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The Flowerpots Inn, Alresford

Pub added by elizabeth mcgraw
Cheriton
Cheriton
Postal town: Alresford
SO24 0QQ

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Graham Coombs left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

The new owners have indeed made considerable changes (and no doubt spent considerable money), although in fairness they have successfully kept a very nice pub, even if not quite the 10/10 it was. The frontage still looks like a country pub, but the very large and very full car park detracts a little. Inside, they have lightened and brightened up the interior and created three rooms - a tiled bar off to the right, a smaller front area and a dining room off to the other side. Beers still come straight from barrels on a stillage behind the bar. But it is to the rear where the major changes have happened; a large modern extension heads back across the garden, with its own bar (also with stillage) and a couple more rooms. The outside tables have continued to breed, covering the front and side and making an assault on the adjacent paddock. The brewery at least remains in the outbuildings across the extended car park,

The place has been done up with some taste and has certainly avoided the corporate excesses had one of the pubcos taken over. It is still a very pleasant place for a decent drink - the beers are good and still well-priced, while the food looked ok - but it is not quite the unspoiled gem it once was.

On 26th September 2021 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3322 recommendations about 3259 pubs]


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Quinno _ left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

Hearing that the place was on the market I decided to prioritse a revisit here, lest it be my final one in the pub's 10/10 incarnation. Ultimately, there's little to add to the prevous descriptions - it's a marvellous traditional pub, with superb Flowerpots ales in sublime condition. Visit!

May 2015
A very well-received revisit here. Not much change in the three-and-a-half years (good!) though the wall of awards in the rear room has got notably more inhabited! Four of their beers on including the loopy juice IPA - all very reasonably-priced and all absolutely lovely too. As a minor quibble, it would have been nice to see darker beer on, the four available were straw-coloured. Noted the presence of real cider this time round as well. Spent most of the time outside lapping up the first rays of spring sunshine. As mentioned elsewhere food is of the simple, pub-grub variety. This place is still, in my humble opinion, one of the finest southern country boozers and I implore you all to try it. Upped mark by a point – this is a gem of a ten.

July 2011
Brewery tap of the Flowerpots brewery located just across the car park in an old outbuilding, this also ticks many boxes as a quintessential English country pub, located in an idyllic setting down a country lane in a rural part of mid-Hampshire. This is a converted farmhouse and accommodation is available as well as a camping field behind the pub. Lovely garden areas are located to the front and rear. The interior is set over two rooms, lounge and public, served by the same bar. The main bar to the left as you enter is for drinkers, whilst the diners are catered for in the room off to the right (though drinkers are welcome here too off-peak). There are no fruit machines, no jukeboxes or canned music though a dart board is available. The drinkers room is decorated with lots of nice old pictures and prints, giving the place a country cottage feel, enhanced by the presence of log fires. The beer is dispensed via gravity from the bar and the four Flowerpots beers available on my visit went down extremely well, as well as being competitively priced. Ale takeouts are available, a nice touch. The staff were very affable and clearly proud of the place. This is a cracking country pub and you really should sample it. Probably best avoided at peak eating times though. Rated 9

On 21st May 2019 - rating: 10
[User has posted 5050 recommendations about 5033 pubs]


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Moby Duck left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

Tucked away down a country lane,the Flowerpots Inn is everything a country pub should be,it's charmingly basic,two separate rooms with various comfortable seating along with some normal tables and chairs for eating and or drinking.Four beers were available on stillage behind the bar with the choices displayed on a blackboard, they were on my visit, Flowerpots Bitter,Perridge Pale , Stottidge Stout and Goodens Gold, the Pale was in excellent form at a very reasonable £2.80 a pint. As mentioned before this pub is well worth seeking out.

On 14th May 2017 - rating: 9
[User has posted 1868 recommendations about 1841 pubs]


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Malden man left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

This is a quintessential English country pub, located down a lane on the edge of a rural village adjacent to farmland. Outbuildings house the on-site brewery and B&B accommodation with camping also available adjoining the car park. The pub itself, a former farmhouse I understand, has the traditional two room bar and lounge format with the bar being the bigger room by some margin. If you enter from the car park the chances are you will go in via the toilet lobby into the bar, an L-shaped space with lots of regular seating, a dartboard, lots of pub awards framed on a wall and for some reason a row of hats and caps on the wall.
Through the front entrance lobby to a much smaller squareish lounge which resembles an old parlour. Boarded flooring but with large rugs, a proper log fire, wooden shutters at the windows, dried hops along the bar. Décor includes a load of agricultural implements an animal traps above the bar, a bedpan, a large brass and copper milk churn on a small table, hunting scenes framed, over the bar also hang hunting horns and pewter tankards. Seating in here is of mixed old style chairs and benches plus a pair of recycled domestic armchairs. A tatty old box of scrabble provides the only extraneous entertainment, there are no TVs or recorded music here. I believe there are often impromptu performances from folk musicians and country dancers. There is an overflow marquee in the garden but this really would be a last resort as obviously it has no character or atmosphere and the pub interior is essential as part of the experience.
The bar with its painted brick back serves both areas continually, naturally the site brewed beers are what's on offer, all on stillage, regulars Flowerpots Bitter and Goodens Gold were on plus Hopton's Pale, Edge of Darkness plus real cider and perry from Weston's and Thatchers. Food is served, home style stuff no country gastro, 8oz ribeye and chips £10.50, sausage, chips and beans £7.50, crab sandwich £5.50, homemade soup £4.50.
One point to note, they do not have facilities to take cards here, cash only but I believe that they still do take cheques. I'd ring to make sure especially if eating or staying over.
I had wanted to visit here for some time as it is vaguely off the route we take when fetching my daughter home from university as we were, I'm glad I did, a lovely old country pub, I must say though that a rather boorish middle aged group occupying a side of the bar clearly celebrating something did take something away from the experience especially as one mouthy wannabee big fella decided to make comments as we walked through. I don't tolerate that sort of stuff and replied quickly and abrasively to his "witty banter", telling him to shut up in rather more assertive terms than I can document here. I won't let that detract from my rating, not the fault of the pub, if you ever read this (if you can) grow up pal.

On 3rd April 2014 - rating: 9
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]


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Pub SignMan left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

The Flowerpots Inn and the adjacent brewery are located down the quiet country lanes of a pleasantly rural part of mid-Hampshire. The pub, a converted farmhouse which has since been extended, has two rooms, with the public bar to the right and lounge bar to the left. The public bar has standard seating in a fairly bare room with a dartboard on the far wall and a few hop plants snaking around the tops of the walls. The room opens out further beyond the bar and this area was being used by diners on our visit, so I didn't like to pry too much, but I did spot some caps hanging on the wall, although to what end I’m not sure.
The lounge bar which is the oldest part of the building typically had more comfortable seating including padded benches and a sofa. Some farm tools were hung above the bar counter and there was a photo on the wall showing the pub's opening night. The beers were all racked up behind the bar and were as fresh as might be expected given that they'd travelled from the other side of the car park, where the brewery is located in an old outbuilding. There were four beers racked up - Flowerpots Bitter, Goodens Gold, Perridge Pale and Triple B ranging from £2.50 - £2.70 in price.
The pub has a campsite and also offers B&B accommodation which certainly provides one potential solution for those looking to enjoy a session here without having to worry about how they're going to get back home. A marquee was set up in the large garden and I believe the pub hold a beer festival every August Bank Holiday.
It was good to hear from the barman that the pub and brewery is doing very well at present, as it certainly seems like a lot of hard work has gone into making this an excellent enterprise. This was well worth making the trip out from Winchester for and although their beers were easily found around town, none of them tasted as good as those we tried here. Certainly worth putting a bit of effort in to give this place a try.

On 10th July 2011 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3102 recommendations about 3102 pubs]


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Soup Dragon left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

A detached un-rendered brick house and extension, with patio and beer garden, that also is a B&B, camp site, does food and of course, is home to the Flower Pots Brewery within spitting distance from the pub door. In GBG 2010.

The interior has two rooms served by the same wood panel bar; a small bar/lounge and a larger lounge/dining area with wood tables and chairs. The décor was a mix of red and cream, with some exposed brick and stone, with a couple of fireplaces with nice fires going. There was some odd ephemera dotted about and certificates on the walls. The service was great, the clientele mixed age and seemingly both local and visitors, but the place had a friendly atmosphere, with the chap behind the bar asking for my preferences as I went through their brews. There was no music or TV.

Beer; tap stuff, with four handpulls; Perridge Pale was OK, the Flowerpots Bitter nice, the Goodens Gold very good and the IPA was class. Sadly, I missed their MILD!

A fantastic place. It is friendly and serves decent beer. A must visit if you are passing, and too be honest, even if you are not! I long to go back.

On 7th May 2010 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 3067 recommendations about 3062 pubs]


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Chris 87 left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

This is an idiosyncratic little pub in the chocolate-box Hampshire village of Cheriton, which serves as something of a brewery tap for the Flowerpots Brewery which is on the same site. It has an old fashioned two-bar arrangement and a pleasant little garden complete with a marquee which serves I presume as a smokers' shelter.

The Flowerpots beers were in pretty good form (Perridge Pale & Flowerpots Bitter sampled) and cheap for the area at around the £2.30 mark. This pub is clearly very popular with both locals and those passing but I feel I must draw something of a negative from the rather off-hand service - possibly a result of a busy Sunday lunchtime of trade. Still, I enjoyed my visit nonetheless.

On 13th July 2009 - rating: 8
[User has posted 179 recommendations about 179 pubs]


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elizabeth mcgraw left this review about The Flowerpots Inn

Still Brewing some great ales on the premises well worth a visit, also has a field for camping, you can have a good drink and fall into your tent or campervan!!

On 16th January 2008 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 252 recommendations about 249 pubs]