Mathew Clayton drinks ‘Hophead’

In 1994 the Dark Star Brewery began life in the basement of the Evening Star, a Brighton pub a stone’s throw away from the railway station. They quickly found they could not keep up with demand and moved up the A23 to larger premises on a farm just outside the village of Ansty.

On a beautiful summer afternoon at the end of August, the day before my wedding, I drove over there to pick up forty litres of Hophead destined for the reception. Hophead came on the recommendation of my friend Ben, a beer aficionado, who had first discovered it drinking in the Wenlock Arms just off Old Street.

A pale golden beer, flat and with a big hoppy taste it weighs in at 3.8% meaning you can put a fair few pints back without falling over – perfect for wedding guests. £100 lighter but approximately 100 pints better off I headed for home. Remarkably the weather held the next day and Hophead provided a suitably refreshing accompanient to the bar b q and assorted entertainments.

To order direct from the brewery you need to ring up a couple of days in advance they will then pour the beer into polypins (big plastic containers) and store it in the cold room.

Dark Star Brewery
01444 412311