Published on Dec, 2024
What a wonderful way to spend (or mispend depending upon your point of view), a Friday afternoon! I joined the Craft Beer Tour around Manchester. It took me back to my working days at #Symology, when my colleagues and I would venture to places like Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Harrogate and many more, to have our own best pub tour, superbly led by our very own beer guide expert, Stuart.
The tour started as 13 beer enthusiasts met out guide Dazzer in the Fell Northern Quarter bar on Dale Street. No. 35 if you want to locate it yourself. Fell brewery is located in Flookburgh, near Grange over Sands and they produce a wonderful range of craft beers, both in cask and keg. The bar manager gave us an in-depth talk about the beers and the brewery, while serving us with our first two 1/3 pints of the afternoon; Fell Crag bitter, a well balanced smooth, clear bitter at 3.8% and Fell Cracked Earth, a rare Red IPA at 6.0%. A cracking start to the afternoon.
Then we got the major walking of the afternoon in, about 10 minutes, when we made our way towards the Picadilly area and the famous Cloudwater brewery. Here we got a really good talk from the manager about Cloudwater, it's history, brewing the different ales and much more as we sampled 3 different brews; Cloudwater Pils at 4.2%, Fuzzy IPA also at 4.2 and Picadilly Porter at 4.6%. Although I'm not usually a lover of porters and stouts, the latter was probably my favourite tipple of the afternoon.
Next it was a short walk around the corner to the Balance microbrewery in the arches behind Picadilly station. Here we were treated to three more beers with our guide providing the descriptions as the bar staff were getting quite busy on a late Friday afternoon as workers clocked off for the week. The beers were Long Shadows at 4.8%, a bit like cider vinegar to be honest, would have gone well with fish and chips, Utopian British lager at 4.7%, a bit bland or maybe my taste buds had been depleted by this time and Beak Hun Hazy Pale at 4.8%, which was just about drinkable.
Our last stop was virtually next door at the Sureshot microbrewery, where our guide talked us through the last couple of beers; Absolutely Electric at 5.5%, a pale ale and My Brass Hand at 5.0%, another stout, both quite decent ales to finish the proceedings. Porters and stouts are welcome drinks on a cold afternoon in Manchester. The tour lasted about 4 hours and I think it was good value for money at £40. It would make a good Christmas present for any beer lover and you get your steps in as well! Many thanks to Marge, who bought me the tour as a birthday present. You get 12 months to redeem the voucher. A very pleasant way of spending a Friday afternoon, when you are retired or otherwise.
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