Manchester's Top 10 Craft Beer Bars

IT’S a chimera akin to separating the sheep from the goats. Is a bar concentrating on the quality of its beer, cask or keg, real or craft, effectively a pub? Or maybe a pub’s defined by its very architecture, lay-out and vintage?

We dropped in recently and left with two experimental bottles inspired by Gothic literature

Time quickly to define our terms then before we tackle the region’s 10 Best Craft Beer Bars. There’s even a debate about what constitutes Craft, but we’ll keep it simple. Handpumps and keg taps can jostle for space as long as they are essentially pouring beer made with loving care, using the finest ingredients, be it by US-influenced hipster alchemists or CAMRA zealots upholding the cask-conditioned gospel. 

We've already published the 10 Best Brewery Taps, so they don’t make the cut, but a couple of those new-fangled microbars that are basically bottle shops with a counter do.

Geography comes into it, too. I’m sticking to Greater Manchester, so no room for Macclesfield’s wonderful Treacle Tap and RedWillow Bar, while Horwich’s dubTAP makes it by the skin of its wort – it’s a couple of miles from the border.

Finally, the groundbreaking Port Street apart, I am avoiding all the watering holes mentioned in Jonathan Schofield’s Manchester Pub Crawls. This region is big enough for both us... So where does the supping start then?

The Beagle

Alphabetically, with the Chorlton outlet of the team which also runs Common, Port Street Beer House and once a year the IndyManBeerCon (two thirds of the 7,000 tickets available snapped up in the first 48 hours for this autumn’s fest). With that kind of background you are assured of an eclectic choice of cask and keykeg (five handpumps, 10 keg taps) from a counter that’s reassuringly old-fashioned – at odds with the cutting edge music and predominantly Mexican food menu. Go for the burritos – they are beer-friendly beasts.

458 Barlow Moor Rd, Manchester M21 0BQ. 0161 881 8596. beaglesabout.com

BrewDog 

It’s a bit like Johnny Rotten advertising butter. The iconoclastic attention-seekers from Fraserburgh have been major players in transforming the UK beer scene, but these days BrewDog Punk IPA is found on supermarket shelves across the land and they run 28 of their own bars with a further 16 across Europe. Sell-out? Well, the beer range long lost its cutting edge just as the clever publicity stunts have lost their shock value, but it’s a great place to get into craft beer thanks to its collaborations with legendary breweries like Copenhagen’s Mikkeller and a terrific guest beer policy. They can be niche and supportive of local brewers, too. During the recent Manchester Beer Week they hosted The Power of Yeast, which demonstrated how four exactly same base recipes produced different ales through different yeast strains (you had to be  there). The food menu is good soak up fodder – go for their chorizo hot dog (£8).

35 Peter St, Manchester M2 5BG. 0161 832 1922. brewdog.com/bars/uk/manchester

The Brink 

All beers from within a 25 mile radius, food restricted to artisan pies, this new micro-bar is quite different from fellow subterranean beer den Gaslamp (which narrowly missed out on the Top 10) across John Dalton Street. Whereas Gaslamp is all tiled workhouse chilly chic, The Brink is dazzling white, pine-laden with a long Manc skyline mural. We told knowledgeable owner Gareth Williams we were frightened of smudging the place by spilling our ale and he laughed it away. There are pumps for five cask and four keg beers, dispensing the likes of Runaway, Brightside, Blackjack and First Chop, alongside good cider and wine, making this little gem a must-visit.

65 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BQ. 0161 834 6346. brinkmcr.co.uk

Cafe Beermoth

This offshoot of Beermoth, the NQ’s beer geek epicentre, is definitely a stylistic upgrade, all post-industrial chic and pale blue leather banquettes, with a glass panelled keg store, from which pour a a constantly rotating roll call of the UK and beyond’s finest brews – the likes of Crooked Stave, Buxton, Burning Sky and  Weird Beard (their collaboration with Bexar County, A Lemon Tree My Dear Watson is described as “lemon meringue in a glass”, so that’s pudding sorted). Cask session beers cost under £3 and the all-day coffee offering is quality, too. Food plays second fiddle. Snack on Karkli Fiery Ghost Naga Chillis or upgrade to a £5.95 Reuben with pickles as ballast.

40 Spring Gardens, Manchester M2 1DA (entrance actually on Brown Street). 0161 835 2049. beermoth.co.uk

No.1 Watson Street

On the site of the Taps pour-your-own concept that trickled away, this airy, Continental-style bar offers a terrific, shifting showcase of some of the best craft beers around from crowd-pleasing Americn-style IPAs to more challenging for the novice sours and saisons. Here for the moment it’s all keg taps pouring the likes of (on a recent visit) Runaway Rye IPA, Wiper and True in The Pines Amber Ale and Arbor Gingerbread Saison. Grab a window table, it’s great for people watching.

1 Watson Street, Great Northern Square, M3 4EE. http://onewatsonstreet.co.uk

57 Thomas Street Marble Bar

This Marble Brewery outlet is now even more different to the classic Marble Arch pub a ten minute stagger away. They’ve extended upstairs with a proper kitchen there and even cocktails but the core interest remains the outstanding Marble beer range, now in a new creative period under ex-Buxton brewer James ‘JK’ Kemp. behind the new upstairs bar are small casks of Kemp’s ‘work in progress’ ales. We dropped in recently and left with two experimental bottles inspired by Gothic literature – Portent of Usher, a 9 per cent Imperial Russian Stout, and Valancourt fino barrel-aged old ale, a homage to Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho. If this sounds a mite pretentious, just settle down with a pint of Lagonda or Manchester Bitter in this Northern Quarter bolthole.

57 Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1NA. 0161 832 0521. marblebeers.com/57thomas-street

Heaton Hops 

We are back on that old bar v pub conundrum. Damian ‘Aleman’ O’Shea and Charlotte Winstone’s vibrant microbar just off the A6 has just been named South Manchester CAMRA’s Pub of The Month. It’s a converted post office and feels more like a continental beer cafe with eight keg lines and just two handpumps. Check out their website for a constantly updated beer list before visiting – HH is a great champion of Manchester’s finest beers – the Cloudwater range and Track Sonoma IPA. If it is packed to the rafters, as it is much of the time, stroll ten minutes down Heaton Moor Road to friendly rival Bottle Stockport at 9a Shaw Road run by the knowledgeable Corin Bland, who runs a similar bottle shop but without a bar inside Stockport Market.

7 School Lane, Heaton Chapel, Stockport, SK4 5DE. 07578 621639. heatonhops.co.uk

Jack In The Box at Altrincham Market

There’s a bit of a trend for microbars setting up in Market Halls. Step forward Great Ale All Year Round in Bolton’s and Mark Dade’s long-running Microbar in the Arndale Food Market, but the pick has to be Jack in the Box in the award-winning Altrincham Market. As sole beer supplier in the 250-cover refectory-style food hall, they have a captive audience seeking to wash down their Honest Crust pizzas and Tender Cow steak ciabattas. Lucky folk. The core beer range from the four cask pumps and eight keg line comes from owners Blackjack Brewery, but the guest beers are from the impressive likes of Weird Beard, Runaway, Hawkshead, Squawk and many more. Check out the unpasteurised Moravka Czech lager – a revelation.

Altrincham Market House, Greenwood Street WA14 1SA. blackjack-beers.com

Port Street Beer House

If any Manchester bar is synonymous with the craft beer movement it has to be this shrine to the fecund hop and flourishing facial hair. Not content with a definitive imported bottle menu and banks of pumps and taps dispensing the UK’s most adventurous brews, the PSB team are proactive, too. In January they celebrated their fifth anniversary by commissioning five unique brews, two of them made in Manchester: – Cloudwater’s Tea Sour and a grapefruit pale that was a collaboration between Runaway, Squawk and Track. The bar also runs regular Meet the Brewers events thatb bring in the hophead faithful,from far and wide.

39-41 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ. 0161 237 9949. portstreetbeerhouse.co.uk

Saison

Despite offering its own 52-page hop-centric booklet and a cult bottle list boasting Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and Devil’s Canyon California Sunshine Rye IPA alongside 20 keg and cask ales, Saison is more than just a beer geek bolthole. There are cute cocktails and hefty ‘small plates’ at £5 apiece – wild mushrooms and garlic on toasted brioche or slow roast belly pork lardons with chilli jam and rocket – served across two warm, art-filled floors. As with The Beagle in Chorlton, Saison is just the tip of the cask bar iceberg. Both districts with their casual bar scene perfectly exemplify the craft revolution.

236 Burton Road, West Didsbury M1 2FN. 0161 434 9521. saison-bar.co.uk

And coming soon(ish): Bundobust

The launch date keeps disappearing into the distance but before the end of the year the Leeds incomer should have landed in Piccadilly in a much bigger site than the original but retaining the hugely successful formula, pairing craft beer with Gujerati veggie street food from Gordon Ramsay Yorkshire fave Prashad. The keg beer array features the likes of Odell, Siren and Mikeller’s Peter Pale and Mary – but the perfect spice match is the house brew, Bundobust Coriander Pilsner. For geeks, the bar name means “Bonding” in Urdu. http://www.bundobust.com

...craft ale pushing back the boundaries

DubTAP and Bunbury’s are two new bars kind of joined at the hop along the B6226 north out of Bolton, forming part of a pub crawl based on the 125 bus route. Bunbury’s got there first, the dream project of beer-loving teacher pair Sarah and Darryl Leech, who offer a small but fascinating rotation on draught plus a large bottle selection. They came up with the name Bunbury's after seeing a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, in which a character Algernon pretends to have an imaginary friend to avoid unwelcome social obligations.

Newcomer NQ-lookalike DubTAP – a couple of miles from the Lancashire border, so it just makes it – is an offshoot of Bolton’s Drink Up Brewing company and sells their beers. DubSpring’s a good introduction along with some interesting guests from four cask handpulls and eight keg taps. Well worth the crawl.

Bunbury’s, 393 Chorley Old Rd, Bolton, BL1 6AH. 07952 344838. bunburys.co.uk // DubTAP, 179 Lee Lane, Horwich, BL6 7JD. 01204 397440. facebook.com/dubtaphorwich

DubTAP