Could Milford on Sea be in a spin following the opening of a new micro pub?…
Fortunately there was no crowd of confused locals standing outside with their bags of laundry when I visited The Wash House on this particular Sunday lunchtime.
It did occur to me however that whilst the repurposing of pubs by Tesco et al is rightly frowned upon by beer and pub lovers, repurposing of retail outlets etc to make micro pubs is absolutely fine. Even if you have nowhere to wash your dirty laundry…
It’s a funny old world…but perhaps we’re still waiting for the first mega-pub in a repurposed Tesco supermarket, and if any one can do it ‘Tim – Knight (in waiting) of Spoons’ can.
The Wash House micro ale pub is in an attractive building, which to be fair is much more deserving of a micropub than a laundrette. The owners, as is the trend, have made a theme of its previous life, and not just in name…
There are plumbing pipe coat hooks on the walls, drums from washing machines as ceiling light shades…
….and even an old high level toilet cistern…(not in the toilet)…
The wooden barrel table with washing machine door in the side is pretty quirky – a kind of old wash tub meets ‘appliance of science’ effect…
A good, but not excessive, number of handpulls awaited me at the bar with plenty of local micro-brewers in evidence. I was tempted by Vibrant Forest’s Cambrian Root, a ‘salted liquorice stout’, which was nice and chewy and bursting with flavour (very good).
There were a few customers sat a various tables, enough to make the micro look popular – including one or two hipsters, now that the confusion has been cleared up…
A middle-aged (and clearly confused) man at the bar was pointing to the the micro’s sign for its ‘under 25 year olds’ policy and expressing his disappointment to the barmaid that he hadn’t been challenged on his age …
The Wash House, like most micros, doesn’t have space for a hot food kitchen but there are food menus on the table. Meals ordered in the Wash House are prepared by the neighbouring ‘La Perle’ restaurant, run by ex Masterchef competitor and Raymond Blanc protege according to the menu card…
The food is brought in under foil covered plates and served. Very ‘bohemian’ but seemingly popular – a good example of creative collaboration between two businesses.
There was no rush to hang the washing out – so it was time to try another beer…
Local microbrewery Dancing Cow’s OSB (Odd Shaped Balls) is fortunately presented as an abbreviation on the pump clip to avoid any embarrassment. RetiredMartin would have avoided this beer because of its weird name and potential rugby connotations, which is a shame because it was very good/excellent.
Described as an amber ale it had a superb flavour, and I half suspected that they had included some sort of gin flavourings – distilling artisan gins being Dancing Cow’s other speciality.
Another speciality of the Wash House is ‘proverbic’ writings on the walls….including this one supporting women’s rights…
…and this one in the mens toilet… probably not quite so supportive…
The Wash House is an excellent micro well presented and with great quality real ales. I even spotted the owner briefly appearing behind the bar to taste/check the quality of the beer (I’m thinking of applying for that job)…
…definitely a pre-emptive Good Beer Guide tick here….
…and, on Milford’s promenade, I just had time for New Forest Ice-cream’s mint-choc chip with a flake…perfect…
Garden Hermit Goes to the Pub 
Brilliantly evocative stuff. Love the jockey pants shot (though he should pull his trousers off).
The beer looks as good as you say, it’s just the sayings I find a bit naff. GBG cert for 2019 ?
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One to add to the list- sounds a good one. Rate Vibrant Forest highly; never seen Dancing Cow. Worth another trip to the south coast but will probably need to wait till the next GBG comes out.
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Me too Pubmeister. VF beers are always packed with flavour and very individual. Kevin 9the owner) started in his garage a few years ago – and is a very talented brewer. VF just had their winter beer festival last week in the New Forest and I assume they’ll be having a summer one this year. Believe me that is something worth travelling down for, so if you do plan a GBG visit try to tie in with one of their festivals.
Hopefully the Wash House it will be in GBG 19 – it really deserves to be.
As I said to Martin – the Dancing Cow OSB was a cracking beer – I’d like somebody else to tell me whether they think it has a ‘herbal gin’ flavour in there (or whether it’s just my imagination!)
Thanks for your comment.
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Cheers Martin.
i only spotted jockey pant man when I was lining the beer up for a photo (Mrs GH and me sat there chuckling away to ourselves…). Thankfully I managed to resist all manner of lewd references on the blog!! (pending any further comments of course)
You’re right about the sayings – and the idea is copied in too many ‘trendy pubs’ now. If they’re going to do them it would be better to put them in picture frames so they can be removed or changed – even when funny they’ll soon get stale.
if you get chance to try Dancing Cow OSB – give it a go – my top beer of the year so far (not had a draught Bass yet though – but I’d love to find it down here…)
Good to see a micro apparently doing well in a small and rather staid New Forest town. I would say it really ought to be to be a GBG 19 cert – especially in the New Forest area ‘a bit of a GBG desert’. Presumably it’s just a question of whether there’s room for another or can it displace a current GBG pub?
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Looks like a tremendous place… officially not a micro as it has male and female toilets so just a small boozer! I I’d like to see a massive boozer in the shell of an old tesco on a retail park… that’s the future 😉
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Ahhh yes – I forgot the toilet test…
I’m with you on the old Tesco store mega-pub – may have more handpulls than Martin can cope with though!
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