The Belgian Café

I started just off Eastbourne’s seafront at The Belgian Café, home to Beer Me Brewery. The café has been serving customers since 1999, while Beer Me began brewing its Belgian-style beers in 2014. Having a brewery alongside a seafront café makes this a little different from a traditional pub, and it was a lovely place to begin after travelling down to Eastbourne.

There was a good selection of keg beers when I visited, covering plenty of different styles, flavours and strengths. Several Belgian-style fruit beers were among the choices, and I went for Pink Grapefruit Pale Ale at 4.8%. It was a really enjoyable, refreshing take on a fruity pale ale and a good introduction to the brewery’s beers.

Beerarama

From the seafront, I headed back through Eastbourne to Beerarama on Bolton Road. This bottle shop and taproom opened in February 2022, after the former V Bar premises were transformed into a new home for craft beer. It was a lovely little stop with a strong focus on independent and locally brewed beer.

There was a strong choice of local beers, alongside a couple from further afield. I chose Spin Drift IPA from Gun Brewery in Heathfield, a fruity and easy-drinking 5.7% IPA. Beerarama also had plenty of bottles and cans to browse, along with local spirits, so there was lots to explore beyond the beers being poured that evening.

Steamworks

My first stop in Seaford was Steamworks, a micropub tucked into the former waiting room at Seaford railway station. The station dates back to 1864, while Steamworks opened in late 2017, giving part of the old railway building a new use. It’s a cracking idea for a rail-based pub visit, and the railway memorabilia displayed inside gives the place a lovely connection to its surroundings.

On my visit, there were three cask ales and six keg beers available, with most coming from breweries in the local area. Two names were new to me, so I tried India Pale Ale from Three Acre Brewery in Uckfield, followed by English Pale Ale from Lakedown Brewery in Burwash.

There were more railway-themed items on the walls to look at, which made the visit even more enjoyable. It was one of those stops where the building itself was as interesting as the beer.

Old Boot Inn

My final stop was the Old Boot Inn, a traditional pub in the centre of Seaford, just south of the church. The pub has entrances from two streets and a good amount of space inside, along with an outdoor area on the other side of the building. It felt like a fitting way to round off the evening after the smaller, more specialist bars earlier on.

There were six real ales to choose from when I called in, along with roughly the same number of ciders, and most of the beers were from local breweries. I picked Project Babylon Pale Ale from Gun Brewery, a tasty, hoppy beer that went down very nicely. I also had a look at the outdoor area before finishing my visit.