In this series of four pieces we look at How We Make Cider and Perry – alcoholic drinks fermented from apples and pears respectively. The UK is still the largest producer and consumer of these drinks although other countries are catching up fast!
The apple
Apple variety is a defining characteristic in cider; the best ciders are made with cider specific varieties. Like wine grapes, cider apples have the tannin, acid, sugar and aromatic precursors necessary to make a complex fermented drink. These characteristics are sometimes contained within one variety, but more often are blended.
Apples used in cidermaking are classified as bittersweet, bittersharp, sweet or sharp. These terms don’t explicitly include the sugar content of the apples, though this is also an important factor in cidermaking as it drives the alcohol content of the finished product.
A variety such as Dabinett or Yarlington Mill is called bittersweet as it has a low level of acidity and a high level of tannin; others like Kingston Black or the lipsmacking Foxwhelp are classified as bittersharp as they contain high levels of both.
A sharp such as Braeburn is high in acidity but low in tannin; in a Cider made from ‘eaters and cookers’, a cooking apple such as Bramley could be considered a ‘sharp’.
A Sweet Coppin or Sweet Alford apple is categorised as sweet due to low tannin and low acidity. The term doesn’t necessarily refer to its sugar content relative to other apples, but more to the perception of sweetness, because of this lack of sharp flavours. In an Eastern Counties acid led cider using eaters and cookers, apples such as Discovery would be classified as sweet.
For Perry, there are two classifications: Perry Pears are rich in tannins, with varying degrees of acidity and sweetness (though all Perry Pears retain some sweetness after fermentation due to a natural sorbitol). Table pears which are very low in tannins are sometimes used to produce a Pear Cider, sometimes called a modern Perry.
The harvest
Craft Cider is a seasonal drink, it gets made just once a year during the apple harvest.
Unlike apples bound for the supermarket, which are often picked before fully ripe to prolong shelf life, for cider ripeness is critical. Part of the skill of an Orchard based cider maker is knowing exactly when to harvest, by hand or from the ground, to attain optimum sugar and flavour levels.
Harvesting season can be roughly divided into two halves, early and late. The early apple varieties such as Major and Foxwhelp start to ripen in early to mid-September. The later varieties such as Dabinett and Yarlington Mill tend to start coming in late-October to mid-November.
Pressing is in three important stages; first scrupulously cleaning the apples, second using a scratter to break up into a pressable pulp, and third pressing. At home chopping up apples or using a hand scratter and a hand press will produce a low yield of juice. The more powerful the press, the higher the juice yield that can be achieved.
Factory produced ciders
Industrial cider making does not follow the seasonal nature of craft, orchard-based, cider making. Therefore, it manipulates the process in several ways, one of which is very prevalent. This is to use concentrated apple juice, which can be stored and fermented year-round by industrial processes.
With the growth of many industrial fruit ciders, we have seen an increase in use of bulk concentrates and as more fruit or concentrate is brought in from the world market, orchards in the UK are in further decline. This is a trend which stretches back several decades due to other factors such as improvements in agricultural techniques and technology, causing the price of apples as a commodity to consistently fail to rise even in line with inflation. For UK apple growers, it is an uncertain future.
The actual apple content required in UK ciders is shamefully low; a paltry 35% minimum.
Even worse, fruit ciders are regulated differently as ‘made wines’ for which there is NO minimum juice content. Virtually all “Fruit Ciders” regardless of production scale or quality of ingredients are diluted to 4% abv because of exorbitant tax bands above that.
There are exceptions such as Tom Oliver’s At The Hop range and Turners Elderflower, both coming in at 5.5% abv. Here the makers have made the decision to not add more water or unfermented juice to hit the 4% mark and have taken the hit on the extra duty this alcohol level incurs. This takes a degree of integrity as a cider maker and, in my view, should be recognised and celebrated.
Part Two of this series – Terroir and fermentation – will appear in the March 2020 issue of Beer Buzz
One thing that is guaranteed to
set the lifelong cask ale drinker’s alarm bells ringing is when the bar server
pulling their pint of cask tells them – “oh, I’ll just have to go and change the
gas”. Having spent all their drinking lives believing that cask ale is
unsullied by dreaded CO2, a pub that requires gas to serve their cask ales is
surely up to no good?
Well usually, they aren’t, it’s
just part of the modern pub cellar. In this piece, we’ll look at how your cask
ale gets from the pub cellar to the bar.
The first thing to remember is
that not all pubs are the same. How the beer gets to the pump in somewhere like
Manchester Arndale’s Micro Bar is
going to be very different from its route from one of the three cellars in JD
Wetherspoon’s Moon Under Water.
While pins of Old Tom have
seasonally appeared on the bar of Robinsons’ pubs, the recent growth of the
‘micro-pub’ has seen a revival of this most traditional method of serving –
your beer poured directly from a cask. Micro-pubs like Stalybridge’s Bridge
Beers have their casks on display on a rack behind the bar and use nothing more
than gravity to fill your glass.
In the 70s, cask ales were
regularly served by metered electric pumps but since the 1980s, the bar mounted
handpump has become synonymous with cask ale.
The simple syphon pump, also
known as a beer engine, was first patented in 1691 by a Dutch inventor called
John Lofting. The principle of operation is simple – an airtight chamber sits
between the line from the cask and the pump’s nozzle. A piston in the chamber
is connected to the pump’s handle. When the server pulls the handle, the piston
is pulled up, drawing beer into the chamber via a one-way valve. When the
handle is returned, another one-way valve allows the beer to pass through the
piston. On the next pull, the beer is pushed out of the chamber and through the
nozzle while more beer is pulled into the chamber.
As beer may be sat in the
cylinder for some time between pulls, pumps are typically fitted with a cooling
system which circulates chilled water through a jacket surrounding the
cylinder.
The amount of beer dispensed on
each pull can be a quarter, a third or half a pint. The larger the volume
dispensed with each pull, the larger the effort required. With casks located in
a traditional cellar, the beer engine must create enough suction to lift the
beer from the cask. It must also overcome the natural resistance to flow of the
beer line – the longer the line, the more effort required.
Where the length of line and/or
height between cellar and bar is too long, the handpump must be assisted with
an additional pump in the pub cellar. While electric pumps can be used, the
most common type of pump is a gas driven diaphragm pump – usually known as a
Flojet pump, the trade name of the most commonly seen model.
In a diaphragm pump, two flexible diaphragms oscillate back and forth, creating chambers which suck in and then push out the beer. The diaphragms are connected by a shaft so as one sucks, the other pushes. The movement of the diaphragms is driven by compressed gas which does not come into contact with the beer.
On the first stroke, the gas
moves one diaphragm to push beer from the first chamber via a one-way ball
valve. At the same time, the second diaphragm is sucking beer into a second
chamber. At the end of the stroke, the gas flow is diverted to push the second
diaphragm, pushing out the beer drawn in on the previous stroke, while more
beer is drawn into the first chamber. The cycle then repeats.
Flojet pumps allow pubs to serve
cask ale from cellars some distance from the bar and allow smaller diameter
lines to be used, reducing the amount of beer in the lines at any given time.
As they reduce the effort required to operate handpumps and reduce wear on the
pump seals, they are regularly fitted in lines even where they aren’t strictly
necessary.
Although electric powered flojet
pumps are available, as pub cellars usually have a ready supply of gas, the
gas-powered models are the most common – which leads to that unfortunate
situation where the gas running out does stop cask ale flowing.
The Flojet is also the secret
behind cask ale service from back bar taps such as those seen at the The Oast House and Stubborn Mule’s tap
room. When the tap is opened, the flojet sets to work pumping the beer through
the tap. They can easily generate enough pressure to force beer through a cask
sparkler.
Steve Davis explores the pubs amid Manchester’s Roman ruins and canals
While all the buzz around
Manchester’s beer scene seems to be concentrated on areas to the north of the
city centre, the Northern Quarter, Ancoats, and now the Green Quarter, other
parts of Central Manchester should not be overlooked as they have pubs that
have been consistently serving good ale for many years. Following a request
from the Editor I decided to organise a quick Friday afternoon crawl around
Liverpool Road and Castlefield basin to check out the bars and pubs locally.
Castlefield can be easily reached by public transport with the Metrolink stop
at Deansgate/Castlefield, Deansgate railway station and from Piccadilly station,
the No 1 free bus around the city centre (Saturdays only) or No 3 (Evenings
only).
I started at the Oxnoble on Liverpool Road. This is a food-led pub but there are areas if you just want to drink in front and to the side of the bar. There were a few small groups eating and one group of four chaps having just a drink, I soon deduced they were Norwegian United fans, the ‘Stavanger Reds’ on the back of one of their jackets was a bit of a giveaway. There is a bank of four handpumps but two clips were turned around, leaving the not very inspiring choice of Doom Bar or Robinsons Dizzy Blonde. I chose Dizzy Blonde and the welcoming barman did pull some through before serving me a half, it was actually quite good. One of the turned around clips was Adnams Ghost Ship, which I would have chosen. I am sure pub industry insiders can give me a plethora of reasons, but why do pubs turn clips round and not take them off? You are left with a sense of ‘And this is what you could have had’.
I was now joined by fellow Central Manchester member, Steve Ingham, and we moved onto the next pub, the White Lion 100 yards up the road (passing Manchester’s Roman ruins on route)
The first thing that struck me as
we walked in was how cold it was, was the heating not working or not switched
on? Again there is a bank of four handpumps and two clips were turned around
leaving the choice of Doom Bar (again) and Sharp’s Atlantic. The barmaid
struggled a little in getting two halves of the Sharp’s as it was very lively,
but the beer tasted fine. It was £5 for two halves and this was the most
expensive pub we visited in what is generally an expensive part of town. The
only other customers were the Norwegians, but I know during the summer it can
be a lot busier with the large outdoor area facing Liverpool Road. The pub
itself is pleasant; bare wooden floorboards, a nice fireplace and lots of
United memorabilia on the walls including signed player photos mixed in with
old prints of Manchester, including the pub when it was a Threlfall house.
Our next destination was Cask,
a Good Beer Guide regular on Liverpool Road. This was by far the busiest pub
that we visited; we couldn’t get a seat. Many office workers were having a pint
and their lunch there having brought their fish and chips in from the Fish Hut
next door. There were four cask ales on. I chose Ilkley Fireside, a smoky
Porter, this was not a bad beer but I couldn’t detect smokiness in the taste or
the aroma. Steve chose a pale ale, Thirst Class Mosaic, which he pronounced
very good. The other cask ales on offer were Pictish Wakatu and Rooster’s
Highway Fifty-One, an American Pale Ale. This pub does also serve many
excellent keg and continental bottled beers, and these were proving more
popular sellers than the cask ale.
We next proceeded to The Wharf, the furthest pub away of the three remaining to visit. In hindsight I should have started there. The Wharf is a Brunning and Price pub and this chain do deck their pubs out to a very high standard. It does possess, I believe, the best outdoor drinking area in central Manchester with the view over the canal basin surrounded by warehouses converted to offices, but on a cold November afternoon it was only populated by one man and his dog. Inside there were small clusters of drinkers, many also dining. There were ten cask ales and a cider on, pleasingly three of the ten ales were dark beers. I chose an Epic Beetle Juice, described as a black ale and I struggled to identify exactly what beer style a ‘Black ale’ is, notwithstanding that it was very good. Steve had one of the regular beers, Weetwood Cheshire Cat, which he really liked.
Out next stop in Castlefield was Dukes 92, named after the adjacent Lock No 92, known as Duke’s Lock after the Duke of Bridgewater who used to control it.I
had no great expectations as on my only previous visit about four years ago I had a very poorly kept pint of Holt’s bitter here. We walked in and the place was certainly busier that the Wharf. It is hard to spot the two handpumps as they are at the left-hand end of the bar and are metallic cylinders but we spotted a pump clip. This was offering Joseph Holt’s Paterson’s, one of a series of one-off beers being brewed to celebrate 170 years of the brewery. It tasted to me like a stronger version of Holt’s IPA and was very pleasant. The other clip was turned around, Brightside Odin. I warmed to the place, it had a buzz to it and whilst the many indoor artificial trees might not be to everyone’s taste they did separate the large room up well.
Our final destination was the The Knott, a one-time regional pub of the year. This is now described as ‘The Home of Wander Beyond’, the brewery which is under the same ownership. This brewery provided one of the six cask ales on sale, Peak pale ale, which Steve tried and liked. I had the Beatnikz Republic Boardwalk, a gluten free pale ale which was my favourite of the day. As well as the cask ales there is a bank of 25 keg fonts which featured beers from such highly rated breweries as Cloudwater, Buxton, Pilot, Tiny Rebel, Northern Monk as well as four keg beers from Wander Beyond. This pub was smartened up a couple of years ago and the entrance moved onto Deansgate, though people still try to get in through the old now locked glass doors.
In summary a very enjoyable
afternoon with friendly bar staff in all the pubs and neither of us had a bad
pint, even in pubs where cask ale is not a big seller. So, if you don’t know
this part of town get out and explore!
Tony Mitchell recounts his experience judging champion beers
Bolton Beer festival held at the University of Bolton
Stadium, (or U-Bolt for short), opened on Thursday 10 October, at 6pm for customers
but for a chosen few the day began at 10.30 with registration for judges of the
best beers competition. For not only was it a beer fest, but it was the SIBA (Small
Independent Brewers Association) North West championship for which I was one of
these chosen few.
There are many types of people able to judge a beer, not just
aficionados; – a trained palate is not a prerequisite as these beers are on
sale to the general public and not specifically to any one class of drinker.
I arrived by bus and train in plenty of time and was
presented with my name badge and a lanyard, and was offered tea or coffee and
biscuits, which I duly did before having a look around. There were a few faces
I recognised from similar events in the past and after a short while I was
approached by Ian Addleston of Belmont Labels who had asked me to represent his
company at last year’s event. This was typical of the companies associated with
the beer trade as I also found representatives from maltsters, hop farms,
brewery equipment, even a sales rep who sold cardboard boxes, plus of course from
the breweries themselves. This latter group however were not allowed to take
part in the judging, they could possibly recognise their own beers and thus
give them better marks, so were asked to act as runners, bringing the beer to
our tables when the time came to judge.
There was a free bar set up for us with five localish beers
available, Peerless Skyline, 4.2% Blackedge U.S.Ale 4%, Bank Top Bad to the
Bone 4%, Northern Monkey Last Drop 3.6%, and from Ulverston Stringers Copper
3.9%. These were racked bright though as I noticed early on that they hadn’t
been spiled or tapped.
We received our call to arms at 11am, and there were 12 tables
of judges, all containing between 4 and 6 people on each and each trying
different categories – Pales, Best Bitters, Speciality, Bottle and Cans, IPAs
etc. My first table was dark beers of up to 4.4% and included stouts, porters,
milds, browns and dark bitters. Guy Sheppard from Exe Valley Brewery in Devon
was our MC (despite his badge proclaiming him as ‘Head of long speeches’) and
explained the task ahead. We each had a printed sheet on which we would write
the beer number and our marks for appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste and saleability.
marks out of 10 for most, though 20 for taste, of course it was all blind
tasting. We had Mark from Lancaster brewery to take our questions, pour our
drinks and remove our finished glasses while our runner was Claire from Bank Top
who would bring us jugs of our beers and tell us what the beer was, mild,
porter or whatever, and whether it was fined or unfined. We also took water and
crackers to clear our palates (I was told of one instance at a previous event where
the first drink was a chilli beer which left a lingering taste in those judges’
mouths and affected the taste of the subsequent beers). Of the last two of the
eight we tested on this run, one of them was unfined, yet it was the other
which was cloudy. We all thought that there might have been a mix up in the
delivery, but this wasn’t so. Needless to say the cloudy one was marked down by
all of us.
There was nothing however which jumped out at me as being a
really good ale and all in all my marks tended to be in the top 30’s and 40’s
out of a maximum of 60 points.
Round one was finished and we left the tables to be cleared
for the next round, which was soon to follow and this time I was on table two,
which was Cask Bitters 4.5%-6.4% which we were told included Bests, Blondes,
Goldens, Pales and Premiums. However we were told in advance that all but one
were premiums, the other being a pale, and that all had been fined. The first
one looked good and was marked high for appearance but the taste was
disappointing. Drink with your mouth and not your eyes aye! The rest would be
either darker or a light almost Boddingtons colour, with the last being an enigma
as it was the best conditioned, but poor in all other aspects. So it received
the fewest points from me.
Once again it was time to let the tables be readied for the
next round and by now the aforementioned free bar was open.
Now I bumped into an old friend of mine, Eric Cruise, who has
been helping to organise this event for years; the festival itself is to raise
money for Bolton Lads Club which is in turn supported by Bolton Rugby Club,
where the event used to take place and Eric is a retired player but is still a
committee member. I also bumped into a familiar face who until recently was
Chairman of Greater Manchester CAMRA. Graham Donning was propping up the free
bar. It was also lunch time. as drinking judges we all need that blotting paper
to soak up our intake and the choice was Irish stew, Meat pie or Cheese and
Onion pie, with mushy peas.
We were called back for the third round and everyone slowly
drifted back to the tables, many with their free drink in hand. I was back onto
table one with Claire and Mark in attendance, and back on the dark beers up to
4.4%. It transpired that these were the best of earlier tables’ choices in that
category and so we expected better things than round one had produced. Yet one
of them came along which quite obviously was not a dark beer. It was good but
had been put into the wrong group. One member of our table had had bitters in a
previous round and said it would have done well in that category. We consulted
Guy over this and he agreed with us but said we should make our own decisions
and as it was a good beer, I gave it appropriate marks as such but had to mark
it down on appearance as it was definitely not a dark beer. On all these tables
we had taken a sip or two and done our scoring. Obviously with so many beers to
taste it wasn’t advisable to drink too much and like wine tasters, we spat a
lot out. However some people kept hold of theirs to enjoy more leisurely once
everything else had been finished
Judging was over for me and most of the others with just
twenty people over two tables to work on the finalists. But before this could
happen the scores had to be totalled up to see which beers had made it that
far. As for the rest of us, well there was still the free bar.
Sometime not long after 4pm the results were made known and
the presentations were made. There were certificates for 1st, 2nd
and 3rd, with a plaque for each of the winners. When each was
announced it was assumed that somebody from the winning brewery would go on up
to receive their prize and have their photos taken, but not every brewery had
sent a representative. I had found myself sitting near the people from
Bollington brewery, who would also go up to collect on behalf of Red Willow.
Unfortunately for them Red Willow won more prizes than they did, and as they
sent up a different representative to collect each time they were running out
of recipients. (I honestly thought they might send me up for one.) There were a
lot of categories, consequently it took a lot of time. Finally the SIBA North
West Champion Beer for 2019 was announced and of all the breweries throughout
the region it was the one from two miles away which won: Blackedge’s
‘West Coast’ (4.1%).
Now the festival beers became available to us an hour before
the general public were allowed in. which was good as the free bar had been
emptied and was now dismantled. But to us judges this was free too. And with
looser tongues, more networking was done among the tradesmen, more friends made
all round, and generally more things discovered about our fellow tasters. While
many did have that trained palate, or a hearty interest in all things ale, even
to the point of knowing what hops are in that particular beer, there was one
chap who confided in me that his regular tipple was a pseudo Australian lager.
It just shows you, it takes all sorts to judge a beer competition.
An extended look at news from pubs, bars and clubs across the Beer Buzz area.
New openings in the city
Manchester’s latest cask ale outlet is one of the more surprising. The Bull and Bear is located within the newly opened Stock Exchange Hotel on Norfolk Street (between Market Street and King Street). The city’s former Stock Exchange has been converted into a hotel by a consortium headed by former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs and hotelier Winston Zahra.
While it sounds like a pub, The Bull and Bear is primarily a restaurant from celebrity chef Tom Kerridge (pictured with fellow chef and local CAMRA activist Len Hodkinson). The TV chef will be hoping to bring similar adulation as his two pubs in Marlow, Buckinghamshire – The Coach has one Michelin star, while The Hand & Flowers boasts two of the coveted stars. Both are known for menus featuring British ‘comfort food’. Kerridge himself is expected to spend two days a week until the New Year helping establish the menu.
The team behind Alphabet Brewery and PLY have opened The Quick Brown Fox on the corner of Swan Street and Oldham Street. The bar which was first rumoured over two years ago finally opened at the start of October. There is no cask ale available (not surprising given the operators) but 12 of the 24 taps on the back bar will dispense craft beers including three from Alphabet. The remaining taps serve premixed cocktails and natural wines.
Historic Victorian pub, The Edinburgh Castle in Ancoats reopened in mid-November. As reported in the last issue of Beer Buzz, the 200 year old building which sits on the corner of Blossom Street and Henry Street has been relaunched by the team behind Northern Quarter cocktail bar Cottonopolis, after spending decades abandoned and forgotten.
It has been very tastefully renovated with a long impressive marble topped bar opposite the corner door. In the area behind the bar there is more seating with another room on the right with mirrors and dark wood panelling. Two cask ales feature including a house beer from Marston’s Ringwood brewery.
Pilcrow on last orders
The Co-operative backed NOMA scheme have announced plans to convert the grade two-listed Old Bank building on Hanover Street into offices. A new seven story extension is to be built extending the building into Saddlers Yard – and the space where The Pilcrow pub currently stands. The wooden structure is expected to be relocated elsewhere in the NOMA development but rather than remaining a pub, it will be ‘repurposed’ for community use. The team behind the pub (Port Street Beer House owners Common & Co) are reported to be in talks about a new venue within NOMA.
New home for GRUB
After completing their summer season at Mayfield Depot, food fair operator GRUB has moved to The Red Bank Project on the fringes of the ‘Green Quarter’. After alternating between summers at Mayfield and winters at nearby Fairfield Social Club, the move will allow them to stay in the same venue throughout the seasons.
Visitors can expect the same rotating choice of the very best street food operators with the multi-room indoor are offering a bar with 22 keg and two cask lines, a second bar upstairs and even a playroom for toddlers complete with miniature street food stalls. Opening hours at 50 Red Bank will be Friday 4pm to 10pm, Saturday noon to 10pm and 100% vegan ‘Plant Powered Sundays’ Sunday noon to 6pm. Check www.facebook.com/GRUBMCR/for weekly food vendor listings.
Fairfield Social Club on Temperance Street continues to operate as a live music and events venue.
Coming soon in the city
The new site for Manchester’s Brewdog bar has been confirmed to be on Fountain Street off Market Street (just along from The Shakespeare pub and Primark). It was confirmed in August that they would be leaving their current home on Peter Street as the block in which it is located is to be redeveloped into a hotel. The new bar will be located in the former Enzo pizza restaurant. It is expected that the Peter Street bar will close and new bar open in March 2020.
Piccadilly Tap owners Bloomsbury Leisure have applied for a licence to convert a former refuse store on Victoria Station Approach into a new craft beer bar expected to be called Victoria Tap.
All change in Manchester suburbs
Technically in Hulme, The Salutation lies in the midst of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Eastern campus, dwarfed by the adjacent Student Union Building and surrounded on two sides by building work for MMU’s new School Of Digital Arms. The pub is owned by MMU itself and operated under the umbrella of the Students Union but, in an interesting move, when it reopened for the new academic year it revealed a new look and a new partnership with Bollington Brewery.
The brewery already has three successful pubs of its own, The Vale Inn in Bollington itself, The Park Tavern in Macclesfield and The Cask Tavern in Poynton. Its first venture into Manchester sees the pub adopt Bollington branding and four cask pumps dedicated to Bollington’s award winning beer range – Bollington Best, Long Hop and Oatmill Stout are permanent plus a guest from Bollington and space for two other guest beers.
Removal of overhead glass storage shelving and supporting pillars from the bar and a contemporary colour scheme of greys and deep reds has opened up the space while the snug has been redesigned and there is new seating throughout. Big brand lagers have been removed from the bar with a new 10-line font wall at one end of the bar serving a range of beers and ciders from micro-breweries including Moravka lager and Shindigger ales.
Moving further out of the city, The Ducie Arms in Greenheys behind the Manchester University campus is reported to be one of the 137 pubs which Chester based Admiral Taverns has purchased from Marston’s. The pub company which is owned by Bulmers, Tennent’s Lager and Magners owner, C&C Group has been on the acquisition trail over recent months, including 150 pubs purchased from Heineken’s Star Pubs in October. Following completion of the Marston’s deal they will own around 1075 pubs, the majority ‘wet led’ pubs with limited or no food operations.
Levenshulme’s ever growing beer scene has another new addition with the October opening of OverDraught MCR, the second venue from Martha Winder owner of Prestwich’s First Draught. A copper clad back bar wall boasts an impressive number of taps. Nine core lines are mostly from the Carlsberg family including Brooklyn lager, Mahou and Sommersby ‘cider’ and the rarer Carlsberg Unfiltered lager, alongside Beavertown’s ‘Bloody ‘Ell’ and Shindigger’s West Coast IPA. The bar is located at 855 Stockport Road close to Levenshulme Rail station – the unit was formerly the TSB Bank.
Just down the road in Burnage, The Sun in September has bucked the recent trend for closures amongst the Sam Smiths brewery estate and reopened after around twelve months boarded up.
Across in Chorlton, Cask and Kiln on Wilbraham Road closed in early November, just over two years after first opening its doors. Despite the best efforts of the owners in selecting a changing range of cask beers and offering a range of events, including comedy nights and open mic nights plus pool tournaments, the venue never really seemed to find its market.
Manchester Road, Swinton
The Farmers Arms has re-opened after a major refurbishment. After a couple of years which saw it go on a downward spiral, losing its way and its ‘Arms’ before closure, it is now on the up again. New landlords Tracey & Red have an aim to be the social hub of the neighbourhood. There is only one cask ale on sale at the moment, but when Beer Buzz correspondent Phil Stout called, he rated his Timothy Taylor`s Landlord as in excellent well-kept form.
Just up the road is the Cricketers Arms. Also recently refurbished, this small red brick Joseph Holt pub prides itself on its entertainment offering including sport from Sky and BT as well as darts, live music, quiz nights and karaoke. Holts Bitter is the regular cask ale and when Beer Buzz called, this was supplemented by the latest offer in Holts’ Generations series celebrating their 150th anniversary.
A new kid of the block is the Wobbly Stool just a few doors along from the Cricketers at 233 Manchester Road. This ‘micro-pub’ opened in September 2019 in what was formally a flower shop. There are usually three cask ales available which are constantly changing. When our Swinton correspondent called, there were two cask ales that had travelled some distance – Old Growler from Suffolk’s Nethergate Brewery and Wooha Brewing Company’s Rouge Smash, all the way from Kilnross, near Inverness.
In contrast to the newly opened bar, at the end of Manchester Road is Robinson`s White Lion – a pub which is over 200 years old and is the spiritual home of Swinton Rugby League Football Club. The cask ale available here was Robinson`s Dizzy Blonde.
Assembly change
Urmstons’ The Assembly has changed its opening hours and is no longer open on Mondays & Tuesdays
Stretford gains an Assett
The Robin Hood pub in Stretford has finally been listed as an Assett of Community Value by Trafford council. The listing comes some six months after a local group made the application even though councils should only take eight weeks to reach a decision on ACV applications.
The pub was sold to developers by Greene King late last year with plans to build multiple homes on the pub’s car park and convert the pub building to apartments put out for consulation.
However this development has not progressed and the site was being marketed for sale.
Under the terms of the Localism Act 2011, local community groups interested in bidding for the site should contact Trafford Council within six weeks of an ACV being put up for sale to trigger a six month moratorium on the sale.
Sale Sports
The redevelopment of Sale Sports club has progressed with the new clubhouse up and running and the old club house now being demolished. The site will be redeveloped for housing.
The new club house has the same two cask ales on sale as before – Wainwright and Jennings Cumberland Ale – both from the Marston’s stable.
Trouble in Timperley?
As Beer Buzz went to press, locals in Timperley were in a state of confusion about the future of The Stonemasons Arms. After restaurateur Steve Pilling’s venture to take the pub upmarket failed after just seven months, the pub was taken on by Simon and Rachael Delaney, who also run the Firbank Pub & Kitchen in Wythenshawe, in October 2018. The couple have returned the pub to be a community focussed local hub and it seemed to be on the up.
Regulars were therefore surprised when on 22nd October, Simon Delaney (pictured below) released a statement on social media saying, “It is with great regret that I have to make this announcement, unfortunately because of personal reasons out of my control my time at The Stonemasons Arms is coming to an end. My intention is to carry on as usual until the end of the year. The new business owner will take over the business as a going concern.”
A week later, he posted a heartfelt video statement on Facebook where he said that since the announcement, they had received messages of encouragement from the people of Timperley, the local council and police telling them that they were doing a great job. However, he then explained that the rent and rates that he had to pay were based on the pub being a lot busier than it currently is and pleaded with the local community to bear them in mind for their leisure activities and choose them over other options as the only independent pub in Timperley.
For an insight into the passion of a publican facing commercial realities of operating a pub company owned pub with high business rates, it is well worth seeking out the video on their Facebook page .
In West Timperley, The Pelican Inn is reported to have been sold for redevelopment. It was reported in July that owner Greene King was marketing the pub and the adjacent vacant Altrincham Lodge hotel site. The current building dates back to 1931 but there has been a pub on the site from at least the early 19th Century. Locals have been advised that the site has been sold but that pub will continue to operate until at least March 2020. No planning application has been submitted to date, but with the combined site being large, there are fears that developers will seek to demolish the pub.
All change in Altrincham
In Altrincham, the management at The Old Market Tavern are working hard to get the pubs kitchen back up and running in time for the New Year.
The redevelopment of the upper floors into letting rooms is now complete and the 12 bedrooms are trading as The Old Market Coaching Inn.
Two years after developers purchased the Grade II listed building from Punch Taverns, it is now back on the market with an asking price of £2.29 million. It is being listed as a 12-bedroom house.
The pub, which is a free house, is unaffected by the sale and will remain open, The pub is listed as an Asset of Community Value by Trafford Council.
Batch Bottlestore in Kings Court has removed its handpump, citing being uphappy with the quality of product they were serving.
Former Stamford Arms set for demolition
The former Stamford Arms (more latterly known as Home) in Little Bollington is set to be demolished. The pub has been closed and abandoned for several years.
The site was purchased at auction by developer Novo Property Group and has now submitted plans to build 12 homes and a community hub on the site.
Correction
In our last issue, we mistakenly listed Sale’s The Bulls Head as being on Church Road – it is of course at No. 2 Cross Street
