GH at the Poet & Hack

Oh no!  Not another pub blog you cry!  Oh yes I say, and it's all the fault of established pub bloggers like Retired Martin, Life After Football and BRAPA, for it is reading their excellent blogs (and a few others) that has got me started.

Or maybe it's just an excuse to go to the pub more often? (But not necessarily very often like pub tickers).
Anyhow here I am, for better or worse,  ready to commit a record of my pub visits to the internet for prosterity.
My blog will be fairly random, sporadic etc etc as is my style, and is definitely not a GBG pub ticker's blog. That would fall into the 'rod for your own back' category for me and anyway I couldn't hope to keep up with Retired Martin or BRAPA who do such an excellent job at that.
So where to start?  Well as a Garden Hermit probably the best place is in the garden where can be found, probably,* the smallest pub shed in the UK, the Poet & Hack**.  I won't go on about the name except to say it is a reference to the late Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate.

The Poet & Hack pub shed

There are only bottled real ales here and sometimes a 5 litre mini-keg (no room for a cask, beer engines and handpull paraphernalia and I couldn't drink that much beer anyway).  There is also usually a 'house' single malt whisky on offer.  Ales are sourced from brewers nationally and it is the only pub offering the local Furze Dale Brewery** real ales.

Furze Dale's finest

A tour of the pub doesn't take long.  It has a snug about 5' 6" x 5' 6" and that's it.  Needless to say it is usually crowded (4 people or 5 standing) and has a great atmosphere.  The  photo shows a typically busy evening with the 'regulars’.

Birthday celebrations in full swing at the P&H

Opening hours are even worse that the average micro pub.
So there we have it - 'a pub but not as we know it Jim'.  Not one you will expect to find on the other pub bloggers sites, but then again if any of the professional pub tickers are in the Southampton area they might like to call at the Poet & Hack for a pint (provided it's open of course).

*Probably - but with a fair degree of uncertainty - in the same way that Carlsberg is the probably best lager in the world.
**Note for Revenue men - the Poet & Hack is not a real pub and the Furze Dale Brewery is not a real brewery.  Note for GBG pub tickers - the Poet & Hack cannot be found in the GBG.
*** Since the above photo was taken the P&H now has fixed bench seating just like a proper pub.