This is the second of four posts on the 2023 iteration of Mild Magic, CAMRA’s annual campaign to promote mild around Manchester.
A trip down Oxford Road started badly at the Ford Madox Brown (JDW) in Rusholme. Nothing wrong with the pub – quietly buzzing on a weekday afternoon, so no surprises there – but there was no mild to be seen (although stickers were present and correct). Back on the bus, then, to Fallowfield and the Friendship, a pub where I remember spending a lot of time in the late 1980s, although as I was living in Chorlton at the time I can’t for the life of me think why. It hasn’t changed much, anyway – still huge, still pulling in enough drinkers not to feel it. I had a half of Hyde’s 1863 and moved on to the Victoria in Withington, where I had… another half of Hyde’s 1863.
About which, as I may have mentioned, I’ve got a theory. Ahem.
My Theory About Hyde’s 1863
Come with me, if you will, back to (wobbly dissolve) the 2010s…
In 2013 I visited the Plough in Ashton-on-Mersey and found that
“Hyde’s Light Mild was … a lot nicer than I remember 1863 being – is this a rebadge or a new (old?) recipe?”
In 2015 in the same pub,
“they were serving something – with an official-looking pump clip – called Hyde’s Light Mild. It was no Golden Best, but it was really rather good – and, I thought, quite different from the 1863″
I’ve had a few halves of 1863 this time round, and I can report that, in the Friendship and the Horse and Farrier it was… fine. Actually ‘fine’ would be stretching it – it was just a light-bodied pale amber beer, thin, sharp and bitter. (But cheap.) In the Vic, the Grey Horse and James Watts, on the other hand, it was something else – something much closer to what I remembered from the Plough; closer, that is, to a light mild.
So here’s my theory: that Hyde’s 1863 needs careful handling, and doesn’t always get it.
How you would actually get a light, sweetish light mild and turn it into a thin, elbowy low-end bitter I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem like the same kind of cellaring issue that has some pubs serving Landlord green or Batham’s bitter loaded with diacetyl – and neither of the pubs where I had it in (arguably) poor condition were having any trouble shifting beer generally. But it seems like it must be some kind of cellaring issue – and one that, if my travels this year are anything to go by, is hitting the 1863’s potential sales.
The 1863 in the Vic was the good stuff, anyway. Recommended.
If you head down the road to Burton Road, you may as well carry on to Lapwing Lane, where you’ll find Wine and Wallop. Where there was (alas) no mild. A sticker was forthcoming, though, and Brightside Maverick was pretty good. Further down the road in East Didsbury I was pleasantly surprised to see a mild on the bar at the Head of Steam. The Only With Love Merlin’s Mythical Mild wasn’t great, to be honest – I think they’d had a slow start – but it was good to see them give over a pump to mild (and they had Beartown Quantock on a return visit). Excellence in Customer Service Dept: a shout out to the bartender who took my follow-up order for a third of a Magic Rock cherry sour and assured me that a third was probably the right measure – “it’s good but it is sour”. I went back to my seat feeling vaguely flattered, then heard the bartender asking her colleague “what’s that sour like?”.
Onward to Didsbury. I hoped to test my 1863 theory (see above) at the Fletcher Moss, but they were only serving Hyde’s Dark Ruby – and not very much of it, to judge from the condition of my half. Hey ho. That was better than the Famous Crown, where the bartender expressed ignorance of the entire Mild Magic concept and had to have the whole thing explained to her. Needless to say, they were ‘between milds’; there were three hand pumps, serving Wainwright, Landlord and Boltmaker, the last of which she pulled through for me.
There was no problem with mild availability at the Gateway (JDW), where they had both Titanic Mild and Bank Top Dark Mild on. I had the latter, which was very nice indeed. There are (at least) four distinct types of dark mild – fruity, stouty, malty and liquorice-water – and this was a good example of the third. As indeed is Holt’s Unmistakably Mild, although the half I had at the Griffin (Heaton Mersey) was a bit tired – my experience suggests that Holt’s aren’t having any trouble shifting it in pubs where they don’t have mild on normally, but that selling it alongside the standard 3.2% Mild is a challenge.
And finally for Didsbury and environs: Reasons to be Cheerful had RedWillow Dark Mild and, as ever, much else. I followed up my half with a third of something whose details I honestly forget, other than that it was a bourbon barrel-aged stout and 11%. It’s a hard life being a connosse conoisue connoissuer boozer.
Ten pubs visited, seven milds. Running total: 25 pubs, ten different milds from nine breweries. Onwards!
Next: Urmston and Gatley and Sale, oh my!
Oh Good Ale 