The rewards of tradition

Let me bring a few rays of sunshine into a dark world of sleaze at parliamentary level and meltdown among the giant pub companies.

Breweries can succeed and grow their business if they stay true to tradition and good business behaviour.

Harvey's Brewery, in Lewes, dates from 1790, though the red-brick plant that stands proud above the skyline of this small Sussex market town was rebuilt in Victorian times. It's a now rare example of a "tower brewery", designed so that the brewing process — from water at the top to cask filling at the bottom — can flow from floor to floor, using the minimum of mechanical pumps.

You might expect a small family-owned company to be struggling in these harsh times. But Harvey's sales have increased by 9% this year. Miles Jenner, a director of the brewery and its head brewer, has two new fermenters on order to keep up with demand for his beers.

He is turning a delivery dock at the front of the site into a microbrewery where he plans to make small-volume beers. They will include recreations of beers dating back to the 19th century once brewed by other producers in Lewes and beyond: Jenner is the proud custodian of battered and slightly mildewed old brewing books from the likes of Beards of Lewes and the Southdown and East Grinstead Breweries.

Everything about the brewery is a delight. The mash tuns and coppers are wood-clad, as are the dozen fermenting vessels where the likes of Sussex Best Bitter, Hadlow Bitter, Mild, Armada Ale and a host of seasonal brews reach fruition. Harvey's employs 65 people. It's a hands-on brewery. Men start work at six in the morning, filling the mash tuns with hot brewing liquor and malted barley. Four or five hours later, after hops have been loaded by hand into the boiling coppers, the wort flows into the fermenters. Buckets of yeast are poured into the frothing wort while other workers are busily scrubbing empty fermenters in preparation for the next brews.

In a long day at the brewery, starting at cock's crow, I didn't see a single computer. There are computers, of course, but they are used strictly for the offices and sales departments. Good beer is made by people, not Messrs Apple and Microsoft.

The Harvey family still runs the business, but it was joined many years ago by the Jenners, who once had a brewery in Southwark, south London. Miles Jenner followed his father as head brewer and has been at the helm for close on 30 years.

He has seen tremendous changes. The brewing records show that back in 1945, Mild ale accounted for 75% of production, with IPA making up the remaining quarter. By 1985, Mild was down to 8%, with Best Bitter notching up sales of 85%. Today, Best Bitter is an even bigger brand, accounting for 90% of production.

The wonder is that Harvey's is still in production. Back in 2000, Lewes, which stands in a valley surrounded by chalk cliffs, was flooded by torrential rain. The bottom floor of the brewery was six-feet under and there's a mark on the wall to show how high the waters rose. "Experts" told Miles Jenner he would be out of business for between six and nine months, which would have spelt disaster. But Harvey's was back brewing just nine days later.

Jenner is a great believer in using raw materials from local producers. His hops come from farms in Sussex, Kent and Surrey — he buys hops from every grower in Sussex. The finest Maris Otter brewing barley comes mainly from the East Anglia grain basket, but he also buys it from Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire.

Maris Otter is expensive, contract grown by specialist farmers, but Jenner believes it's necessary to pay the premium: if you want good beer, you need good barley, he says.

The company owns 48 pubs. They are based in Sussex and surrounding counties, with one flagship pub, the Royal Oak in Tabard Street, near London Bridge in the capital. It's a former doss house, hard to find in a back street, but it draws lovers of good Sussex beer like a magnet.

Miles Jenner isn't concerned with "going national". He has plenty of strong freetrade in southern England and has no intention of moving into supermarkets: they devalue the brand, he says. His bottled beers are sold in Harvey's pubs, with most sales generated by the brewery's impressive shop.

Harvey's will brew 45,000 barrels of beer this year. The figure will grow when the new fermenters are installed, while the company is on the look-out for a few new pubs to add to the estate.

In short, Harvey's is doing well — come rain or come shine.