IT takes a while for your eyes to adapt to the penumbral, velvety murk of the Mort Subite. My camera never quite adjusted, so apologies for the picture quality from this sublime Altrincham basement bar. It’s just so damned dark.
Owner Wynn Reece may sound Welsh but he is obviously the lovechild of Famous Belgians
The darkness is not the only disorienting factor even before some powerful brews take command of your senses. A Belgian-influenced beer bar should have homages to Tintin and obscure chansons crackling throatily through the sound system. Here you then stray into surreal territory too – mannequins, mounted songbirds, a wavily carpeted ceiling.
If all these touches and the art nouveau gilt are initially difficult to make out, try reading the thick beer menu in the murk. Don’t give up and order from the shiny draught pumps. Persevere and you find a range of bottles almost heroic in its representation of the greatest beer culture on earth. Sorry, Portland Oregon and all the other beardy copyists.
Mort SubiteOwner Wynn Reece may sound Welsh but he is obviously the lovechild of Famous Belgians. Their beers dominate the list, though other European countries, notably the Netherlands, jostle for attention. The local likes of Thornbridge, RedWillow and Marble also feature, but why come here for those, well-represented in so many craft beer bars, when you could try out the latest accredited Trappist beer, not from Belgium but from the banks of the Danube in Austria?
Stift Engelszell’s Gregorius, named after a previous abbot, is a 9.7ABV dark destroyer – too strong to attempt on our afternoon’s tasting in a brief interlude from the Altrincham Market Food Festival.
Not that my choices were weaklings, two Belgian ales, De Ranke XX Bitter (6.2%, £3.90) and Petrus Aged Pale (7.3%, £4), and a French Norwegian collaboration between St Germain and Nøgne ø breweries, Rhub ’IPA (6%, £4.50) all had concentration and huge depth of flavour.
The first is hoppy enough to grab those seduced by big American IPA styles, but possesses a rare delicacy and balance, the second is a dry oak-aged style, very much in vogue among the small craft brewers, while the Rhub ’IPA is tart and spicy and feels saison-like but with an IPA-like hoppiness seeping through.
Both here and previously at the Trappiste further down Greenwood Street Wynn has been championing such beers long before the ‘craft fevolution’. Mort Subite means sudden death and is named after a Belgian beer brand and a Brussels bar that I love almost as much as Jacques Brel. Our Mort’s food is strictly to accompany the ‘main event’. A Plateau de Fromages costs £5.80, while a simpler Plat Goûtant offers mature Cheddar and German salami with pickled onions, mustard and pickle relish for £3.70.
With a rash of bottle shops, pop-ups and brewery taps now is a golden age for sampling wacky, weird and wonderful brews, but for a belle epoque setting worthy of the experience this stalwart survivor is a must.
Cloudwater Tap, PiccadillyStill, it would be wrong not to try out recently opened alternatives to pubs. Bottle in Shaw Road, Heaton Moor, is the new project from Corin Bland of High Peak Beers, which has a stall in Stockport Market Hall. In the new premises there’s a chance to sit down and sample the wares. Recommended for a session is the Kernel Table Beer, which packs in a lot of grassy hoppy flavour for a beer that’s only 3.3%.
A ten minute walk away (but mind when you are crossing the A6) on School Lane, Heaton Chapel, fellow newcomer Heaton Hops has an equally fine bottle selection, but also bills itself as a tap room offering cask and keg, too. It’s run by beer wholesaler Damian ‘Ale Man’ O’Shea. There you can discover the likes of Squawk, Runaway, Alphabet, Quantum – and that’s just the locally brewed delights.
Meanwhile, Easter weekend also saw the debut of new outfit Cloudwater’s brewery tap inside the state of the art facility at units 7-8, Piccadilly Trading Estate. It will be open each Saturday 11am-4pm and you have to reserve a table here. Standout at the launch was a 6% Bergamot Hopfen Weisse, a wheat beer which lived up to its billing of ‘banana, cloves and bergamot, rich fruit, lemon and hops’. Expect to see Cloudwater’s ‘seasonal only’ beers filtering out across all the craft beer outlets in coming weeks.
Mort Subite, Impasse de la Fidelite. 28-32 Greenwood Street, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1RZ. 07512 969619, 6pm-Close (except 1pm - close on Saturdays).
The Reece-owned bottle shop, Bier Cell, is at 34 Greenwood Street, while at No 40 in this Belgian enclave is the former Trappiste, now the Belgian Bar. More here.
