Around 1,110 members live in our Branch area, which is Brighton & Hove, Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Shoreham-by-Sea and the areas in between as indicated by the dashed lines on the Map extract below.
So what do we do – apart from drink beer and run this website?

1. Organise the annual South Downs Beer Festival in Lewes at The Old Town Hall Corn Exchange; this year's one is scheduled to take place on the 12th and 13th of June; for further news please check here - 28th South Downs Beer & Cider Festival 2026; details will be posted as and when they are confirmed.

2 The Good Beer Guide: Our current allocation is 35 pubs to be selected from our area for inclusion in CAMRA's annual Good Beer Guide.
CAMRA Members who wish to help in this process to aid in selection of pubs for future editions of the Guide need to access CAMRA's National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) using the Pubs section of CAMRA's website https://camra.org.uk/pubs

NB Members are required to log-in to the website in order to use the Beer Scoring facility.

The GBG Selection Process used by the Branch is as detailed here GBG Selection Process

3. Organise annual local Branch "Pub Of The Year", "Cider Pub Of The Year" and "Club Of The Year" competitions; winners go forward to the Regional and National competitions.

4. Organise Branch Socials. See Branch News for latest details

5. Assist in organising the Bluebell Railway Beer & Cider Festival in association with CAMRA Sussex Branches; for details of last year's Festival see this website.https://www.bluebell-railway.com/special/bluebell-beer-festival-2025/

6. Help with the distribution of Sussex Drinker, a quarterly colour magazine about the real ale scene in Sussex, available free in many Sussex pubs. There is also an online version; available here - Sussex Drinker

7. Represent CAMRA and campaign on CAMRA issues – this includes visiting pubs, arranging occasional trips to breweries, delivering literature, volunteering, including manning stalls, at festivals, etc.

8. Liaise with and report on the Breweries in our Branch area to CAMRA headquarters, and submit news and updates from them for inclusion in Sussex Drinker

9. Run a Summer Ale Trail

See here for preliminary news of this year's B&SD Branch Ale Trail - 31st Ale & Cider Trail 2026

Please check for updates

10. Maintain a database of local pubs to feed into the pubs section of CAMRA's website https://camra.org.uk/pubs
For particular recommendations please refer to the current edition of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide.