Rob Jones, who has died aged 69, had a remarkable career that helped put small independent breweries in the spotlight, challenging the power of big regional and national companies.

Rob, famous for his Dark Star brewery and its well-hopped beers, came to prominence at the dawn of the microbrewery revolution when his Dark Star old ale (5 per cent) won the prestigious Champion Beer of Britain competition in 1987 – the first micro to take the title.

The beer took its name from a song performed by the Grateful Dead but the beer, in contrast, was alive and kicking.

Rob began his brewing career in 1981 in the basement of an off-licence, the Two Brewers, in Pitfield Street, Hoxton, East London. The owner of the shop sold it to Rob Jones and his partner Martin Kemp, who renamed it the Beer Shop. Rob and Martin were affectionately nicknamed the Yeastie Boys after the rock group the Beastie Boys.

Their beers quickly built support in the London area and Rob and Martin were forced to find bigger premises. In 1986 they moved into old stables round the corner in Hoxton Square where they built what Rob called a cross between the Burton union and Yorkshire square system of fermentation with wood-clad vessels stacked two deep. Fermentation started in the bottom level and the beer rose into the top vessel, leaving unwanted yeast and protein behind.

With the success of Dark Star, production rose to 25 barrels a week. When Rob and Martin went their separate ways, Rob had short brewing stints in Stourbridge, West Midlands, and Lancing in Sussex before he moved to the Evening Star pub in Brighton.

Once again, he was brewing in a cellar and he added to Dark Star with a pale ale called Hophead (3.8 per cent), brewed with Amarillo and Cascade hops. The owners of the Evening Star had returned from a trip to California with a case full of American hops that Rob put to good use with Hophead.

Mark Tranter was a regular drinker in the Evening Star. He got on well with Rob, who taught him to brew. As a result, Mark worked for Dark Star for 17 years, becoming head brewer, before launching his own brewery, Burning Sky at Firle in East Sussex in 2013.  

Rob’s success with Hophead launched a revolution in beer styles in Britain, with more and more small and medium-sized breweries rushing to meet the demand for hop-forward, fruity pale ales.

Once again, Rob outgrew the pub cellar. With Mark Tranter, he moved to a new site at Ansty in 2001 before his final move to Partridge Green in West Sussex with an impressive plant that had a capacity of 20,000 barrels a year.

Rob had grown from micro to regional brewer status. Dark Star at Partridge Green developed a wide portfolio of beers with regular, monthly and seasonal brews.

He had particular success with American Pale Ale (4.7 per cent) that was brewed with meticulous care due to an imported American yeast culture that gave the beer the correct balance of aroma and palate. It was brewed with low colour pale malt and hopped with three American varieties – Cascade, Centennial and Chinook.

In 2009 American Pale Ale won the Gold award in the golden ale class of the Champion Beer of Britain competition.

The success of small breweries has a down side, encouraging bigger breweries to come calling. In 2018, Fuller’s of Chiswick in West London bought Dark Star and in 2022, the Japanese brewer Asahi, that had taken over Fuller’s, closed the Dark Star brewery and moved the production of a few beers, including Hophead, first to Meantime and then to Chiswick.

Rob Jones, fortunately, missed this mayhem and would not have approved of Fuller’s/Asahi’s decision to cut the strength of Hophead first to 3.8 per cent then to 3.4 per cent to save on excise duty.

Before Fuller’s arrived, Rob had left Dark Star to concentrate on a pub he had bought, the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.

Rob revived the fortunes of a rundown pub with poor beer choice. Under his guidance, the pub offered seven cask beers and regular festivals.

He planned to start brewing on site, which sadly never happened. But he did work closely with the Downlands brewery in Small Dole and devised new recipes for them.

Downlands beers are regulars on the bar at the Evening Star in Brighton, where they are often joined by Mark Tranter’s Burning Sky beers.

Rob Jones has left a fine legacy that helped put small brewers on the map along with portfolios that have given drinkers greater choice than just mild and bitter.

Beer writer Phil Mellows, who lives in Brighton and knew Rob well, describes him as “the quiet genius of modern brewing” – a fitting epitaph.

Picture: Brighton Argus