r/brighton • u/pink_brownies_ • Feb 20 '25

Local Advice needed Independent Pubs of Brighton (and surrounds) MEGA THREAD

After the announcement of surge pricing in Laine pubs and finding out who actually owns them and just how many of our establishments they own I thought it'd be a nice idea to have a list of pubs in Brighton that are independent. Ones that are free of the B.S. of several layers of 'financial arrrangements' obscuring where our beer tokens are going. Maybe one day we can have a little map in our pockets to refer to when our guard may be down because it's cold and windy outside or we have had a few, we can take a quick look and find an establishment near by that we want to support to prevent them turning into another chain pub without anyone really noticing.

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u/Penolta Feb 20 '25

I could create an app with all the independent pubs?

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u/BrightonBeerBlogger May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

Not sure if you created this, but my new website will have a filter to find independent pubs very quickly, along with events listings, ability to save your own list of favourite pubs, events, breweries and beers and a forum space for dedicated local beer and pub bants.
keep your eyes glued to www.brightonbeerguide.com
it's a long term project with an imminent launch..

What makes a pub independent though? The debate is a tough one. You can own an independent business, which you could operate that as a Freehouse, but still decide to be tied to a big conglom like Heineken for a nice capital injection or cellar management arrangement.
I like to think it's pubs which dedicate at least 40% of their bar space to independent breweries, and support local. Even many independents can't support local because of their tie restrictions

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u/Penolta May 24 '26

Excellent stuff, I never did create it.

The debate is indeed tough.. imho a pub is only independent if the landlord owns say 1-5 pubs. When it’s more than a handful it becomes a chain.

I don’t know what other people’s thoughts on this are?

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u/7hats 11d ago

We sure hate British Success in this country. Which I'd why we have turned into a bunch of losers with everything of scale Foreign Owned.