It has been a difficult few months for the hospitality industry in Brighton and our very own international award-winning brewery, Brighton Bier, has now reopened all three of its pubs with some great new changes and some properly delicious new beers. 

Gary Sillence founder and head brewer, said: “we started providing a beer home delivery service across Brighton and Hove on the first day of lockdown and it was wonderful to see how the city supported us. It also gave us plenty of time to work out the best ways to reopen the pubs and how to make them even better.”

Brighton Bierhaus, slap bang near the Pavilion, is the brewery’s taproom and was voted local CAMRA Pub of the Year and also features high in the equally-prestigious ‘Undercurrent Pubs That We Like Drinking Nice Bers In’ awards. Along with selling more than 20 draught beers and ciders the team has recently installed some absolutely giant fridges with a fabulous range of rotating local, UK and international beers and ciders ( which is a wonderful change from the Krone/Heini strangehold of central Brighton).

While it is great to see people back in the pubs, pub director Ollie Fisher commented that “through lockdown the importance of providing a delivery and takeaway service to people was really apparent and with the closure of the iconic Trafalgar Wines last year and other bottles shops we wanted to do our upmost to expand this offering for customers in Brighton.”

The Bierhaus now sells more than 120 different bottled and canned beers including the largest range of German and Belgian (Undercurrent Awards: Best beer country 1990-2020) beers in the city.

For those that may not be especially au fait with the more intestering side of the beer equation, we asked Brighton Bier customer managers, Josh and Ben, for their top tipple and they recommended any from their wonderful list of imported German lagers and the Cherry Chouffe, a delicious cherry-flavoured Belgian beer.

As well as having great takeaway prices, from Wednesday 2 September the Bierhaus will start their new weekly “DRINK IN” events where you can enjoy the packaged beers in the pub at reduced takeaway prices.  Also, for those that really value their quality sofa time, all of these beautiful, wonderful, happiness-in-a-glass beers can be delivered straight to your door through Brighton Bier on UberEats and Deliveroo.

However it’s not just at the Bierhaus where the team has been hard at work evolving their offering. The Haus on the Hill has reopened on Southover Street in Hanover with a redecorated sun terrace for those lazy sunny beers, or even just a quick pi(n)t stop when conquering the summit of Hanover.

General manager, Ali Charlesworth said: “It’s been easy to apply social distancing measures as we have two floors and the garden, what’s been great since reopening has been the feedback about how well we’ve kept the pub atmosphere and seeing the rave reviews we’re getting for roasts on a Sunday, even in this hot weather.”

There’s another suntrap garden at their third site, the Freehaus on Howard Road near The Level where general manager Conor Harrison told us that the new kitchen had been incredibly popular. “Danny O’Shea who previously ran the wonderful Bus Stop restaurant in town and now manages the kitchen at the Haus on the Hill, took over the Freehaus kitchen in August with a new delicious meat-free menu, everyone loves his Quesadillas!”

“Since reopening all three pubs, its been fabulous to see the hard work and diligence all the staff have shown, and how much customers are enjoying it. We’re immensely proud of all their efforts and how seamlessly they’ve adapted to table service and the new normal”, said Operations Director Stephen Whitehurst.

You can book tables at the Haus on the Hill and Freehaus through their websites.