Belatedly, here are some notes on Mild Magic 2024, Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA’s annual celebration & promotion of mild.
This post covers a second group of pubs and bars on the Mild Magic list, those that I think of as ‘local’. With a couple of exceptions they aren’t actually are in walking distance, but ticking them off is the kind of trip you don’t really need to plan – just nip over to Stockport (or wherever) for a bit of a wander.
Or, indeed, to Didsbury, where I started my first crawl of this year’s MM – at the Fletcher Moss, where I swerved the generally unremarkable Dark Ruby in favour of the historical recreation Hyde’s Anvil Pale. Which I probably shouldn’t have done, as – unlike its stablemate Anvil Light – it wasn’t actually a mild. Oh well. It was a nice enough pale ale, anyway. After a potter around Didsbury, I headed to the Gateway (JDW), where Kirkby Lonsdale Crafty Mild was on; a nice dark mild from well out of the area. Then it was back on the tram and onward to the Railway… which wasn’t open. It’s really unusual for a Holt’s pub not to open from 12:00, so I don’t blame the organisers for not flagging it up; I can’t really blame the pub, either, if my most recent weekday lunchtime visit was anything to go by. Bit inconvenient, though!
Onward to Withington, where the Victoria had its usual gentle hum of activity and served a perfectly decent Hyde’s Dark Ruby. (Nothing wrong with it as a dark mild, just a bit ordinary.) Further up the road, the Friendship was looking like another Dark Ruby pub until I checked the Hyde’s 1863 pump round the back of the bar. It was on, and in really good nick; I’d say this confirms my theory about Hyde’s 1863, except that I’m not sure it amounts to a theory. More of an observation, really: sometimes it’s an unremarkable sharp-tasting pale bitter, sometimes it’s rather a good sweetish light mild. It’s one of only a handful of light milds I’ve had this year, and it’s up with the best of them. Then back on the bus and up to the Ford Madox Brown (JDW), busy as ever and serving rather a good Rudgate Ruby Mild. Finally, I headed back to the Railway, where both Holt’s Mild and Mellow Mild were on. Mellow Mild is a terrific dark mild – shame it’s a seasonal – and the standard Mild didn’t disappoint either; good beers well kept.
Two pubs each in home base Chorlton and what increasingly feels like a home from home, Urmston. Not much to note in Chorlton; there was a nice Holt’s Mellow Mild at the Horse and Jockey, but the Moorhouse’s Black Cat at the Sedge Lynn was – unusually – rather tired and unimpressive. A theme that’s emerging this year is how Holt’s beers reward good cellaring (and, I suspect, a certain minimum turnover). The beer’s always good at the Lord Nelson in Urmston, and the Holt’s Mellow Mild this year was exceptional; after some soul-searching I scored it 4.0. Down the road in the centre of Urmston, the Prairie Schooner‘s Marble Mild couldn’t quite live up to that competition, but it was good – as was the Deya Creek Life pale that I followed it with. Deya and Holt’s within half an hour of each other – can’t beat it.
I trod fairly lightly in Stockport this year; I didn’t tick off all the town-centre pubs, let alone the ones in places like Hazel Grove or the Heatons. Next year maybe. I did go to Calvert’s Court (JDW) – what can I say, we were looking for a cheap lunch – and had Brightside Inn Crowd, on which see previous post. My next stop was going to be the Baker’s Vaults, but it was closed; I diverted to the Cocked Hat, which (in the light of past experiences) was pleasantly empty. A mystery pump clip had a handwritten paper label naming the beer as Banks’ Mild; whatever it was, it was a very nice, full-bodied dark mild. I’ve heard it suggested that it was actually Bank Top Dark Mild, although if it was it was in much better nick than it had been at the Angel. At the Petersgate Tap, Torrside Don’t Stop Believing was, well, fine, and had absolutely nothing wrong with it, which is the kind of faint praise I often find myself coming out with when drinking low-strength beers from Torrside. (I’m a huge fan of the high-strength ones, to be clear.) I followed it with a third of something very silly indeed, Vault City DDF Gingerbread (that’s “double deep fried”), a 16% imperial stout which I can still taste a month later. According to my notes I finished the afternoon at the Crown, on Timothy Taylor Golden Best; thinking back I’m afraid all I can bring to mind is how empty the pub was. Poor old Crown – it crashed hard a few years ago, and it’s never quite seemed to take off again.
One last trip took me to Altrincham via Sale, where the Volunteer served a very serviceable pint of Holt’s Mild. Twelve years ago the bartender in the Volunteer told me her regulars were mostly bitter and mild drinkers; they’re evidently still shifting the mild. Drama ensued when we tried to use our Bee Network tickets on the bus to Ashton upon Mersey – or rather, the bus to Warrington, clipping the edge of Ashton as it heads out of Greater Manchester. The driver had never seen the tickets before, doubted that they were valid on his bus and – for good measure – denied all knowledge of going to Ashton upon Mersey. We persuaded him to trust us – although not before he’d taken a picture of our tickets to show his boss at the end of the day – and ten minutes later, there we were in Ashton upon Mersey. (Well, on the outskirts – if a place that size can have outskirts.) The Old Plough was serving Hyde’s Anvil Light, the revived historic light mild recipe that I’d thought I was ordering at the Fletcher Moss, so naturally I went for that. It was distinctive, but a lot bitterer than I’d expected; as a light mild, I much prefer the 1863 (or Hyde’s Light Mild, as they tend to call it at the Old Plough).
To my disappointment, the Unicorn (JDW) wasn’t serving a dark mild from Brightside, or Rudgate or Kirkby Lonsdale, or even Moorhouse; no, they had Coach House Gunpowder Mild. I drank up fairly sharpish and moved on to Costello’s, where Dunham Dark showed how big and full-bodied a low-strength dark mild can be. Dunham Gold, at 7.2% a golden ale in the foothills of barleywine, was also terrific.
Eighteen pubs serving fifteen milds from twelve brewers; together with the city-centre pubs in the previous post, that makes 33 pubs serving 23 milds from 20 brewers. Milds on the bar everywhere, and no problem getting stickers anywhere – both mild and the Mild Magic event seem to be in rude health.
Next: Mild Magic by train
Oh Good Ale 