Our only Island County, it used to be part of Hampshire until the boundary changes of 1974 when it was made its own ceremonial county. It is between 2 miles and 5 miles across the Solent to reach the Island from Southampton, Portsmouth and Lymington. Under the Romans it was known as Vectis, a name that you can still see on local transport. Later the island suffered many attacks from Viking invaders until the Norman Conquest when the island became the property of the Whitwara family, giving it its current name. The island was on the front line during the period of the Spanish Armada and Battle of Britain.
The island has an area of 100 square miles with 57 miles of coastline. The West of the island is chalkland downs with ridge culminating at the Needles sea stacks. The north coast on the Solent is unusual in having 4 high tides per day.
There are no cities on the island, the largest towns are Newport, Ryde, Cowes and the seaside towns of Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor.
Beer wise this one of the more difficult counties of our English tour, on Ratebeer we have a total of just 6 Breweries, 4 of which remain open and 2 closed. There are no Commissioner / Client Brewers amongst these.
The oldest Brewery we have is Goddards Brewery of Oakfield (Est 1993). However the now closed Ventnor Brewery (1996 till 2009) emerged from the ashes of a much older brewery, Burts & Co of Ventnor which was founded in 1840 but closed in 1996.
The Brewery with the largest range we have is Yates of Sandown (Est 2000) with 25 beers on Ratebeer.
The Ratebeer 2020 awards gave Best Brewer to Goddards brewery and the Goddards Quarr Abbey Ale as Best Beer.
The overall Top 10 beers for the Isle of Wight are ā
- Yates Yule Be Sorry
- Goddards Winter Warmer
- Island Earls RDA
- Goddards Inspiration
- Goddards Quarr Abbey Ale
- Yates Wight Winter
- Ventnor Sand Rock R
- Goddards Wight Squirrel
- Yates Dark Side of the Wight
- Goddards Botanic Pale Ale
The top 3 Bars / Pubs on the Isle of Wight are ā
- Cowes Ale House, Cowes ā 73
- Union Inn, Cowes ā 69
- Bargemans Rest, Newport ā 69
The top 5 Raters of Beers from the Isle of Wight are ā
You will require a measly 9 beers to enter the top 50 for the Isle of Wight.
The Rater with the most ratings from the Isle of Wight is @thirstybob who we havenāt seen since 2013.
There are no current Raters residing on the island unfortunately.