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.
Looking through my blog post archive, there’s various guides and lists I’ve pulled together about pubs and bars from locations across the UK and beyond – but I realised I’ve never done one for the city I spend most of my time in! So, here’s a look at some of the best craft beer bars and pubs in Manchester city centre (in my own humble opinion).
After months of anticipation Café Beermoth, the café/bar owned by the team at Northern Quarter beer shop Beermoth, has opened its doors in Manchester. I popped down on the opening weekend to check it out and see what it’s all about.
Spring Gardens with its modern office buildings and the hell-on-earth that is the Post Office might not be your first thought of somewhere to go for decent beer, but Café Beermoth really is a game-changer. Despite some of the sterile buildings in the area, the site has been transformed into a very appealing looking venue. One note though – it can be a bit tricky to find. I think 40 Spring Gardens is the name of the entire building – the entrance to Café Beermoth is actually on the street behind (Brown Street) and is a few doors down from Fopp. You can also walk down Spring Gardens and turn right just after the Post Office to find it.
It’s quite a large space with a long bar running down one side and a number of booths next to the large glass windows. There’s also a couple of tables dotted around the middle of the bar, but they’re spaced out so it doesn’t feel cluttered. The booths in particular are lovely – we stayed a while longer than we had intended, particularly because it was just so comfortable.
But the other reason for our extended visit was the excellent range of beer.
There’s 17 beers on draft (cask and keg) at Café Beermoth with a good mix of options from the UK, Belgium and elsewhere, and a variety of styles on offer. This is complemented by a bottle list dominated by beers from the USA, Belgium and the UK.
During our visit, my highlight was definitely Buxton’s Stronge Extra Stout and it was also great to sample Mad Hatter’s Tzatziki Sour which was like nothing I’d had before. The draft beers are priced in various measures (check the board), but all beers can be served in 1/3s, 1/2s, 2/3s – whatever you want. Always something I appreciate.
But if beer’s not your thing, the venue is also very much about coffee – it’s not called ‘Café’ Beermoth for no reason. They open their doors at 8am during the week, aimed at providing caffeine to the workers in the nearby office blocks, before serving alcohol from 12noon.
I went down a few weeks ago to chat to one of the owners about the plans, and was told they were inspired by a bar in Brussels called Moeder Lambic Fontainas. This was actually somewhere we’d visited the previous weekend (see my Brussels post for more!) and I can see they have taken some cues from this venue but also put their own stamp on it. It’s a brilliant addition to Manchester with a well-thought out design and excellent beer list – and is definitely somewhere I can see becoming one of our regular haunts.
Café Beermoth, 40 Spring Gardens (entrance on Brown Street).
The Ale in Kaleigh 