Our eponymous Flower “Pots Bitter” is a blend of some of Hampshire’s finest malted barley with a selection of Challenger, Goldings and Northdown hops.  Toffee amber in colour, with a balanced bitterness from the English hops paired with a subtle caramel sweetness from the malts, the award-winning Pots Bitter is a traditional British beer and is named after the Flower Pots farm where beer was first brewed in the 1830s.

This is the one that wins all of the top awards.  For three years now, it has been voted by SIBA as Winner of Cask Session Dark Beer.  A complex grain bill of dark malts and traditional British hops create an easy drinking classic Porter.  With a creamy coffee aroma and roasted chocolate maltiness, a hint of sweetness shines through to provide a dry finish.  All of our beers are brewed in the Hampshire village of Cheriton, so why not name a beer after it?

Brewed in limited batches, our traditional 6% IPA, is full of Pilgrim, Progress and East Kent Goldings hops producing an earthy, medium bodied cask ale with a smooth bitterness. The English hops are blended with some of Hampshire’s finest malted barley and with hints of citrus, spice and pine, our popular IPA has a deep yet warming golden hue.

Six Nations rugby always gets us going, even if some of our brewers are from further afield and they have won a few World Cups!  Anyway, we have come up an easy drinking golden ale full of back (get it?) to back British hops. In the traditional Flower Pots style, Fullback has a lingering bitterness, complimenting the initial sweetness of the pale malts.  Who is the best ever Fullback to have played the game?  Serge, Andy, Don, Christian, Gavin, Jason, Percy, Israel, Beauden?  Surely it was JPR (RIP).

New Seasonal Ale.  Named after the South Island home of one of our brewers, Ōtautahi is a blend of pale malted barley and flaked oats with several additions of Nectaron hops from New Zealand. Light and deliberately hazy, this very refreshing single-hop cask ale is bursting with orange and peach flavours, with minimal bitterness.  In both origin and style, this NZ Pale Ale is a first for the Flower Pots.

Brewed in our distinctive Flower Pots style, here is our take on a traditional easy drinking Mild.  Why Knight’s?  Well, we used a Heritage Malt called Chevallier (there is the link, albeit with two l’s!), once the predominant barley variety in Victorian England, giving it a real depth of flavour and robust maltiness with a long aftertaste.  Balance is provided with a very light dosing of Pilgrim hops.  (link to Knight’s and Pilgrims? – bit tenuous!)  This is a proper Mild.

GOLDEN BITTER

New special on the scene.  We went wild with the hops and maybe we should have called it the “8” hopper!   Dominated by Willamette and Fuggles to give that spicy and floral kind of hedgerow fruity flavour.  Did you know that Willamette is a triploid seedling of Fuggles?  We paired up Pale and Vienna malts to create this traditional Golden Bitter in the Flower Pots style.

Brewed for the Christmas season, our Pastures Old is an Old Ale in the truest sense. Rich, dark and luxurious, this full bodied winter ale is earthy and spiced, with hints of plum, date and big intense fruits. Just like a fruit cake, but better! Brewed with Brewers Gold hops and a complex grain of deep coloured malts. Named after The Pastures in our historic village of Cheriton, Hampshire.

NEW BEER  Autumn Special

With a pallet of just harvested Goldings green hops from Kent, we have taken one of our very first Flower Pot recipes and created this brilliantly simple cask Golden Ale.  The combination of the fresh hops with the bitterness from a batch of First Gold has produced a clean, well balanced and honey toned traditional ale, with a hint of spice.  The Cara Gold malt on a base of Extra Pale gives Heritage a bright golden colour and a subtle caramel sweetness. Green hopped brewing at its finest.

One of our autumn specials, Stormchaser is evocative of the brooding weather at this time of year. Bittered with First Gold and Galena hops, with Azacca and Celeia added later in the boil, this American Pale Ale is brewed with Lager and Vienna malt with a touch of wheat to provide a strong fruity aroma and a long dry citrus and honey finish.  A ray of sunshine amidst the chasing of clouds!

Our session IPA is packed full of British hop varieties, Harlequin, Jester and Olicana, brewed in the traditional Flower Pots style. Hopton is light and fruity with an exotic aroma and a lingering bitter finish.  We originally brewed Hopton to commemorate the famous Battle of Cheriton of 1644, fought on the fields adjacent to the brewery, when Waller’s Parliamentarian army helped change the course of the English Civil War by forcing Hopton’s Royalist troops to retreat.

Our Wildfire is an American Pale Ale.  A blend of Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe hops, gives this premium strength knockout of a cask ale a real burst of flavour.  Full of west coast juicy citrusy aroma, what better way to complement the Lager and Carared malt base.  Deep reddishly golden in colour with a short bittering and resinous floral aftertaste, we not surprisingly usually brewed Wildfire towards the end of summer, but we needed something to cheer us up, so we thought we would brew it in January!

Named after the undulating ‘Downs’ Stottidge field next door, we have blended six dark malts with some torrified wheat and simple additions of East Kent Goldings hops. What a result!  Dark and intense with a gentle bitterness and hint of vanilla.  Our advice is to drink an original cask Stout rather than the obvious!

Deep amber in colour with a rich caramel flavour, this special is Extra Special in every sense!  Brewed with Maris Otter and Cara Crystal Wheat, this EKG hopped bitter is balanced with Boadicea hops for the floral and citrus aroma, with a bittersweet and hoppy orange marmalade aftertaste.  We normally give each beer a name, but on this occasion, it just made sense to let it describe itself.  It deserves to!

Our Cascadian is a balanced dark ale with the flavour of a traditional Flower Pot style IPA. We have used a complex grain bill of roasted dark malts, coupled with Cascade hops for bitterness and Citra, Mosaic and Sabro for  flavouring. With notes of resinous orange peel, there is an obvious IPA character, in a toasted dark ale! With a semi-dry finish, Cascadian is intriguing.

Here is Bouncer, our 3.8% Summer Pale Cricket Special Ale.  English Boudicea and Ernest hops have been blended with aromatic Australian Vic Secret hops. Bouncer is very refreshing and fully flavoured with sweet notes of passionfruit and pineapple with a hint of grapefruit bitterness. We could not resist the excitement of an Ashes or Indian series, but what to call it?  Baz Ale, Jaffer, Wicket Pale, Ash’s Ale, Stokesy, Runchaser? ....Bouncer it is!

Opus Opus.  Brewed with Azacca and Mosaic hops,  this Pale Ale is clean bodied with a lingering bitterness.  Full of flavour with hints of orange, passionfruit and pine, Opus is “A real piece of work!” Opus derives from the Latin word for “work” and the amount of effort required to lay a Roman mosaic.  A bit tangential!

CORONATION SPECIAL  To celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, we have brewed an easy drinking 3.8% Session IPA in our traditional Flower Pots style. Highly aromatic and full of fruity flavours with an amberish golden hue, the Azzaca, Ernest and Galena hops have been 'crowned' with a Jester dry hop, as a nod to the new Court of King Charles. LONG LIVE THE KING

Brewed for Spring and Easter in the traditional Flower Pots style, Spring Loaded is a light golden pale ale and is extremely well balanced with notes of grassy cones, citrus and mango. We use a touch of Cascade hops to provide that initial bittering, followed by a load of Nelson Sauvin from NZ, and then dry hopped with Simcoe from the US. It’s Springtime the world over!

Brewed with freshly picked elderflowers from the hedges around the Brewery and the fields of Cheriton, our Elder Ale is a seasonal summer favourite.  Picked early in the morning (on horseback), the elderflowers are added to the brew straightaway along with the First Gold, Celeia and Mistral hops.  The low colour malted barley produces a lightly coloured Ale. Refreshing and fragrant, we only brew Elder when the elderflowers are at their best.

Festival was first brewed to celebrate the return of our much missed Beer Festival, now known as "PotsFest".  Festival (original eh?!) is an easy drinking pale ale, light straw in colour with notes of marmalade sweetness and floral aromas. Brewed with both Lager and Wheat malts, our special ale is balanced with Olicana and Boadicea hops, finished with a Jester dry hop.

To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, this brew is an easy drinking pale ale, light straw in colour with floral aromas.  Our Platinum Pale humbly pays homage to a remarkable woman who has reigned over us for seventy years.