The Dark Star Brewing Company was born in 1994 in the cellar of The Evening Star Pub, in Brighton. With a brew plant only marginally bigger than an enthusiastic home-brew kit the characteristic style of hoppy beers was developed and tried out on the willing guinea pigs at the bar.
As with all the best ideas, the business was planned on the back of a beer mat, driven by a few beers and funded with money we didn’t have. Today, we’d have dreamt about funding it with a lottery win, but back then it was about gathering a few savings, scratching around behind the sofa and selling a motorbike.
A few years on, well 20 years actually, we find ourselves in Partridge Green, just south west of Horsham, West Sussex, with a 45 barrel brewhouse. It’s all been a bit of a blur really.
None of us really wanted to leave the cellar of the pub, but apparently more and more people liked drinking the same beers as us, so we needed to brew more…
What’s in a name…
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.
Pub / bar staff
We are always on the look out for enthusiastic Dark Star fans to work in our growing pubs and bars across Sussex. If you have customer service skills, and want to work in one of our pubs / bars, please email your CV and a covering letter to [email protected].
No agencies please.
