredible beers, merry locals and delicious BBQ food, it’s safe to say we were excited. And when we got there, we weren’t disappointed. 

The beers were flowing (especially the Parade IPA), the laughs were out in full force and life was pretty sweet. So we decided to do what we do best by extending our merry silliness onto all those around us, asking the all-important questions: who would be your ideal fictional drinking buddy? What would you name your own pub? And, most importantly, which is your favourite Beak beer? 

But what were the punters’ answers to all these questions, I hear you ask? Well, head on over to our Instagram page and keep your eyes peeled… 👀

Step 7: Call it a night… but get ready for part two! 🛌

After becoming fully immersed in the These Cliffs Beer Festival and talking to some lovely people, we slightly lost track of time. So by the time the brewery was closing shop for the night, we’d left it too late to make it to the other breweries we’d planned on visiting. Whoops.

But Lewes – have no fear. We shall be returning for part two of our pub crawl as soon as possible, as we have plenty of other pubs and breweries we have unfinished business with. 

When we do manage to come back, we’ll also update this blog with all of our hints and tips on the best pub-crawling route to take after visiting Beak Brewery’s Taproom. That’s if you don’t end up getting distracted like we did, of course..

Until then, why not discover some of the best pubs to visit in Brighton and Hove? We’ve been to a fair few more pubs there than Lewes, so use our handy pub locator map to find where you should go next. Let’s gooooo!