Campaign lost to save local ale

Harveys Best Bitter will no longer be served at The Lewes Arms

A campaign to prevent a locally-brewed ale being withdrawn from an East Sussex pub has ended in failure.

Greene King, the Suffolk-based pub group which owns The Lewes Arms, said in October that it planned to replace Harveys Best Bitter with its own beer.

Lewes MP Norman Baker won two reprieves for the bitter over the past month, but it was finally taken out of the pub at the weekend.

Drinkers set up a campaign blog on the internet to save their favourite beer.

Compromise

Greene King had said it wanted to "serve our own award-winning quality ales in our own pubs", but the Friends of The Lewes Arms pressure group wrote to the firm and Harveys Brewery pleading for a compromise.

But a joint statement said: "A number of trading options were presented in an effort to preserve the status quo at The Lewes Arms while maintaining the integrity of both companies.

"Sadly, none proved acceptable in a wider context."

Writers on the protesters' blog threatened a boycott of The Lewes Arms if the bitter was withdrawn.

Harveys previously said it had been "touched by the loyalty" of drinkers at the 220-year-old pub.