The Brickmakers, Swanmore, 25th May 2017

We had visited the Brickmakers on three previous occasions and it has a special place in our hearts as it was the venue of the first meeting of the Pie Club over 6 years ago - when there were just 3 members!
So it is always good to go back and four of us set out from Bishops Waltham on a warm Spring day for the short walk to Swanmore through the meadows and the nature reserve.


On arrival we were informed that two of the beers on handpumps had just finished and their replacements were not quite ready but the very helpful young lady managing the bar was able to offer us Jennings Redskin @ 3.9% and Fullers London Pride @4% both very acceptable. So the thirsty walkers settled for a pint of the very refreshing Jennings Redskin while we waited for the others to arrive.

 

There was a choice of pies on offer, Chicken, Ham and Leek or Venison served with mash or chips and a selection of vegetables.

 

Both pies were nicely presented and had been served from proper large pies which is just as we like it as you get more meat to pastry ratio. Impressively, the pies came with a different gravy, a chicken gravy for the chicken pie and a meat gravy for the venison - just as it should be. Both pies had ample succulent fillings with a good shortcrust pastry and silence descended as the plates were quickly demolished!

 

                                                                                                                                                  

As the 3 founder members had all had significant birthdays during the month we felt it appropriate that we should celebrate with desserts of which there was an excellent selection:

 

Having cleared the desserts we felt that we were in no fit condition to start the walk back to Bishops Waltham so we retired to the garden to wash down the food with a couple more pints.

 

Scores (max of 5 in each category, 25 overall):

• Pastry        4.39
• Filling       4.74
• Beer          4.59 
• Ambience 4.66
• Value        4.15
• Overall   22.525

Congratulations to everyone at the Brickmakers as this is an improvement of a previous score of 21.92 on our last visit in July 2015 and many thanks for providing us with an excellent lunch and great hospitality once again.