Reopening dates for Manchester craft beer bars

With pubs and bars legally allowed to reopen on 4 July, here’s a guide to which craft beer bars in Manchester will be opening their doors and serving beer to drink in. Many venues are choosing not to open right now or are not ready to yet, so this list will be updated.

There’s also still plenty of venues and breweries selling craft beer for takeaway and delivery in Manchester if you want to stick to drinking beer at home.

Last updated: 13/07/2020

City centre

Alphabet Brewing Company

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-8pm. No walk ins, see their website for details.

Beatnikz Republic bar

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-10pm. See their Twitter for details.

Beatnikz Republic tap room

Open from Saturday 4 July, 1-10pm. See their Facebook page for details.

Brewdog Manchester

Open from Saturday 4 July.

Bundobust Manchester

Open from Tuesday 7 July. See their website for details.

Cafe Beermoth

Open from Friday 10 July. See their Instagram for details.

Cask Ancoats

Open from Tuesday 7 July. See their Twitter for details.

Common

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-10pm. No walk ins, see their Twitter for details.

Grub at Redbank Project

Open from Friday 10 July, 12-10pm. No walk ins, see Facebook event for details.

The Knott

Open from Saturday 4 July, 2-11pm. See their Twitter for details.

The Marble Arch

Open from Saturday 8 August. No walk ins, see their Twitter for details.

Northern Monk Refectory

Open from Thursday 9 July, from 5pm. See their Facebook page for details.

Ol Brewery Bar

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-9pm. See their Instagram post for details.

The Pilcrow

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-8pm. No walk ins, see their Facebook page for details.

Port Street Beer House

Open from Saturday 4 July, 2-10pm. No walk ins, see their Facebook page for details.

Runaway Brewery tap

Open from Friday 17 July. Outdoors only, see their Twitter for details.

Suburbs/Greater Manchester

The Beagle, Chorlton

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-10pm. No walk ins, see their Twitter for details.

The Beer House, Chorlton

Open from Saturday 4 July. See their Twitter for details.

Marble Brewery taproom, Salford

Open Saturday 11 July, 2-6pm. See their Twitter for details.

The Magnet, Stockport

Open from Saturday 4 July, 12-10pm. See their Facebook page for details.

Nordie, Levensy

Open from Saturday 10 July. See their Twitter for details.

Project 53, Stockport

Open from Saturday 4 July. See their website for details.

Biergarten dreaming

The longer lockdown goes on, the more I find myself daydreaming of and reminiscing about German beer gardens.

Pic by Ross

A community hub; clientele made up of families with kids, couples, groups of friends. All ages; everyone’s welcome, everyone enjoys themselves.

Settling in for an afternoon or evening of food, conversation and, of course, beer. Such wonderful beer.

Looking around in awe of the skill of the waiters and waitresses, who are effortlessly carrying multiple mugs of foaming beer or a tray full of glasses, without wasting a single drop of the precious nectar.

The comforting smell of hearty food in the air. Large plates regularly appearing from the kitchen. Eating’s not cheating here.

The pleasant hum of conversation, jokes, laughter. Old friends, new friends. Prost!

I find myself thinking back to Bamberg. It was the height of summer and the middle of a Europe-wide heat wave with the sorts of temperatures that I, as a woman from the North of England, rarely come across; high 30s, each step an effort and bringing with it waves of exhaustion.

We climb up a hill on the outskirts of town. It feels steeper than it is, the progress takes longer than it should and I grumble that it better be worth it.

Our goal was Greifenklau, a beer garden so perfect it felt like I’d custom designed it in The Sims. A wide space providing a feeling of openness, seating both under cover and out in the open, benches comfortable enough for the long haul, complete with cushions on offer if you so desired. And then, there’s the view.

A choice of tables open to us, thanks to the early hour of the day, and we opt for one right on the far side. It’s right on the perimeter of the site, providing sweeping views up to a castle and over what appears to be an orchard, with a very welcome tree providing shade from the glaring heat. Probably the best seat in the house – proven later by the scramble to get it when we vacate.

We sit, we relax, we order. The beer arrives, it’s a mug of lager for Ross, a bottle of wheat beer for me. Taking that first sip. It’s exactly what I wanted, desired, needed.

Sheer bliss.

Where to buy beer for home delivery in Manchester

With the pubs and bars in Manchester now shut for the time being, many bars, bottle shops and breweries are now selling beer online.

Here’s a guide to where you can buy beer for delivery in Manchester while the pubs are closed, and some venues offering the chance to pre-pay for your drinks for when they can reopen.

Updated 30/06/2020

A visit to Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city, has become known for the number of great breweries that have popped up there in recent years. We snagged ourselves some decent-priced flights and booked ourselves in for a little jaunt to brush off the January blues.

This is nowhere near an extensive guide to the bars and breweries of Gothenburg. In just over three and a half days, we managed to visit a fair few places but we also were there in January when some of the taprooms weren’t open.

One thing to flag is that Sweden is quite close to becoming cashless and many places do not take cash, so make sure you have a bank card which isn’t too expensive to use overseas if you’re visiting.

Here’s a look at where we visited.

The new Marble Brewery taproom, Salford

One of Manchester’s most iconic breweries has a new home – and it’s not within the city of Manchester. Marble, established more than 20 years ago in the back room of the Marble Arch pub on Rochdale Road have moved their brewery from a railway arch down the hill from the pub over to neighbouring city Salford and, with a new bigger home comes the opportunity for a taproom within the brewery.

Heritage and hops: craft beer in Riga, Latvia

The Latvian capital Riga has been somewhere on my wishlist for a couple of years.  I was enamored with the images of its beautiful Old Town online and really wanted to see it for myself. Finally, we managed to get a chance to book a short trip there and it was one of those rare occasions where beer wasn’t a deciding factor in our visit.

However, Riga surprised me. The beer was, on the whole, fantastic and so full of the country’s heritage that I feel it’s a place that needs to be more on the beer lovers’ radar (unlike neighbours Lithuania and Estonia, the country doesn’t have its own Untappd badge, for example). In a short space of time, I tried multiple beers that were like nothing I’d ever tasted and featuring unique and distinctly Latvian ingredients.

Here’s a look at some of the places we visited, and I hope that, as beer has become so much more global, that more people will get the chance to try Latvian beer – especially from the fantastic Labietis brewery – in the future.

Christmas and New Year Manchester bar opening times

With many of Manchester’s craft beer bars and pubs changing their opening hours for the Christmas and New Year period, here’s a little run though of the festive opening times of some of the venues in the city centre.

See the list by day or by venue – and if you want some advice on where to drink, see my guide to Manchester’s best craft beer bars and pubs.

Beer in Japan: Tokyo

Japan: known for its bustling cities, stunning scenery, excellent food, efficient trains and wonderful culture but is it a place for good beer?

It’s been somewhere I’d wanted to visit for a long time and after plenty of saving up we were finally able to afford to do so in October 2018. It exceeded all of my expectations and it truly felt like the trip of a lifetime. Sampling beer and experiencing the bar scene were on my list of things to do, but, unlike other places I’ve travelled to, not the main driver for the visit. However, while researching for our trip we did come across a variety of bars we were keen to check out.

This is the first in a series of blog posts about some of the places we visited in Japan – this one focused on the capital, Tokyo. With only limited time in the city, this is nowhere near a comprehensive guide, but we did manage to visit a fair few interesting places and here’s a run down of them.

A warm weekend in Bamberg, Germany

Bamberg was one of those places I’d fancied visiting for a while – with a historic old town and numerous breweries what’s not to love? – so for Ross’ birthday I booked us a weekend away.

However, my flight booking skills weren’t the best and we ended up arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday morning. As we didn’t end up with that much time in the town, we were determined to make the most of it.

And despite having less than 48 hours in Bamberg, we managed to clock up visits to quite a few of the beer gardens and pubs so here’s a little look at the ones we spent time in.

CatHop Beers, Rainford

A farm building next to a bypass near St Helens may not be the first place you’d expect to find beers from some of the UK’s most exciting breweries, but CatHop Beers is a hidden gem.