Once again this year Phil Packham, Branch Cider Coordinator, organised a guided tour of the four venues shortlisted for Branch Cider Pub of the Year by branch members at the November branch meeting. An advantage for members of joining the tour to assess the four is they were able to tap Phil’s knowledge, particularly which ciders and perries are defined as real by CAMRA, this being important as they order their drinks. First stop was the Waterworks in Rye where landlord David reorganised the seating (and some of the other customers) so that we could sit in a large circle around a couple of tables and then kindly took this picture of the whole group. As usual there was a good choice of local ciders available.



















Next stop was the Jolly Fisherman in Hastings, where we were joined by Martin of the Brickmaker’s, a competing micropub in the Cider PotY competition, easily identified in our pictures as the only person drinking beer. Landlord Oliver was in attendance, he sources ciders from all over the country and the selection included a perry.



The third stop was the Battle Cider Bar where we were able to sample three of brothers Matt and Jeremy Eldridges’ Battle Organic Cider’s products. These have nothing added, no artificial flavourings, agents, sweeteners nor yeast. After the hectic comings and goings of the first two venues, this bar was laid back, the purple lighting adding to the effect.



The final stop was the Brickmaker’s Alehouse, Bexhill, our third micropub of the tour, where again a selection from round the country was on sale. Unfortunately as we are all very familiar with the Brickmaker’s, our Branch Pub of the Year in 2022, nobody thought to take any pictures there. Either that or after an afternoon of drinking cider, everyone forgot to complete the photographic record. The result of the Cider PotY? The time of writing is well before the deadline for submitting scores, members could still make their own way around the pubs, so there may be additional scores from members who did not join the tour. Once the result is known it will appear on the home page of this website.