Dark Star rising

Dark Star is a British micro brewery with a difference. Nigel Huddleston reports

They say variety is the spice of life but it’s the other way round at Sussex brewer Dark Star. The micro uses cinnamon, coriander and ginger, among other exotic ingredients, in producing a range of ales with depth and quirkiness.

As well as going down the spice route, the brewer has been winning plaudits for its coffee flavoured Espresso and a Double Chocolate Stout that’s a match for its more famous rival, produced by Young’s.

“On a brew day when we’re making Espresso, I promise you it smells more like Starbuck’s than it does a brewery,” says director Paul Reed in the one-time farmyard that now forms the brewery forecourt.

The Dark Star story begins with a more straightforward, premium strength dark beer, made by Rob Jones at London’s Pitfield Brewery.

His Dark Star – named after a Grateful Dead track – was Supreme Champion at the Great British Beer Festival in 1987, and was subsequently named Champion of Champions when the GBBF celebrated its 25th year.

In 1994, a tiny real ale lovers’ pub, the Evening Star in Brighton, decided it wanted to become a brewpub, and Jones was invited to design the brewery in its cellar. He brought his beer recipes with him, and the Dark Star name was adopted by the new brewery.

Seven years later, demand for Dark Star’s beers from free-trade accounts across Sussex was so high that the brewery couldn’t cope, and T Dark Star is a British micro brewery with a difference. Nigel Huddleston reports moved to its current location, on a farm estate.....

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By Nigel Huddleston

Section : Spotlight

Page number : 30