Jon Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Then you're very lucky. They're often obscure here, those real ale venues. Chain pubs and rampant closures of estate pubs have largely throttled originality from many high streets. http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/oct/11/manchester-top-10-craft-beer-pubs Manchester's top 10 craft beer pubs In the first of a new series on craft beer pubs, and ahead of this weekend's Indy Man Beer Con festival in Manchester, Tony Naylor samples the city's best boozers Tony Naylor The Guardian, Friday 11 October 2013 06.30 BST The bar at the Grey Horse. Photograph: Peter Creighton Grey Horse The Grey Horse is a little glimpse of what pubs used to be like. The bar staff are super chatty, as are the regulars, the gents are still outside in the yard and the soundtrack is old northern soul and Johnny Cash. Yet this Hydes' pub is something of a pioneer, too. Alert to the threat posed by the craft beer scene, Manchester's traditional family brewers are responding in different ways. Robinsons has drafted in Elbow and Iron Maiden to help design its beers (try these at the Castle. Hydes, meanwhile, has launched the Beer Studio, a craft brewery within its main plant, turning out monthly specials – which the Grey Horse carries. A sample half of the Studio's Titian Tipple (a malty, reddish ale) was fine, if less exciting than the blurb on the Beer Studio website. Perhaps all Hydes needs to do is refresh and rebadge its Original? It's a little sweetly, wishy-washy in the body, but, for a beer of its ilk, it has a real thirst-quenching bitterness to it. Kept well, it is Manchester's best old school pint.• Pint from £2.80. 80 Portland Street, 0161 236 1874, facebook page Sandbar Sitting between university buildings, Sandbar has a busy cultural programme (from comedy nights to life drawing classes), and lots of very good beer. It was originally known for its range of continental and specifically German beers, and you can still find rare goodies here (for instance, bottles from Munich's Hacker-Pschorr, £4.70). However, these days, its primary emphasis, across eight cask and 13 keg lines, is on British beers, several commissioned directly from small breweries. These exclusives include 4.1 (pint, £2.90) from Bury's Outstanding Brewery; a lemony Czech-style pils, rampant with Saaz hops; and Tarantula (£2.90), a lightly roasted, clean-drinking dark ale from Manchester brewery, Privateer, who are based – boom, tish! – on Temperance Street. • Pint from £2.70. 120 Grosvenor Street, 0161 273 1552, sandbarmanchester.co.uk Marble Arch It's 125 years old but this handsome Victorian boozer – all glazed tile work and vintage detail – has never been busier. The flagship for Manchester's finest microbrewery, Marble, it attracts beer fans of all stripes. Get there early to bag a table or risk internal exile to a much uglier back room. Eleven hand-pulls and three craft keg lines showcase mainly Marble beers. Historically, Manchester loves dry, pale session ales and Marble's laconically named Pint is a corker in that style. Its revelatory best bitter and lush chocolate stout may suggest a brewery that is all about reviving traditional styles, but a new Earl Grey IPA and its legendary, ever-evolving Ginger ale (now in its 5.1% iteration) illustrate how Marble has its finger on craft beer's creative pulse. Food is good quality (mains from £9.95) and the extensive cheese menu is a boon (from £6.95, four choices). Marble also has a modern bar in the Northern Quarter (57 Thomas Street). • Pint from £2.80. 73 Rochdale Road, 0161 832 5914, marblebeers.com Knott Bar It's a stone's throw from Deansgate Locks, a noisy, flashy strip of so-called style bars, but Knott Bar couldn't be more different. There are indie tunes on the jukebox, Ramones posters and Schneider Weisse adverts by way of decor, and beer lovers crowded around its large tables. Seven cask ales (Castle Rock's reliable Harvest Pale is one of two permanents) and eight craft keg lines feature a rotating cast of trend-setting northern brewers, with Thornbridge, Magic Rock, Summer Wine and the awesome Red Willow appearing regularly. Prices for the craft keg beers (from £4.60 a pint) can get silly, but it goes with the territory. Knott also carries a solid Belgian range, various German pilsners and wheats, and a newly expanded range of American bottles. As they put it, their stock runs the gamut: "from Scottish punks to Trappist monks." Food includes popular burgers (from £7.95) and there's a good smoking terrace. • Pint from £2.95. 374 Deansgate, 0161 839 9229, knottbar.co.uk Port Street Beer House Manchester's premier craft beer bar. Long before Brewdog opened, Port Street was already turning Mancunians on to explosively hoppy US imports, edgy craft keg beers and impoverishing those who couldn't resist that second bottle of Alesmith Speedway Stout (750ml, £18). Expect to find the cream of local, national and international breweries represented across 25 pumps (seven of those cask) and around 120 bottled beers, with Wirral "nanobrewery" Madhatter and London's fantastic Partizan currently getting the nod from Port Street's enthusiastic bar staff. Regular meet-the-brewer evenings and sporadic themed beer festivals add interest. • Pint from £3. 39-41 Port Street, 0161 237 9949, portstreetbeerhouse.co.uk Cask CAMRA militants may complain that actual cask ale is somewhat underrepresented at Cask, on just four pumps. But more rounded beer fans will find plenty to enjoy in its vast array of bottles (a bit bewildering, as there was no menu on a recent visit) and 13 keg lines. Cask is one of a select band of British beer hubs that serves Budvar yeast beer (half, £1.90). This unfiltered, unpasteurised version of the Czech classic is, naturally, a shade more in-your-face than its mainline version. Much more impressive, however – as it should be at an eye-watering £3.70 a half – was Belgian Coast IPA, a collaboration between Americans Green Flash and St-Feuillien. Basically, it does what it says on the tin; it's spicy, it's peppery, it's sour, as you would expect of a Belgian beer, but it's also got all those tropical flavours jostling around in there. It's a complex mouthful. Cask itself is a plain, utilitarian space, but its covered patio garden is a lovely little spot. • Pint from £3. 29 Liverpool Road, 0161 819 2527, caskmanc.co.uk Font Bar Located in a raucous bit of Studentsville, Font ("...#partyvibes since 2000...") isn't the first place you would look for good beer. But fear not, those £2 cocktails are just camouflage for one of the best-stocked beer bars in the city. It carries four real ales (including, last week, the excellent Hop from Salford's First Chop, £3.30), while numerous craft pumps dispense ales from local and international breweries in thirds, halves and pints. There is serious fun to be had browsing its huge bottled beer menu, which runs the gamut of new wave UK breweries, including Kernel, Wild Beer, Hardknott, Camden, and their US inspirations, such as Left Hand and Magic Hat. Font also does a fine line in German beers, from fearsomely dry pils, Jever (500ml, £3.80), to that old smoked classic Schlenkerla Rauchbier (500ml, £4.60). • Pint from £3. 7-9 New Wakefield Street, 0161 236 0944, thefontbar.wordpress.com City Arms Most of Manchester's best pubs fringe the city centre, but this traditional two-roomed boozer (polished leather banquettes, black-and-white photos, etched mirrors) fights the good fight bang in the heart of the city. Eight hand pulls, featuring such steady breweries as Hornbeam, Moorhouse's, Titanic and, often, a couple of beers from Thwaites, keep the regulars happy. Many of these are suits from the surrounding business district, diluted with beer lovers and those who relish that rarity: a simple, unpretentious city pub, where you can settle in and natter the night away. • Pint from £3.20. 46-48 Kennedy Street, 0161 236 4610 The Molly House Manchester's Gay Village is plastered with posters advertising offers on Smirnoff Ice and the like, but the Molly House is taking a stand. This real ale redoubt for dissenting Village drinkers serves six cask ales (from local outfits such as Little Valley, Beartown, Dunham Massey, etc), two craft keg beers from Bury's Outstanding and a short, solid list of imported bottled beers, including Flying Dog's Raging Bitch and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. The groundfloor bar space, with its open kitchen and cake displays (the Molly is also a cafe and restaurant), won't suit pub purists, but it's pleasant enough. If you want to drink real ale while listening to 1980s synth classics from Sparks and Blancmange, this is the place to do it. • Pint from £3.60. 26 Richmond Street, 0161 237 9329, themollyhouse.com Bar Fringe It's a bit rum, is Bar Fringe. Its decor – a lifesize cardboard Sid Vicious, a motorbike in the eves, a skeleton tangled-up in barbed-wire in the cobbled beer garden – should give you a feel for this earthy, hard-drinking joint. Every pub draws the audience it deserves, and Bar Fringe's crowd is an unlikely mix of hairy bikers, bohemian folk, gnarled beer-tickers and brainy students, who leave mystifying, maths-related graffiti in the toilets. On a recent visit, its ale pumps included far-flung beers from Darkstar and Franklin's in Sussex and (an unusual, citrussy best bitter) Blue Sky Drinking from Bristol's Arbor. Cask beer aside, Fringe majors on continental and Belgian bottles, with the likes of Duvel, Leffe and Timmerman's on draught, as well as real perries and ciders. It's CAMRA's cider month through October, so if you like Badger's Spit and Wonky Donkey, this is the place to be. • Pint from £3. 8 Swan Street, 0161 835 3815 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Are we heading towards a VT CAMRA/GRADE meetup at the Wellington? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Had this beauty on draught in Buxton last night. Czech Norris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Briefly returned to the Mids last week. The Cardinal's Hat in Worcester and the Hop Pole in Droitwich rock - when it comes to beer. The Hop Pole is usually there or thereabouts in the best regional CAMRA awards, cheap too. Full English breakfast and a pint of Butty costs less than just the breakfast back home in London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Briefly returned to the Mids last week. The Cardinal's Hat in Worcester and the Hop Pole in Droitwich rock - when it comes to beer. The Hop Pole is usually there or thereabouts in the best regional CAMRA awards, cheap too. Full English breakfast and a pint of Butty costs less than just the breakfast back home in London. The Cardinal's Hat's gone! I was really upset when I got there and it was boarded up. Unless they've recently opened it again? Butcome Gold is lovely. I love the golden summer ales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 It was open on Friday It didn't look too different to how I remembered it, wonder what they had done? They seem to have a thing about artisan cheese these days, but endearingly, the cheapest thing on the food menu was bread and dripping - £1.50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 15, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 15, 2013 These so-called 'craft beer' places look way too trendy and expensive. Give me a run down spit'n'sawdust backstreet boozer every time. The one thing I'm going to miss about Bradford Uni is the proximity to The Fighting Cock, Preston Street. It's surrounded by rottweiler-infested scrapyards, heroin-addled whores and huge rats (you think I'm kidding. I'm not), I've been drinking in there for 28 years, and never had a bad pint. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 These so-called 'craft beer' places look way too trendy and expensive. Some of it is 'too expensive', and some of it isn't. The price of 'Craft' Cask is not much/any different to 'real ale' Cask, IMO. It's when you venture into the realms of Kegged Craft Beer that the prices, and the strengths, start ramping up. Crazily so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Am I right in thinking that the Cardinals hat is now owned by the same guy who runs the Fleece in Bretferton? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StigVillan Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 Are we heading towards a VT CAMRA/GRADE meetup at the Wellington? I'd be up for that. But not likely to be down your way for at least another 6 weeks or so... Sad times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Real men drink alone, in a puddle of their own tears/semen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Anyone who is interested tesco are currently doing 4 bottles of beer for £5.. My choices were: Badgers - Golden Champion Badgers - Tangle Foot Morland - Old Golden Hen Greene King - Twisted Wheel Will post what they are like when sampled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StigVillan Posted October 17, 2013 Author Share Posted October 17, 2013 They normally do 3 for 5 but I'll snap their hand off for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 These so-called 'craft beer' places look way too trendy and expensive. Give me a run down spit'n'sawdust backstreet boozer every time. The one thing I'm going to miss about Bradford Uni is the proximity to The Fighting Cock, Preston Street. It's surrounded by rottweiler-infested scrapyards, heroin-addled whores and huge rats (you think I'm kidding. I'm not), I've been drinking in there for 28 years, and never had a bad pint. sounds interesting, a place with character and charm that's what I like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 17, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 17, 2013 These so-called 'craft beer' places look way too trendy and expensive. Give me a run down spit'n'sawdust backstreet boozer every time. The one thing I'm going to miss about Bradford Uni is the proximity to The Fighting Cock, Preston Street. It's surrounded by rottweiler-infested scrapyards, heroin-addled whores and huge rats (you think I'm kidding. I'm not), I've been drinking in there for 28 years, and never had a bad pint. sounds interesting, a place with character and charm that's what I like 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Poor sitting posture on yer man there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 17, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 17, 2013 It wasn't me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 These so-called 'craft beer' places look way too trendy and expensive. Give me a run down spit'n'sawdust backstreet boozer every time. The one thing I'm going to miss about Bradford Uni is the proximity to The Fighting Cock, Preston Street. It's surrounded by rottweiler-infested scrapyards, heroin-addled whores and huge rats (you think I'm kidding. I'm not), I've been drinking in there for 28 years, and never had a bad pint. sounds interesting, a place with character and charm that's what I like now that's what I call a pub, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StigVillan Posted October 17, 2013 Author Share Posted October 17, 2013 Somebody needs to switch those signs so that they read more interestingly. Let it process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Just had the tangled foot, nice light golden beer bit of a sweet taste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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