Shepherd Neame in Hastings

By Steve the Beermeister

There seem to be Shepherd Neame pubs all over Hastings, so I've carried out a tad more research, with this being another updated and rewritten article of mine, whose earlier version was published in the Hastings Independent last year. 

Shepherd Neame Beers at The Bull Inn

Shepherd Neame are situated in Britain’s oldest brewery, based in Faversham, Kent, recently still thought to be since 1698, but new evidence supports a brewery being established on the site by 1573, and historian, John Owen, believes it may go back many more years, at the latest since 1507. So beer at their site in Faversham will have been brewed for over 500 years, though not what is on offer in their pubs now, obviously!  

The Anchor and Pumphouse (just) George Street

Their pubs in Hastings are quite prolific, and who doesn't pass one, or three, of their pubs in the town every day, certainly if you walk down George Street. George Barnes, the company Property & Service Director, told me that the brewery has been trading in Hastings since the 1920s, their first 'tied house' in Hastings was the Freemasons Tavern in Wellington Place (now Jempson's Café), from 1928-1958. 

Jempson's Cafe, once The Freemasons

More recently, they bought a number of pubs in the town following the Government's 1989 "Beer Orders", which restricted the number of 'tied' pubs that could be owned by single large brewery groups. These include the Fountain in Queens Road, and the Anchor Inn and Hastings Arms in the old town, indeed, 7 of their pubs are situated in the central Hastings area.  

You may have noticed that I keep going back to the "oldest pub in Hastings" question, and most of the pubs I've been looking at are in the Shepherd Neame portfolio, eg the Stag, Anchor and Bull Inn at Bulverhythe. Still more of to come quite soon...  

The Stag, All Saints Street

Shepherd Neame beers are brewed using spring water drawn from their own artesian well, in brewer's terms 'liquor', purified and filtered in the chalk strata deep beneath the brewery. They use barley for malting grown in Kent or East Anglia, and yeast strains cultured by their own microbiologists, ensuring they remain as locally sourced as possible. 

East Kent Goldings Hops

The brewery now proudly asserts that it is "a guardian of the nation's hop-growing heritage, preserving the lifeblood of rare varieties more than a century old. We have put aside an acre of land at Queen Court Farm, near Faversham, to house part of the National Hop Collection." They certainly like to remain traditional, indeed, still using a rare oak mash tun that has been operational since 1914!

The Shepherds married into the brewing industry in 1731, when Samuel Shepherd, who, it is believed had no previous knowledge of brewing, wed Mary, the widow of the previous owner of the brewery, Richard Marsh. Whereas the Neames, well-known hop growers at the time, were relative latecomers to the brewing business in the 1860s. 

The Bishops Finger, Smithfield

Shepherd Neame brew a broad range of regular and seasonal cask ales, my favourite from their regulars is their 5% Bishops Finger, a strong full-flavoured ale. The first time I ever tasted this was in my youth at a pub called "The Bishops Finger" at Smithfield Market in London, which used to be open from the early hours to quench the thirst of market workers, and others who may fancy an early drink; thereby hangs another tale!  

Blonde Ambition

They also have a smaller 'pilot brewery' called the Faversham Steam Brewery, which was installed in 2007 to produce 'speciality' ales, notably the Whitstable Bay range. They sometimes brew in collaboration with others, eg Samuel Adams of Boston, USA (eg the excellent Blonde Ambition), and, consequently, more styles of beer are brewed... Of course, I'm always on the look out for them, cheers!