Last weekend I went with a group of friends to Manchester for the annual Good Friday beer trip, and once again a good time was had by all as we visited a number of the city's finest pubs, bars, and brewery taprooms....
The day began for some of us with a decent breakfast at the Station Cafe in Brighouse, following which we caught the train from the adjacent railway station to Manchester Victoria, where made a beeline for the Victoria Tap in order that we could meet up with other members of our party who had come in on different trains from from Bradford and Huddersfield. Here I bought a pint of a 4% session IPA called Hot Lick from Green Arches, who brew close to Victoria at Red Bank, having been set up by some of the team who worked at the now-closed Beatnikz Republic brewery. Their beers are seen with increasing regularity in the pubs and bars in and around the city centre, and they seem to have a beer on the bar at the Victoria Tap every time I go in these days. It was a typical 4% session ale, light and not too heavy on the hops and made for a solid start to the day (NBSS 3) as we caught up in the outside drinking area beside the tram tracks where we had to move around to keep out of the way of the intense heat from the overhead patio heaters.
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| Victoria Tap |
We finished our drinks and went to catch the tram to Piccadilly. There were no direct services running today, so our best option was to catch a tram to St Peter's Square, from where we could transfer to one going through to Piccadilly. And so that's what we did and as we were passing the shrouded shape of Manchester Town Hall on one side and then the Waterhouse on the other, someone suggested we called in not there but to the City Arms next door which everyone seemed to think was a rather good idea. And so when we alighted from the tram, instead of crossing over to the other line we made our way to the small pub on Kennedy Street, with our group, which numbered 17 when everyone was there, likely to take up quite a lot of the space therein.
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| St Peter's Square, Manchester |
Unusually though, the City Arms was fairly quiet, with just one table occupied in the room with the bar and only a couple taken in the small room beyond. From the beers on the bar which included regulars from the likes of Brightside, Thornbridge, and Titanic, I ordered one from a brewery I had never come across before, Courier. I asked the girl behind the bar where they were from. It turns out they are from Manchester and are a nanobrewery based in a railway arch on Temperance Street, where they share the kit with another newish small brewery, Steelfish. With Manchester having lost a few breweries in recent years like Alphabet, Beer Nouveau, Squawk, and the afore-mentioned Beatnikz Republic, it is good to see that there are a number of small breweries coming in to take up some of the slack. Interestingly, I spotted a different beer from Courier, a 2.5% table beer, on at Dukes in Halifax the following day, so it looks like they are getting their beer out there. The one I had at the City Arms was a 4.5% best bitter called My Liquid Friend which it seems is their house beer, a further feather in the cap for this small brewery. It was easy drinking, well-balanced and not too bitter (NBSS 3.5). A few of the group had a game of darts whilst a few of us chatted away, as for some it had been last Good Friday since we had last met! Another enjoyable visit to this top Manchester pub.
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| The City Arms, Manchester |
We finished our drinks and went for the tram to Piccadilly, from where we walked the short distance to the first of three brewery taps we were to visit this afternoon. This would be at least my third visit to the Sureshot Brewery Taproom, who are situated in a railway arch on Sheffield Street, whilst it was a first for the rest of the guys, which by now had lost a small splinter group who were not as bothered about beer as the rest of us. This was the first time I had been when any cask beer had been on, and so the majority of us went for a pint of the intriguingly-named Sufferin' Succotash, which was served to us like several during the day in a barrel glass. The pump clip showed a bird in a cage which offered no clues as to the origin of its name unless of course it was the pet name of the bird. I looked up the word 'succotash' as I was writing this piece and learnt that it is "a traditional North American vegetable dish consisting primarily of sweet corn with lima beans or other shell beans...other ingredients may be added, such as onions, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, bell peppers, corned beef, salt pork, or okra." But this is just typical of the names that Sureshot give their beers; last year, for example the highlight of the day was the discovery of the 3.9% Small Man's Wetsuit on the bar at the Port Street Beer House. Sufferin' Succotash was stronger, a 4.5% hazy pale, typical of the brewery's regular output, but it was very good indeed (NBSS 4) and got a positive reaction from everyone who tried it. The place was doing a steady trade, and credit must be given to the girl behind the bar who was working on her own but managed to keep everything under control effortlessly.
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| The beer of the day and the guys at Sureshot |
We left Sureshot, happy after some great beer and a friendly vibe, and moved on to Track. around 5 minutes' walk away on an industrial estate where there is a Screwfix and a Toolstation, but is otherwise dominated by Cloudwater. The Track Brewery Tap has been featured in the Good Beer Guide for the past couple of years and deservedly so. We arrived at the unit which houses the brewery and taproom where instead of going in through the front door we were directed to an outside area where several vans selling different foods were stationed. We then walked through the outdoor seating area which was pretty quiet due to the increasingly heavy drizzle. The taproom itself was therefore busy, with a wide mix of people ranging from families to groups of lads occupying the long bench tables which stand in the large space in front of the gleaming steel tanks of the brewery. A DJ was playing some tunes behind double-deck turntables in the corner and eagerly accepted a burger brought in by a guy with a dog from one of the food trucks outside. There were two queues at the bar, one for keg, one for cask, so most of us joined the cask one and ordered a pint of Sonoma, and went and parked at the end of one of the tables. Unfortunately the beer was rather thin and disappointing, which considering where we were was surprising and certainly not in line with my recent experiences of drinking it (NBSS 2.5). I am sure it will be a temporary blip, but it did take the edge off an otherwise pleasant visit to one of the best taprooms I've been to.
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| Track Brewery Tap |
We walked back out into the drizzle and walked across the road and entered another of the units which houses the Cloudwater No 9 Taproom. Situated on a mezzanine floor above a store of wooden barrels in which the brewery's stock of mixed fermentation beers and saisons are aging, it has like Track become a popular draw in this otherwise quiet area of the city which consists mainly of light industrial units. The taproom is smaller than Track but this time they had opened up an area downstairs in front of a cold store and round the corner from the barrels, in front of which there was a stall with a makeshift kitchen from which Mexican street food could be purchased. Most of us went for one of the cask beers on offer amongst a keg-heavy list which included Chubbles, the brewery's 10% TIPA. Our choice was a 4% hoppy pale called The Search for Truth Begins, which featured Citra, Sabro, and Motueka, which produced a beer that had hints of lime, sherbet, and a coconut creaminess, and was rather enjoyable (NBSS 3.5).
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| Cloudwater's No 9 Taproom and Barrel Store |
We finished our drinks and walked from Cloudwater back towards the Northern Quarter, walking first up the main road, before turning down one of the few slopes in the city towards Piccadilly, before turning off to walk up a rather dodgy alleyway, a remnant from when this part of the city was very different to how it is today, with giant new tower blocks shooting up almost before your very eyes. We walked near to the long-closed Jolly Angler, and moments later we hit the top of Tarriff Street, from where it was only a short walk to our next stop.
The breweries part of the day was over, and so it was back to the pubs, and what a fine one it is too. Port Street Beer House (opening image) continues to be one of the city's best and most consistent pubs. And for once it wasn't too busy, so we were able to get served pretty quickly. Again, most of us stuck to the cask, and I went for a pint of the consistently-good Headless from the always-dependable Redwillow Brewery who have been brewing in their home town of Macclesfield since 2010. The beer, a 3.9% pale ale, was well-balanced and easy-drinking and in excellent condition (NBSS 3.5). Another thing to mention was the rather delicious pork pie that some of us bought here; a light thin pastry case packed with a delicious chunk of meat (NPPSS 4) that helped to soak up some of the beer we'd consumed over the course of the day. One interesting beer I spotted on the board was Charrington Oatmeal Stout, brewed by the Heritage Brewing company from Burton on Trent. This was originally the William Worthington brewery that had been based at the National Brewery Centre until it closed in 2022 and was acquired by the independent Burton Bridge Brewery of which it is now officially a part. As its name suggests, the brewery focusses on brewing traditional style ales and interpretations of classic beers that have been lost.
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| Port Street Beer House |
From there it was a short walk to our next bar, the quirky graffiti-splattered Peer Hat which I had first visited on last year's Good Friday trip. Situated on Faraday Street between Newton Street and Lever Street, it is dimly-lit, part-bar, part-record store, and part-venue, with an eclectic range of events regularly taking place in the basement. With quirky artwork and imagery covering the walls, it is certainly not your typical bar but the staff have always been friendly and welcoming when I've gone in over the past 12 months and from a cask point of view, the beer choice has been interesting which is no surprise when you take in the surroundings. There are 4 hand pumps and 6 keg lines and whilst the beers on offer were predominantly local I decided to go for one that wasn't, a 4% hazy pale from Good Chemistry, which was full of citrus hoppiness (NBSS 3). As we were drinking our beers a group of ghostly-white faced goths emerged from the depths below, clustering around a table with their drinks, their laughter and cheerfulness a complete contrast to their rather eerie appearance. But that's the Peer Hat for you, quirky and not your average bar!
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| The Peer Hat, definitely not your average bar |
And then it was off to what was for me the final stop of the day, in Manchester at any rate. We made our way over to Swan Street where laying in wait was the always enjoyable Smithfield Market Tavern. A final pint of Blackjack Salvation on cask was the beer of choice, a 4.5% session IPA featuring Galaxy and Simcoe and delivering a peachy zest and sweetness leading to a lingering bitterness. A fine beer with which to draw the visit to the city to a close (NBSS 3.5). We congregated around a couple of tables close to the door to enjoy our drinks. A couple of the guys said their farewells and made tracks, and not long after, with the majority planning to go on the 1936 train home, I decided to put my sensible hat on and head for the 1836.
I finished my drink and bade those that remained in the Smithfield a good evening, and headed off through the busy streets towards Victoria to catch my train home. It had been a good day in Manchester, and another excellent Good Friday day out....
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