A staggering 16% of all posts on this blog in the past three years have been about Mild Magic, CAMRA’s annual campaign to promote mild around Manchester – and that figure is set to rise still further! Which is to say, blogging on here tailed off a bit during and after lockdown – in fact, there have only been eighteen posts in the last three years – and one of the few things apart from bottled beer that I wrote about in that time was Mild Magic (2022). Have to see if I can do something about that.
In the mean time… well, it’s that time again, although this time round I’m shooting for the 48-pub tier. So, without further ado…
There were three pubs to tick off in Chorlton. I started at the Sedge Lynn (JDW), where Peerless Mother Redcap’s Ruby Mild was
[stares at screen trying to think of another way to say ‘quite nice’]
[time passes]
…OK. Not bad. A decent example of the style. All right, I admit it, it was quite nice. And the pub was buzzing (it was a quarter to four on a Friday afternoon, so basically the weekend was in full swing).
Things were a lot quieter at both the Horse and Jockey and the Beech, although there were a fair few punters in both places. The H&J’s gastro makeover of a few years back has made the place curiously unwelcoming for the casual drinker – curiously in that it’s hard to put your finger on what’s actually changed (although the lack of bar stools must be a factor). I drank up fairly quickly and left, vaguely convinced that I’d been the only drinker overlooked by tables of diners; it was only when I replayed the scene in memory that I realised that, what with it being around 4.00 on a Friday, very few of the people in were actually diners (even if they were in groups and seated at tables for four). Anyway, the Holt’s Unmistakably Mild was very good – all credit to Joeys’ for brewing a mild specially for MM, and a big, malty one in particular.
Timothy Taylor’s Golden Best is a light mild I’m very fond of, and one that I’ve had many times in the Beech under at least one of its tenancies. It’s been a managed house for a while now; it still has Landlord and Boltmaker on the bar as regulars, but there’s no sign of Golden Best – and they don’t intend to change that situation for Mild Magic, or so a fellow CAMRA member was informed when they asked. All of which doesn’t so much put a question mark over the pub’s commitment to MM as put a clown nose on it. On the plus side, the Landlord tasted as good as ever, and a Mild Magic sticker was eventually forthcoming.
There were five pubs to tick off when I went into Manchester town centre. Or four. Or twelve (or thirteen?).
Start again. There are four sub-areas in the town centre, with three pubs in each; the New Oxford in Salford is a short walk away, and in other years I’ve fitted it in when I’m doing the town centre. So I set off for town intending to do at least four (or possibly five) and maybe a few more. In the event I went into nine pubs, but only drank anything in five. Several factors militated against a protracted trawl around the centre’s pubs – it was a warm day, it was a Saturday and (perhaps most importantly) City were at home with an early-evening kickoff. Starting off at the Cathedral end of town, I poked my nose in the Crown and Anchor, didn’t fancy the scrum at the bar and decided to get my Holt’s fix somewhere else – specifically the Ape and Apple, where the Unmistakably Mild was in good nick. The crowd at the bar in the Waterhouse (JDW) made the Crown and Anchor look sparse, and besides there wasn’t a mild on the bar (Rudgate Ruby Mild was listed in the ‘coming attractions’). I cut through to the City Arms, which had some fearsomely interesting-looking beers on (black kveik IPA anyone?) but no mild – and was also too busy to stay. “Too busy” in the case of the Crown and Anchor meant that I would have felt awkward monopolising the bartender long enough to get a sticker; in the case of the City, it meant I would have had difficulty finding anywhere to stand, let alone sit. Things were similar in the Grey Horse, even though it leans Red; it’s cosy in there at the best of times, and it was like a sauna that afternoon.
Pubs visited: five. Milds drunk: one. Fortunately things picked up after that. The Molly House was pleasantly quiet and cool, and the RedWillow Dark Mild was in good nick; it’s a good example of the sweet, fruity side of the dark mild spectrum. Something similar goes for Steelfish Running With Believers, the mild on offer at the Piccadilly Tap – which was also busy, but not quite so much so as to be unpleasant. The Smithfield was the busiest I’ve ever seen it – so much so that I didn’t stay for another after a half of Blackjack Pub Ale, which I guess is a historical take on mild; it’s big, malty and 5.2%. I finished at the Briton’s Protection with another half of RedWillow Dark Mild; very much standing room only, but there was no way I was going home without at least a fifth sticker.
Later visits to town furnished Rudgate Ruby Mild at both the City and the Waterhouse (JDW) – a really nice mild, incidentally, one of my favourites so far. The Grey Horse had both of Hyde’s erstwhile milds on (I had the 1863 – concerning which, incidentally, I’ve got a theory), while the Old Monkey, Lower Turk’s Head and Crown and Anchor all had Holt’s Unmistakably Mild (4.3%) (although not the rather tamer Holt’s Mild (3.2%)). At the Paramount (JDW), lastly, I ordered the darkest thing I could see on the bar; it turned out to be (a) a stout and (b) visibly ‘kicking’, even in the time it took to pour a half. The bartender insisted on serving it anyway; it was basically fine, albeit a bit flat.
So that’s fifteen pubs visited, of which thirteen had a mild on; in those thirteen I had seven milds from as many different breweries. There’s a lot of mild on a lot of bars out there.
Next: I leave the bright lights (Chorlton) and venture into suburbia (Didsbury)
Oh Good Ale 