Twissed

“Well, we’re meeting at 11.30,” I said. “Quick tour of the Marble brewery, go round a couple of pubs, then people are talking about going to Huddersfield and having lunch on the way there. So you’re looking at maybe a couple of hours in Manchester, and I’ll bale out after that; I’ll get something to [...]

Marble and Me

I’ve been drinking Marble beers for pretty much as long as they’ve been brewing them. At the moment, the Marble Brewery are producing some of the most interesting, some of the most full-on, some of the hoppiest and some of the most varied beers currently being brewed. One obvious comparison would be newer hop-oriented brewers [...]

Rebellious jukebox

Pete‘s done it, Mark Dredge has done it, the Curmudgeon‘s done it and Barm‘s refused to do it. Time then for me to do it: to say what would be on my ideal jukebox. I’ve got quite mixed feelings about background music in pubs. (I exempt music sessions and singarounds, which are about making music [...]

My Place, Chorlton

A few weeks ago I stuck my nose into Bar 4Eighty and the Lounge Bar, two bars sitting side-by-side on Chorlton’s main drag, and promptly withdrew – not a draught beer in sight. The next time I passed, the Lounge Bar was no more; it’s now trading under the non-Google-friendly name of My Place (or [...]

Thoughts on the Cask Report, part 2

Quick recap: Cask ale sales aren’t rising, they’re holding steady. They’re holding steady at a low level, having dropped by 30% since 1999. If cask appears to be gaining market share, this is the result of cask sales holding steady while overall beer sales fall. This fall in overall beer sales is an established trend, [...]