A Beauty In Beastly Eastleigh

Being honest Eastleigh has never been on my pub visit list, the town centre will win no beauty contests and the pubs are a bit second division at best. That is until now, there’s a new kid on the block, alright it’s been around a year and a half or  so and of course that Retired Bloke has already written about it  before me, and in doing so gave me the tip off,  cheers Martin.                                                                                                        Anyhow now armed with a suitable excuse to get off at Eastleigh train station other than making  a train connection, I alighted at platform 3. Although The Steam Town Brew Co is  only a four or five minute walk from the station, on a lovely sunny spring day I decided on a little walk first, the River Itchen is nearby so I took a look.

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It was all a bit Wind In The Willows.

Wonderful, now on to the pub, The Steam Town Brew Co.

WhatPub calls it a brewery tap while the Good Beer Guide tells us its Eastleigh’s first Micropub and indeed first brewery. It probably falls foul of hardcore micropub definitions, for one it has a kitchen and extensive burger menu, anyway who cares what it’s called, lets go and take a look, Inside it certainly has a micropub feel.

Wooden floorboards and exposed brick walls, lend a cosy, homely feel to the front bar. There are eight hand pumps on the bar, if your eyes are any good you may be able to count them from this picture, I’ll be amazed if you can read the clips from here, I had to go over and look. There were six beers, all brewed on site, with two Ciders, one of which was infused with ginger, which quite frankly sounds awful. Continue looking carefully and you will  also make out sixteen keg taps on the rear wall, mostly but not exclusively craft stuff. I started with a pint of cask beer , Steam Town Stoke Pale.

While the beer was very well conditioned, I didn’t get the kick I was expecting from the Citra and Mosaic hops.                                                                                                                              I took the beer into the second room in the pub to have a look around, that’s me looking not the beer.  Another spacious area with plenty of ordinary sensible seating, but along the back wall , the novelty factor kicks in with a row of  ex first class train carriage seats and tables.

Novel

Back in the front room, beer gone, I went keg, firstly Dark Star Lager.

Bloody hell , its Lager !

No idea whats going on with the green beans? And then Red Cat Driftwood.

Bloody hell, its brown beer!!

Proper keg head that, don’t be concerned, there was a perfect half under the froth  in that lined glass. I took a while over the beer ,sat in a rather low armchair, taking in  more of the room.

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And came to the conclusion that its a cracking little pub.

And so to the novelty urinal shot, it wouldn’t be complete without one.

Which leads me on to say, if you have to go anywhere in Eastleigh, go here.