Abyss Brewery Tap, Lewes

This is a large brewery and taproom located in an old industrial premises on the outskirts of the town centre. The operation comprises two main areas for the public – a large warehouse type room that contains the bar and lots of seating, plus the old parking area out the front which now acts as a beer garden of sorts and has the toilet and street food facilities. The main room is slightly more characterful that in most industrial unit taprooms, thanks to a high gabled ceiling and clear demarcation between the public and staff areas, with large shelving units full of brewing ingredients, partitioning drinkers from the factory operation. Long canteen style tables with lots of low stools provide ample seating options, beneath colourful bunting and with muted lighting, which all comes together quite nicely to make this a pleasant spot to settle down in. The servery is to the rear left and has a basic counter, white tiled bar back with the taps across it and a dark surround with the brewery name along the top. Moving outside, there is loads more seating, mostly in the form of rickety canteen-style benches, across a large tarmac area, with a food truck to one side knocking out tasty, if rather pricey, burgers. The place was doing a roaring trade early on a Saturday evening, with no seats to be found inside and plenty more punters filling up the beer garden area. A board next to the bar listed the beers on the eight keg lines, but I forgot to make a note whilst making my choice, so I can’t recall what any of them were. I do know that I tried quite a pokey IPA, which I really enjoyed, and that the burger was excellent too and served by a friendly and chatty bloke. Despite the large crowd, the very first thing I saw when I first approached the bar, was a mouse scuttling between a load of totally oblivious people’s feet! I thought this was a pretty good taproom, with some nicely put together seating areas, a solid keg range and a great Saturday night atmosphere. The place does a lot of the basics well and having enjoyed several of their beers in other pubs around Sussex in recent years, I’m confident that there will always be something worth trying on the bar. A nice place to add to any crawl around town, as it offers a good contrast to Lewes’ plethora of traditional boozers. Date of visit - 12th October 2024

Facebook page of Abyss Brewery Tap - en-gb.facebook.com

Facebook page of Abyss Brewery Tap - en-gb.facebook.com

I had real trouble finding the ABYSS Brewery Tap on a recent Thursday evening, I’m not sure if this was down to it being hidden away or because it was my last visit of an all-dayer. I thought it would be busier being a Thursday, but maybe the proximity of Christmas meant people were staying at home. I’m not a huge fan of the industrial ambience of trading estate brewery taps, I don’t find them very comfortable, and this place was no different. That said, the young women working behind the bar was very friendly and I was a big fan of the It Came From God stout, although a couple of pints at 6.5% at the end of the night made my journey home quite interesting, well according to my wife who greeted me when I got home. Now that I’ve been this isn’t somewhere I plan to revisit.

A craft keg brewery taproom in a light industrial estate: imagine that! So here we are at Abyss Brewing with a big room next to the fermenting vessels plus a couple of outdoor spaces, one of which has the usual food truck in attendance. 2 handpumps adorn the bar, though all of today's 11 beers and one cider are dispensed from the keg taps behind the bar. The beer is your usual new-world hopped, slightly hazy, Pale Ale varieties for the most part, with a Helles and a stout for variety, plus Hacker Pschorr as a guest. Prices are fairly reasonable for the styles and you get the full choice of measures from 1/3 up to a full pint. If you're after something completely different to Harvey's, this is a good option, as long as you're not fixated on a comfortable armchair next to a roaring log fire, or a cosy pub garden supping a traditional best bitter.