Dark Star Brewing Co: Leading light

There's something about Dark Star. And it's not just its eerie oxymoronic name or its famously hoppy and distinctively different beers. It is not even that the brewery began as nothing more than a home brew kit in the small cellars of the Evening Star pub in Brighton.

Perhaps, it is simply that it is made up of a team of people who encapsulate the spirit of the beer brewing industry brilliantly - obsessive, daring, lucky, artfully inventive and fun.

By the team's own admission, brewing beer is "just a hobby that got out of control". For some, when a hobby turns into your full time job it loses some of its sparkle. Not for Dark Star. Brewing fantastic beer, scooping awards and running the kind of pubs to which people flock is not by the by. They got into this game to do things properly.

And by properly, let's explain that they are still more emphatic about beer than they are about business models. If only other business giants realised that creating something based on flavour is actually the best business tool of all.

"Although, notionally, there was an embryonic business at the Evening Star, it was a matter of complete madness when the four of us got together," says Dark Star Brewery managing director Paul Reed, adding that "on the back of that, we said 'shall we bankrupt ourselves?'"

And so the Dark Star brewing company began.

Beyond scary

Despite dangerous levels of risk-taking - and yes, often the best stories are the ones that start like that - Paul retells the beginnings of the business fondly and with a wry smile, freely admitting that at the time it was "beyond scary".

He was working for Merrydown back then, telling youngsters how to use their money wisely and run a business while he himself was investing every penny he had ever owned into a dream. But, he attests, he never doubted it.

"Someone once said, if you want the definition of being committed, think of a plate of bacon and eggs. The hen wasn't very committed, but the pig certainly was," says Paul, grinning. That was Dark Star back then: a pure breed with a tasty future. We are lucky because we've never produced beers other than the ones we like," he adds proudly, before saying how he is quietly bemused when he considers how much Dark Star has grown over the past few years.

"Sometimes, when I'm filling in the PAYE slip and notice that we now have 45 full-time equivalents, I think we're in danger of this becoming a real business," he laughs.

The Dark Star Brewing Co, which moved to the aptly-named Star Lane in Partridge Green in West Sussex a year ago, has made quite a few strategic steps since relocating. Not only has the brewery been adopted by the locals, they love the beers so much they are pushing for Dark Star to take over the local pub, currently an Enterprise Inns outlet.

"We're in talks with Enterprise about the terms of the lease at the Partridge, so there's a chance that'll be our next venue," hints Paul.

But it's the brewery that is really at the crux of the great things Dark Star is achieving. All stainless steel and temperature gauges, using Hungarian equipment - and for good reason.

"Our whole strategy is to cater for the real ale lovers who love variety. In order to cater for that, we've put in a brewing plant that resembles one you might see in Europe," Paul chuckles, waving his arm to show off the kit.

"For example, we've put in our own mill so we can buy Munich smoked malt, or Czech lager malts and some small scale malts and then mill them ourselves.

"There's a four-tank brewery process here and we now also do step mashing, which enables us to make cloudy weiss wheat beers too. Flexibility is at the top of the list."

Resurrecting lost beers

With the capability to make so many different kinds of beer, how might a brewery with this level of variety define its signature style?

"We're the great plagiarists of the brewing world," says Paul. "Last year, we brewed a London brown ale." To his mind, he explains, Dark Star likes to resurrect lost beers.

"We like forgotten traditions and we are also obsessed with hops," says Paul, adding that it is Dark Star's brewing ambition to, one day, "use every single hop".

"Our strategy is about variety, quality and stealing traditions. Our ethos is that we take our beer extremely seriously and we take ourselves less seriously," he says.

And he's not alone. Dark Star's beers have quite a cult following of people who take their beers and pubs very seriously.

"This month, we launched one brew of a green-hopped IPA which will sell like hot cakes and when it's gone, it's gone," says Paul. "At the moment we're deciding which beers to have for next year. If the brewers get their way, the new beers will be super-hopped and super-strong.

"I know that whatever beer I choose not to brew next year will result in death threats though," he says, solemnly before breaking into a smile.

"We probably won't be doing our Sussex Stout. The downside is that leaves us without a stout at all. Sometimes I think we might drop the Espresso, which people either love or hate, but we never would - it's won us so many awards. Plus, those who love it, love it with such a passion.

"For next year, we're considering a fruit beer - a route we've not taken before. Also, there's a possibility that we might put the Saison on all year round."

New wave of beer enthusiasts

Dark Star's interest in different beer styles and creating new flavours is popular with the next generation of beer drinkers too.

And Paul is the first to admit that organisations such as CAMRA have done a fantastic job in terms of growing interest in cask ale and good pubs in general.

But he warns: "There's a new wave of beer enthusiasts out there now. The new wave is less interested in the sorts of things like heritage and how something is brewed. They are more interested in new styles. They want quality and variety."

Dark Star can meet their needs perfectly. But not alone. As Paul sees it, the cask ale industry needs to work together, not in conflict.

"I think one of the things everyone in the cask ale business understands is that we are not competing against one another, but we are competing, as a group, for a larger share of the beer market," he says - and refers to other brewers stopping by and having a go at making different beers from the brewery, all in the name of clean grown-up fun.

"Two or three weeks ago we had the head brewer from Thornbridge Brewery come down and he worked with Mark and brewed a beer which we called 'Thorn Star'," says Paul, admitting that "some of the pumpclip designs for that looked a little spicy!

"We also did one a couple of months ago with Doug Odell's brewery. He dropped in and we brewed a smoked porter with him. In future, there might be a possibility of doing something soon with Hall & Woodhouse too. I'd be up for it if we could."

The message about Dark Star and, most importantly its beer and its pubs is that it is without pretension. "Description dictates what we call each beer - this touches on the ethos that a beer should speak for itself," says Paul.

And his pubs are still more about being the hub of the community, he says. "And that community might be made up of either commuters or cityworkers on their way home, or just people who live nearby," he says.

"Wherever the place; or time of year, there is a very human need for people to group together and talk bollocks.

"It's a very important part of what makes us tick. A pub creates its own community by what it does well. Our pubs have no pretensions of being anything other than a place that sells great beer."