Surely a combination that is about as unlikely as a deer wearing ice skates…
..ah there you go….
It’s all part of the eclectic decoration at the Brew House and Kitchen, in Highfield, Southampton’s university land….
This is a great pub where all humankind, from university students to young families and folk with silver hairdo’s come to relax, eat and drink.
I called in (with Mrs GH) for a much needed pint after my consultant’s business-like confirmation of my impending operation…
This has the appearance of an estate style pub and is now part of the Brew House and Kitchen chain. The atmosphere here was very relaxed, bar staff were polite and nothing was too much trouble for the staff serving at on the tables. The pub has one through room down the left hand side, opening onto a well laid out beer garden at the rear.
The pub was pretty busy at around 7pm and so was the beer garden… with a nice touch being the sheds, mocked up as colourful beach huts, each having a table and chairs…
The Brew House and Kitchen does what it says on the tin, serves a good range of food and brews it’s own beer on the premises. Each pub in the chain has it’s own brewer and beers are unique to that pub. The brew kit is on full display in the front right hand area of the pub…
…and at the bar the Brew House’s own ‘brewed on the premises’ cask beers were headlining…
I tried a pint of the On Le Tiss (4.2%) – the imaginatively named golden beer in honour of famous Saints and England player Matt Le Tissier. Like the player, the beer was very good.
The crisp, smooth flavour of the golden ale was undoubtedly enhanced by the cutting edge glass design…
For anyone who is not yet fully appreciative of the beer enhancing qualities of handled, dimpled glasses, they also make very good lampshades…
The Brew House and kitchen are keen to include beer in their food recipes, and for good measure, also suggest a beer as pairing with the food. So, having chosen the IPA battered cod and chips, it was perhaps inevitable that the suggested beer pairing was either IPA (or lager).
Clearly the On Le Tiss golden beer wasn’t an option for my ‘pairing pint’, and faced with the tricky decision of IPA or lager, I went for the Walk the Line IPA (5%).
…which was good/very good, and a perfect pairing for the fish, chips and mushy peas…
I like the Brew House and Kitchen, it has a very young, rejuvenating and vibrant atmosphere…
…which certainly worked for me…
…on the way to the gents, I held the door open for a young guy: “Thanks dude”, he said…
…what more proof do you need…
Anyway here’s bit of gratuitous superhero art from the gents toilet…
As there is nothing like a bit of quality keg, I was tempted by the take out beer offer…
As I waited at the end of the bar to ask the barman about the take-out beer, I noticed that the floor behind the bar was very wet – which was odd. Noticing me, noticing it, the barman commented how wet it was,..
…I said that if it got any worse he could soon be swimming, and he laughed….
…but when asked about the mini-kegs he said they had sold out (until next Monday)…
…nice beers and worth coming back for though…j
Update…
Russ – here’s the photo of my keg with Party Star Deluxe tap…
Garden Hermit Goes to the Pub 
“Surely a combination that is about as unlikely as a deer wearing ice skates…”
I was going to say that you haven’t been to Canada but saw the photo underneath. 🙂
“Is that what they call ‘bright’ beer, barman?…”
I kind of like it.
“Beer garden with beach huts in the distance…”
Not a bad idea. If it suddenly rains you can try to duck into one to wait it out.
“the imaginatively named golden beer in honour of famous Saints and England player Matt Le Tissier.”
And here’s me just thinking they were taking the, um, tiss. (LOL)
“Beer glass lampshades – use dimpled variety for best effect…”
Pfft. The dimpled ones would be better if you spun them slowly for a disco effect.
“…what more proof do you need…”
(guffaw)
“Superheroes…”
I do believe I used to have a copy of that Thor one near the top.
“but when asked about the mini-kegs he said they had sold out”
Do you need a separate apparatus in order to tap them or just the usual accoutrements?
(I’m thinking of those perfect keg thingies from Phillips).
Cheers
PS – “and brews it’s own beer”
Apostrophe not needed. (or in the sentence following)
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Heheh thanks Russ for a few good laughs in your comment, and welcome back from the wilds of wireless-less Canada..
Thought I was getting away the apostrophies there, definitely would have checked if I’d known you were back😀
You can just gravity dispense by opening the top vent and side tap, but the beer needs to be drunk more or less straight away before it goes flat/off.
My keg dispenser is simpler than the Phillips machine (and cheaper) called a Party Star Deluxe – made by a German company. Beauty of them is that they inject CO2 to maintain a dispense pressure and keep air out so the minikeg of beer will last a week or two without the beer going off. Don’t know if you saw my previous photo – but here it is…
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOzJpAwmzKprp8cUmMn1geepFs14mBWgebZMUSF
The dip tube just pushes through the top seal of the keg and the tap unit then clips to the top of the keg. The photo shows one of my home brew kegs rather than a bought one, but at the moment I’m enjoying a mini- keg of Hobgoblin Gold from the supermarket, a nice fruity hopped pale ale. At £14 for 8 pints it’s a good deal.
🍺
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Sigh, the photo for me does not work. Is it in a previous post?
(or possibly not shared in Google? – I’ve had that problem)
But, that being said, I thought the kegs at the Brew House looked like the regular tapping kind. We’ve had a few of those at some of my gaming friends’ get togethers in the US. But I quite like the idea of the keg dispenser. My brother mentioned it a few weeks ago (he’s in France) and now I see it pop up here. I may have to do some inquiries over here and, if possible, see if I can put it on my Christmas list. 🙂
And yes, £14 for 8 pints is quite a good deal.
Cheers
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I thought you’d be able to see it in Google photos but I must still be doing something wrong…
…so I’ve gone for the easy option and added it to the end of the post above.
😀
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“…so I’ve gone for the easy option and added it to the end of the post above.”
Perfect! Many thanks. 🙂
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I’m with you on this and I like all brewhouse pubs I’ve been into…good beer and helpful staff
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Good to hear Life After Football – definitely a ‘go to’ place then if the town/city has one…
…the beers were definitely good and I aim to get one of their take out mini-kegs (CAMRA says this is quality beer) next time…
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Best wishes for the op, whenever it turns out to be.
I’m glad to read about B & K experiences, though they may as well be GBK (gourmet burger kitchen, Russ) for me.
I could tell what that was immediately. Six I’ve been in this last year identical, right down to football themed beer. Nothing wrong with themed diners with decent beer, but they lack interest if you’re after difference.
I’ve had very good (Angel) and very bad (Sutton Coldfield) beer in them, so pleased to read you enjoyed it.
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Thanks for your best wishes Martin – it’s tomorrow so at least it’ll get done quickly.
Just a repair for a ‘blown gasket’ – but it appears that I’m going to have to sit still for a while after – not helpful for pub visits – so my posts will probably be even less frequent for a couple of weeks – and then I’ll be telling Mrs GH I’m fine so she’ll take me to some pubs. 🙄
Interesting to hear about your B&K experiences and clearly they are more samey than they might suggest. I agree that after one or two they’d not be very interesting – like the standard Spoons, nothing wrong with them but all very much the same…
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Best of luck on the morrow PH (checks time, yup, still over 20 minutes to midnight over there). 🙂
As for sitting still, I hear that can be done very nicely in pubs. (rolls eyes)
Either way, all the best and get back to regaling us with your tales soon.*
Cheers
* – you know, this would have been better if you’d had it done while I was wireless-less last week. (LOL)
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Former ‘Spoons branch if I remember rightly ?
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Hello Fred, I didn’t realise that – do you know what it was called when Weatherspoons owned it?
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