retiredmartin

June 2023. Forest Row, East Sussex.

“I’d go for it before just about any other beer” wrote the Stafford Mudgie of Harrvey’s Sussex, in my post about a rather dull, thin pint of Lewes’ finest.

And I’d agree with Paul, if it wasn’t for the frequency with which the Harvey’s appears to be put in restaurants masquerading as pubs purely for decorative purposes, inevitably next to a beer from a microbrewer 10 miles down the road that NO-ONE buys. But in a town boozer in Lewes or Borough or, er, Copenhagen, it is often magical.

As luck would have it, my final East Sussex GBG23 tick came with a pint of Sussex at Forest Row. There may well be as many Forest Rows as there are Newports; this one is halfway between Gatwick and Pooh Corner, as immortalised in the AA Milne book “The Public House Near Pooh Corner”.

I know nothing about Forest Row, but can tell you it’s situated in one of the most gorgeous corners of the United Kingdom. And obviously so, or Winnie and Eeyore would have lived in a flat in Redhill.

The Swan is as photogenic on the outside,

as it’s dull inside.

Honestly, it makes a Reigate Brunning & Price feel like a Sam Smiths.

Apparently, this was the best I could do;

Harvey’s and Cellar Head. Told you.

I hand over my fiver, the barmaid says “No problem“, I take my pint outside to the garden.

And it’s perfect.

Well, obviously not perfect, that would be daft. But that head is the giveaway. Cool, rich, a 3.5+.

If every beer was as good as that last one to end a chapter of my GBG, everyone would drink cask beer.