Lewes in Sussex is a peculiar sort of town. Set against a surreal background of inland chalk cliffs, its inhabitants have never quite gone along with the crowd. A tradition of religious and political dissent reaches back centuries, and the world caught a glimpse of its powers of resistance earlier this year when a boycott campaign by pub-goers overturned Greene King's decision to oust local brew Harveys from the bar of the Lewes Arms.
There was one undisputed winner from the episode. But you won't have heard Harveys trumpeting the victory. Miles Jenner, joint managing director responsible for the brewing side of the business, reacts to the matter with a subdued mixture of mild pleasure and faint embarrassment. He very quickly points out that Harveys has nothing against Greene King. "I worked for them in Bury St Edmunds myself for a few years, and I named my son, Edmund, after the place," he points out.Learning the lesson
Nevertheless, there is a lesson here to be learned by the whole brewing industry, he believes. "We brew a local product, tuned to the local palate, and that's still important to the people who drink it," he says.
Harveys drinkers are clear that nothing else tastes quite like it, the result, explains Miles, of the liquor that has been drawn from the same well since the brewery was built in 1870, a yeast strain that has been nurtured for half a century and a distinctive approach to hopping.
Unlike most breweries nowadays, the Lewes plant has a traditional hopback vessel in which the beer is filtered through the spent hops. This means it has to use whole hops and plenty of them. "We use older varieties of hops - fuggles and goldings - which tend to be less intense in flavour, but we use more of them," says Miles.Good reputation
But tuning to the local palate and a determination to keep sales focused within a 50-mile radius of Lewes in order to better control quality at the pumps hasn't prevented Harveys' flagship Sussex Best Bitter from consistently picking up national awards.Last year it came agonisingly close to claiming the Campaign for Real Ale's Champion Beer of Britain title after being named top Best Bitter for the second time running.
And with little in the way of advertising behind it - the famous postcard beermats have been perhaps the most effective method of getting the name around - Harveys Best continues to drive healthy growth at the family-owned brewer where volumes are five or six per cent up this year in a declining market for cask ales.
"I keep thinking this will be the year when everything goes pear-shaped, but so far, so good," says Miles, touching a wooden pallet for luck. In fact, the Harveys operation continues to expand. Production, at 40,000 barrels a year, is close to capacity, and the company is considering a scheme that will increase that by 25 per cent.
Also in the pipeline, a five-barrel microbrewery on site will perform a three-fold task of making Harveys Mild, producing experimental brews and educating local schoolchildren in the art of brewing. Despite this, Miles still thinks of the brewery, as it puffs away "like an enormous steamship on the side of the river", as "a cottage industry".
Even last September's purchase of Scottish & Newcastle's purpose-built depot, 500 yards away, hasn't changed that mentality. Each time he visits, Miles gawps at the cavernous space: "You could drop the whole brewery in here!"