Brighton Beer Blog review The New Unity, Brighton
Read a beer-by-beer account of our visit
Date: Friday 28th September 2018
Beer: Laines Brut IPA
There’s another new pub on London Road, and it’s filling a big sports bar void in town.
Since The World’s End became a gamer bar there’s been a lack of options for sports fans in the area. Sure, the Signalman and Argyle Arms both have a couple of screens, and the Branch showed sport in the same location before; but the Branch’s reputation repelled many people, and you couldn’t say the others really push the sport other than at major football or rugby tournament time.
If you widen the search, The Lion and Lobster would be well up on most people’s lists for watching sport, but it can get very cramped on busy days. To our knowledge, there just isn’t a true multi-screen, multi-sport bar in Brighton that also caters well for groups.
Well that’s all changed, as the New Unity took over the Branch and threw open its doors late in September. The original Unity used to exist in Hannover, and legend has it that it was renowned for bringing people together – so The New Unity pays homage to that legacy with the same ethos, to bring people together for great sporting occasions.
The decor is smart and urban with a combination of polished wood, graffitied walls and modern stools that have massive cushioned leather seats for comfortable spectating. Downstairs there are three large screens: two behind the bar and another on the back wall. If that wasn’t enough, you can claim one of seven tables around the perimeter, each with its own mini-screen, tuneable to any sport channel you can think of. So specialists can watch the Vuelta a España or NFL while everyone else enjoys ‘the match’.
Upstairs, however, is the pièce de résistance for communal sport watchers: another comfortably stylish room furnished with tables, leather chairs, a huge projection screen and its own bar. There’s nothing quite like the spectacle of a Six Nations cup match or Champions League final on a big screen with 50 or so other excited sports fans alongside you.
Probably not since the Smugglers or the old Walkabout has there been a bar in Brighton that provides that kind of space, and even they never felt this smart.
This pub is Laine Brew Co run, and stocked with mainly Laine keg options like Source and Ripper, plus a cask pump, also Laine’s on this visit. There’s a well-stocked beer fridge for other brewers and your typical handful of commercial lager and Guinness options too, plus spirits along the back bar.
We had a Laine’s Et Tu Brut IPA and tried the very reasonably priced citrus pale on cask which annoyingly we forgot the name of and isn’t online… Anyone help us out?
Laine’s Brut IPA is smooth, sweet and quite hoppy with tropical notes of nectarine, so a tad on the sweet side for an IPA. The name used with champagne suggests it should taste dry, but it’s not; though the Latin phrase it derives from (the final words of Caesar as he is utterly betrayed in Shakespeare’s play) suggests this is ironic. Perhaps we’ve just over-thought it and it’s just a good name for a drinkable, refreshing IPA and a great alternative to their Source.
£4.95 seemed like a reasonable price per pint for a brand new bar, especially when the beer is 6.1% abv.
The cask option was really interesting, lemony and citrus but with a dense hoppy aftertaste, which is good as with a low abv I was concerned this might turn out a little bit watery. It tasted even better when we found they were running a special and it cost less than £3.50.
The food focus is a variety of hot dogs as well as other bar snacks. We ordered a portion of cod goujons, which were excellent – thick, succulent and crisp – although they did arrive swimming in a sea of tartar sauce rather than on the side. Bit messy.
You feel the pub’s decoration might be well oriented towards the growing local student population, but in reality I expect it will attract a real cross-section of people who just like sport. If the cask price stays the same and keg prices don’t soar above £5 like at The Hare and Hounds, it’s an indication that they aren’t looking to exclude those who can’t or won’t spend £5 a pint. Any bar that promotes a healthy mix of locals with its pricing is a real bonus in this area.
The staff were friendly and chatty, and there’s a darts board at the back if you want to partake as well as spectate.
At last there’s a place in Brighton that is all about enjoying sport in its many forms. With football’s international break throwing lots of fixtures up this week, it could be the perfect time to join your fellow sports fans for a drink.
Have you been yet, and what were your thoughts? What’s your favourite pub/bar to watch sport in Brighton?
Date: Friday 28th September 2018
Beer: Laines Brut IPA
There’s another new pub on London Road, and it’s filling a big sports bar void in town.
Since The World’s End became a gamer bar there’s been a lack of options for sports fans in the area. Sure, the Signalman and Argyle Arms both have a couple of screens, and the Branch showed sport in the same location before; but the Branch’s reputation repelled many people, and you couldn’t say the others really push the sport other than at major football or rugby tournament time.
If you widen the search, The Lion and Lobster would be well up on most people’s lists for watching sport, but it can get very cramped on busy days. To our knowledge, there just isn’t a true multi-screen, multi-sport bar in Brighton that also caters well for groups.
Well that’s all changed, as the New Unity took over the Branch and threw open its doors late in September. The original Unity used to exist in Hannover, and legend has it that it was renowned for bringing people together – so The New Unity pays homage to that legacy with the same ethos, to bring people together for great sporting occasions.
The decor is smart and urban with a combination of polished wood, graffitied walls and modern stools that have massive cushioned leather seats for comfortable spectating. Downstairs there are three large screens: two behind the bar and another on the back wall. If that wasn’t enough, you can claim one of seven tables around the perimeter, each with its own mini-screen, tuneable to any sport channel you can think of. So specialists can watch the Vuelta a España or NFL while everyone else enjoys ‘the match’.
Upstairs, however, is the pièce de résistance for communal sport watchers: another comfortably stylish room furnished with tables, leather chairs, a huge projection screen and its own bar. There’s nothing quite like the spectacle of a Six Nations cup match or Champions League final on a big screen with 50 or so other excited sports fans alongside you.
Probably not since the Smugglers or the old Walkabout has there been a bar in Brighton that provides that kind of space, and even they never felt this smart.
This pub is Laine Brew Co run, and stocked with mainly Laine keg options like Source and Ripper, plus a cask pump, also Laine’s on this visit. There’s a well-stocked beer fridge for other brewers and your typical handful of commercial lager and Guinness options too, plus spirits along the back bar.
We had a Laine’s Et Tu Brut IPA and tried the very reasonably priced citrus pale on cask which annoyingly we forgot the name of and isn’t online… Anyone help us out?
Laine’s Brut IPA is smooth, sweet and quite hoppy with tropical notes of nectarine, so a tad on the sweet side for an IPA. The name used with champagne suggests it should taste dry, but it’s not; though the Latin phrase it derives from (the final words of Caesar as he is utterly betrayed in Shakespeare’s play) suggests this is ironic. Perhaps we’ve just over-thought it and it’s just a good name for a drinkable, refreshing IPA and a great alternative to their Source.
£4.95 seemed like a reasonable price per pint for a brand new bar, especially when the beer is 6.1% abv.
The cask option was really interesting, lemony and citrus but with a dense hoppy aftertaste, which is good as with a low abv I was concerned this might turn out a little bit watery. It tasted even better when we found they were running a special and it cost less than £3.50.
The food focus is a variety of hot dogs as well as other bar snacks. We ordered a portion of cod goujons, which were excellent – thick, succulent and crisp – although they did arrive swimming in a sea of tartar sauce rather than on the side. Bit messy.
You feel the pub’s decoration might be well oriented towards the growing local student population, but in reality I expect it will attract a real cross-section of people who just like sport. If the cask price stays the same and keg prices don’t soar above £5 like at The Hare and Hounds, it’s an indication that they aren’t looking to exclude those who can’t or won’t spend £5 a pint. Any bar that promotes a healthy mix of locals with its pricing is a real bonus in this area.
The staff were friendly and chatty, and there’s a darts board at the back if you want to partake as well as spectate.
At last there’s a place in Brighton that is all about enjoying sport in its many forms. With football’s international break throwing lots of fixtures up this week, it could be the perfect time to join your fellow sports fans for a drink.
Have you been yet, and what were your thoughts? What’s your favourite pub/bar to watch sport in Brighton?
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