The Evening Star, Brighton 6th April 2007

Now this is a serious beer-drinking pub. I haven't been in a pub for a long time where there's no mainstream lager available. What a good plan! And with ten real ales, a lager, a cider, a perry and four Belgian beers on tap, I thought we wouldn't be able to leave this Dark Star pub.

Dark Star Orginal (5.0%): Very malty rounded and thick tasty dark beer.
Dark Star Sunburst Golden Ale (4.8%): Incredibly pale yellow hoppy and sweet light beer. Excellent.
Dark Star Hophead (3.8%): Tasting and looking almost identical to the Sunburst this was slightly more lemony.
Dark Star Oatmeal Stout (4.5%): Delicious warming stout without the bitter aftertaste sometimes associated with stout.
Dark Star Natural Blonde Organic Lager (?4.5%): I hate to say it but this tastes like lager... cold, pale and fizzy, but without the usual chemical aftertaste of the mass-produced version.
Dark Star Meltdown (4.8%): Another extremely pale yellow beer, but this one with cinnamon and nutmeg flavours. Good but I don't think I could manage a whole pint.
Custom Centennial Pale Ale (3.8%): Tasting very bitter after the sweet yellow Dark Star beers, this was a decent golden beer with citrus tones.
Oakham Asylum (4.5%): Very fruity interesting bitter with a hoppy taste. The second best beer of the day (see earlier entry at the Hand In Hand for the best), and seemingly the only standard bitter available in this pub - all the others have been very light or dark.
Rectory Ales Pilgrims Progress (4.2%): So fruity it tastes more like a fizzy drink than beer, with an immense pineapple/strawberry flavour. Lovely.

Then after all that I felt it was necessary to sample one of the extensive selection of bottled beers from around the world.

Goose Island IPA (5.9%): Just couldn't resist my favourite bottle with a lovely hoppy flavour. Now this is strong enough to count as a proper IPA. In my opinion.

The whole pub was fitted out in exposed brick and reclaimed timber. It was quite competitive to get a seat and some of the more quirky clientele began to irritate me slightly after a while. But we stayed and tasted as many beers as we could.

The drinks were excellent and my only complaint was that while there were three pale yellow sweet beers, there was not an "ordinary" Dark Star bitter on.