The name Dark Star was given to a dark strong bitter brewed by the young Rob Jones for Pitfield Brewery in London in 1987. In Rob's long-haired hippy days he named the brew after the music of The Grateful Dead although years later he still unashamedly takes the credit for the perfect assonance and eerie oxymoron within the name.   The beer went on to be Champion Beer of Britain and then later the 25 year Champion of Champions.

Much later, in 1994 Rob joined Peter Halliday and Peter Skinner (now of the Custom Beers brewery) to form The Dark Star Brewing Company, simply to brew beer for The Evening Star , in Brighton. The next incarnation came early in 2000 when the ambitions of the current management team developed something that resembled a business plan. The current management team during several, late, beery evenings persuaded themselves, on the strength of some compliments from the pub bar and a few festival awards, to risk all their savings, pensions, and credibility to launch a 'serious' business to supply ales to a much wider audience.