Best Beer Poster For A While - Nice Idea Too

MR Thomas’ Chop House is hosting the Blessed Beer Real Ale Festival in St Ann’s Square from the 14-16 September - it's also received a Confidential award, see below..

You can sample the ales from 11am - 11pm, or until the beers no longer flow.

An additional £2 million is needed to restore the whole Church, owing to the need for many more beer festivals.

Handsome Mr T

The beer festival is in support of the St Ann’s Church Restoration Fund. It will house 24 cask real ales and four ciders. The beers chosen for the festival have been sourced from local micro-breweries.

They include: Dunham Dark Mild, Milk Stout, Porter, East India Pale Ale, Wobbly Bob plus Bank Top Blonde, Ginger Marble and Forever Bury. Each pint sold will raise fifty pence for the church roof fund.

In March 2009, a small piece of stone fell from the tower. This small event uncovered some huge problems and expensive repairs were required throughout the building.

£700,000 has been spent on the restoration work, which has included repairing the whole tower, the clock, and making the roof water tight. 

An additional £2 million is needed to restore the whole Church, owing to the need for many more beer festivals.

A fan of real ale, the Reverend Nigel Ashworth, Rector of St Ann’s gave the go-ahead for Mr Thomas’ to lend a hand to its iconic neighbour. 

Mr Thomas's Chop House Beer Festival

The Reverend Nigel said: “St Ann’s Church and quality real ales are both part of our heritage. The Blessed Beer Festival will be a great way to celebrate three hundred years of St Ann’s Church and St Ann’s Square and help us restore the Church to its former glory.”

Roger Ward, the owner of Mr Thomas’s, said: “The church is a fantastic neighbour. It is part of Manchester’s history and it’s what makes our location special. This is the least we can do to help out. I hope it goes down well and that we can repeat the event to help finish the works.”