Stockport Pub Explorations

Stockport County are on the rise, now crowned champions of League Two.  Local indie rockers Blossoms have hit the top spot of the UK album charts several times. 
And National Geographic have named one of the pubs among the 12 best in the country!

Time for Prop Up the Bar to make a return visit to explore Stockport.

We set off from our Macclesfield Travel Lodge base, ready and waiting on the platform, next to the brutal concrete staircases of the station bridge by 11:15am.

The Northern Rail service was overcrowded, our carriage dominated by a group of twenty-something lads 'n' lasses on their way to go curling in Manchester.  Which obviously requires a four pack of supermarket booze to be consumed on the train as preparation.
Is going curling a hip thing to do these days?

The trouble with visiting Stockport on Easter Sunday was that absolutely all the attractions we may have liked to visit were closed for the day.  So we just strolled up the road from the station to take a picture of the town hall.

We didn't brave the neighbouring Town Hall Tavern, even though we were spot-on time for the landlord unlocking the door as we passed.  Interesting decorations in the first floor windows...

Instead, our first pub of the day was the Heritage listed Swan With Two Necks.  The walk to it through the modern shopping streets was eerily quite on one of only two days of the year that almost all retail takes a day off.

The Swan With Two Necks (36 Princes Street, Stockport, SK1 1RY)
So it was little surprise to find that the pub was also very quiet.  Just one old boy in the lobby who looked a little like he may not have left when they called last orders the evening before, plus a couple of chaps in the front room, known as the vault.

A Robinson's house, our beer choice was 'Dizzy Blonde', 'Unicorn', or 'Old Tom'.
I really wanted an Old Tom on cask, but it seemed a tad irresponsible at midday, so I stuck to the Unicorn bitter.  

We took our drinks into the wonderful snug at the end of the bar-corridor, sunshine through the skylight brightening the place up; the leather button-back bench seating proving comfortable.
A nice touch is the old bell pushes still visible behind the seating.

What a lovely pub!
Glasses emptied and returned to the bar, we took a short stroll down the road and made our way a second Heritage pub in quick succession.

The Arden Arms (23 Millgate, Stockport, SK1 2LX)
Stepping into this Grade II listed pub, you're in a passageway with a staircase, glazed bar to the side, and doors leading off to a cosy-looking front room, outdoor patio, and dining room to the back.
The staff were in full-on Sunday lunch mode, asking us if we wanted to eat, which we did.  When we said we'd rather eat in the bar than in the dining room area, we were offered a seat in the snug.  Which is a little bit special as it's a hidden snug.
This is accessed by being invited to pass through the bar itself.  According to the Heritage pubs description, this is only one of four such snugs in the country.

Okay, so it's also where the staff hang their coats, and where the fridge, coffee machine, and pub stereo are, spoiling the ambiance a little bit.
But the soft red cushioned bench seating around the sides of this small room is wonderful, the sun streaming through the frosted windows, the old couple sat next to us complementing the Sunday lunch.

Sadly the Old Tom on tap had finished (should have started with it after all, shouldn't I) so I had a second pint of 'Unicorn' - on great form - alongside some good pub grub served with super efficiency.

Pub number 3 was another short walk up the hill to the market square...

There are a fair few drinking establishments facing the impressive Victorian market hall and I was a little sad we didn't get to try the Sam Smith's Old Boars Head.  I was told we couldn't visit everywhere.
In a run of three pubs close together on the market square, we started in the Bakers Vaults, a stand-alone, bright and airy place with tall ceilings and big arched windows.  

Bakers Vaults (Market Place, Stockport, SK1 1EU)
The pub was built in the 19th century, replacing a 16th century inn called the George & Dragon, and is apparently on the site where Stockport castle once stood. 

You can do a full circle behind the bar big bar counter, with a lounge area to the rear.  A big chunk of the front room was taken up by Pete Churchman and his band setting up their gear to provide some Sunday afternoon "rock and blues, folk and fun".

My apologies to Mr Churchman for missing his set, but there were a good number of customers arriving and picking the best spots to see him.
This is a Robinson's pub but, unlike the last two, there was a substantial choice of guest beers here to enable a change from the Unicorn.
I haven't seen a Burton Bridge beer for some time, so picked their strong 'Festival Ale'.

Just a few paces down the street was a bar called Thread which has only recently properly re-opened.

Thread (22 Market Place, Stockport, SK1 1EU)
Between 2018 and 2023 this was a bar called Project 53 which made a brief appearance in the Beer Guide.  After closing in that guise, it reopened on weekends only, but now seems to have extended into a full-time (or as full-time as anywhere is these days) operation.  The name Thread comes from the one-time use of the building as a tailors shop.

Something gave me the expectation that this was going to a crafty micro, so it came as a surprise to find that this was a big space, stretching way back from the front room.

We received a fantastically friendly welcome from a staff member happy to chat about the beers and inviting us to take them out front (not quite warm enough yet), sit anywhere we liked, or head right to the back of the place for the views.
We did the views, which were very rooftop orientated.

The cask options at Thread were from Brew York and Stancill Barnsley Bitter.  But I have to admit I was tempted straight to the keg taps with an interesting selection of Belgian beers, or Dutch for my pick...

We sank into big leather sofas by the back window, music veering from rare groove jazz to Pink Floyd and Hendrix during our time there.
We didn't need to build up much energy to move on, stepping out of Thread and straight into the next door neighbour...

Angel Inn (20 Market Place, Stockport, SK1 1EY)
Surprisingly, this has only been open in its current form since 2018, having been transformed from redundant shopping premises.  But head back to the 1700's and you would found this building operating as the Angel Inn.  The current patterned white facade was completed in 1886 when local brewers Bells took over, looking after the Angel until a couple of years prior to its closure in 1951.

The Angel had five cask ales to pick from six hand pumps when we visited.  A stout or pale from Sussex brewery Only With Love, Beartown pale, Brew York 'Juice Forsyth', and - my choice - the lovely Bank Top 'Port O' Call'.

With a choice of areas to sit in, we took drinks down a couple of steps beyond the bar into a sunken area with sofas and fireplace.  Where we were entertained with the best soundtrack of the day, covering New Order, The Cure, Nirvana, and Martha & the Muffins.

Next up was a pub I was really looking forward to, a recent Stockport CAMRA pub of the year, and winner of the Manchester cider pub of the year award a couple of times.

The Petersgate Tap (19a Petersgate, Stockport, SK1 1EB)
This has the vibe of a large busy micro, having opened in 2016 in a unit which used to be a betting shop.
I thought it was great.  A good crowd of customers in - a bit of luck in a table becoming free just when we needed it to - overwhelming choice of beer which isn't very conducive to a pub crawl.
Normally I raise a frown at any pub/bar with a suspended ceiling, but the display of old brewery trays on the wall made up for that here.

I'd enjoyed the stout in the Angel, so stuck with the dark stuff here with a Wily Fox 'Dublin' Up'.

Right...from one local award winner to another.
You'll find the Magnet back on the A6, just up the hill from the shopping centre, on the way to Heaton Norris. 

The Magnet (51 Wellington Road North, Stockport, SK4 1HJ)
This is the Stockport pub that has been named by National Geographic as one of the 12 best in the country.
Fair to say I liked it here a lot. Although I'm of the opinion that no self-respecting pub enthusiast would be able to narrow their 'best of' list to 12.
The Magnet has various different spaces and a good Sunday afternoon crowd giving it a bustling cheery atmosphere when we visited.

 

And a great beer choice - their website advertises 14 casks and 12 kegs.  I randomly picked the Briggs Signature Beers 'Metal', then returned to the bar when I spotted they had a cask Sureshot beer available (having had their beer on tap at the brewery the previous day).
And the pizza from the stall in the back yard wasn't half bad too...

So that was our pub explorations done for the day.

Well...just about.  We found our return train cancelled when we got back to the station.
I briefly pondered if we'd got enough time before the next service to get back into the centre for an Old Tom, but instead we headed into the bar at the foot of the glass-fronted blocks next to the station.

Bask (20 Railway Road, Stockport, SK1 3SW)
As you can see from the picture, this is a thoroughly modern bar with industrial ceiling, spotlights and speakers suspended from it, TV screens located at frequent intervals on posts between the big windows.
The drinks range is very mainstream, with Beavertown looking to be the beer of choice for most folk.

I picked the keg Bask Best Bitter, none-the-wiser as to who brews this for them.  It did the job for a quick delayed-train beer whilst I tried not to prolong the stay by getting hooked on Bochum v Darmstadt on the TV.

The next train arrived on time and whisked us back to Macclesfield in time for a visit to the Castle.
Stockport had made for a great day out - we'll be back again - hopefully on a day when Runaway Brewery and the Hat Museum are open.

Manchester Craft Beer Crawl

A day out in Manchester, in which we steered clear of the trad pubs and went in search of craft beer on industrial estates, and shiny brewing equipment.

Mrs PropUptheBar insisted that we do some tourist 'stuff' being as her 2023 resolution to do something cultural every week went astray.
Our route from the station took us past Alan Turing in Sackville Gardens...

Into Chinatown...

Then the art gallery..

Before I heard those wonderful words: "It's time for a beer".

We were handily close to the Bundobust Brewery on Oxford Road, giving us the chance to combine lunch with a Manchester beer guide tick.
I walked along the length of the St Jame's Building trying to recall which bit was once Jilly's Rock World.  (The bit that's now Tesco Metro apparently).
Bundobust, on the other hand, is in a renovated part of the building which was once known as the cart entrance and led to a car park.

Bundobust (61-69 Oxford Road, Manchester, M1 6EJ)
It's a spectacular place with the bar at the far end of the main room, all underneath a skylight with the tall walls of the building rising above it.

I like Bundobust for its no-nonsense ordering at the bar, spicy veggie food, and quality beer choice.  The ideal spot for me for lunch, even if I never know quite how many dishes to order (generally too many).

We were given a table right under the tidy beer board, listing 16 keg lines and a Kernel Table Beer on cask.  My choice was the Bundobust 'East is East', a hoppy 6.5% New England IPA which went well with paneer tikka and bundo chaat.

Only after ordering did I spot the 10.5% Vault City strawberry supernova and Omnipollo pecan mud cake imperial stout.  Which, in hindsight, is probably just as well.

Suitably fed and watered, we were ready to get started on the brewery taps we had planned for the day.
It was a 1-mile walk east to the Piccadilly Trading Estate.  Here's the route for the day... 

With blue skies and sunshine, Manchester was looking fantastic.

I used to walk along Whitworth Street most days of the week when I was student in the Aytoun Building of Manchester Met.  The old Uni buildings have changed beyond recognition, whilst I never really appreciated quite how stunning some of the architecture around this bit of the city is.

Back in my student days very few folks would ever have ventured the other side of the tracks at Piccadilly Station.  Where you'll now find new-build high-rises, hotels, and several brewery taps.  The first of which we visited being Cloudwater...

Cloudwater Unit 9 - Brewery Tap (Unit 9, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester, M1 2NP)
Giants of the Manchester craft brewing scene, Cloudwater occupy several of the Units along this road.  It was through the shutter labelled 'Barrel Store' that we entered.  Although there is space to sit downstairs, the bar itself is on the first floor.  All very bright in daylight hours, with stylish wooden bench seating; minimalist flower arrangements and menus for the Italian food truck on each table.

There were 22 beers on tap, handily listed as 'Easy Pints', 'One Offs', and 'Heavy Hitters'.  Of course I picked something very exotic and fairly strong from the heavy hitters list, before returning to the bar to try one of the two cask ales - an easy-drinking pale called 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out'.
There was a superb beer list at Cloudwater which would have kept me happy for the whole afternoon.  Although the 'chill-out' coffee table techno that the DJ fella had put on was dreary and irritating and I was ready to move on.

Straight across the road, and one door down from the pop-up thrift market, is another brewery tap.

Track Brewery Tap (Unit 18, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester, M1 2NP)
Track were previously located in a nearby railway arch (which now has new occupants and was somewhere we'd be heading to next).
They've expanded into this much larger light and airy industrial unit where there is lots of shiny brewing kit in the rear half, pizza being cooked to one side, bar counter and small fridge close to the door.  And a BIG houseplant in a barrel in the middle of the room...

I had a bit of beer envy here as Mrs PropUptheBar picked a 'Language Barrier Double Gingernut Stout'.  This was one of 4 different barrel-aged versions of the 12.5% imperial stout.
I was being much more sensible with the 5.6% cask 'Made in the Shade' - a very pleasant porter in a dimpled mug.

On a brewery tap roll now, we marched back down Adair Street, then right onto Sheffield Street, which runs adjacent to the railway lines.  Where you've got proper brewery taps of the  railway arch variety.

Sureshot (4 Sheffield Street, Manchester, M1 2ND)
Opened in 2022, this is a deceptively big railway arch, although considering the number of tracks leading into Piccadilly above it, I guess it's no surprise that this stretches some way back from the street.
The bar is midway through the room, odd art and the occasional neon sign decorating the walls, whilst brewing equipment is out of sight in the adjacent arch.

The music was drowned out by a raucous group of around 20 lads in tight jeans, presumably on a stag do.  The main man, in his felt jesters hat, was being forced to drink a third of some sort of cololurful concoction which he kept on squirming at, insisting he could manage no more.  Mrs PropUptheBar reckoned it looked like a Vault City sour, just the kind of thing she likes, and didn't know what all the fuss was about.

I stuck with the dark beer at Sureshot, drinking their very nice and strangely named stout: 'Dog and Horse at the Oatcake Shop'.

We moved on, just a few arches down the road, to somewhere a little bit different.

Balance Brewing and Blending Taproom (10 Sheffield Street, Manchester, M1 2ND)
Balance specialises in producing mixed culture, barrel-fermented beers.  Instead of shiny brewing equipment, the view into the depths of the archway is of dusty old barrels...

There were five beers available on tap: a 3.7% table beer or a saison from Balance themselves; guests from Pastore ('Sake Kasu Beer') and Beak or Union offering pale ale and lager for the less adventurous.

I ordered the 'Saison de Maison Blend 6' and the Pastore, then embarrassingly got them mixed up in the four steps between the bar and our table.  Both lovely unusual beers that made a nice change for the palate.

That was the plan complete for the brewery taps for the day.
Walking back through town, we made our way to a current Beer Guide pub that I've never set foot in.

The Molly House (26 Richmond Street, Manchester, M1 3NB)
There is a spectacular building-size mural on the side facing the gravel parking lot, then multiple rooms within this one-time tailors shop.  Gotta admit that I didn't know how spacious it was as we headed straight into the room to the left of the door, assumed that was it, grabbing the last table which was reserved for Angela in 30 minutes time.

On the bar were two beers each from local brewers Brightside and Big Trip.
My Big Trip was way past best, diligently returned on my behalf by Mrs PropUptheBar and replaced by the same breweries 'Wah Wah' pale ale.

It would have been good to bring you pictures of the intriguingly decorated upstairs rooms, but all I manged was this...sorry!

Time had raced by, the sun was getting lower in the sky, and we were beginning to think about what train back we needed to aim for.  
Just time for a bite to eat and one last beer in Society.  This is located next to the Bridgewater Hall, down some steps into a basin of the Rochdale Canal.  A good setting for fine weather with outdoor seating next to the water.

Society (101 Barbirolli Square, Manchester, M1 3BD)
This was launched by Vocation Brewery in 2021; a food hall featuring several vendors in kitchens along one side, cocktail, wine, and coffee bars, and a beer bar with a lengthy tap list.
It's yet another unusual Good Beer Guide entry for the city, although I can't fault the cask choice.

Tempting as the cask ale was, there lots of competition for my attention on the massive 30-strong tap lines.
I decided to end the day with something big, bold, and dark - Vocation's 8.4% 'Triple Choc Truffle' milk stout.  Absolutely wonderful stuff, along with a burger and dirty fries.

With seating for up to 350 folk, it's a noisy place, most tables at least part-occupied when we were there, and the hubble of shouted conversation blending into the electro music.  Not one for a quiet drink in trad surroundings, then.

With full belly and rosy cheeks, we departed Society ready for the journey home where it was Mrs PropUptheBar falling asleep on the train this time instead of me.
I had a determined plan to watch the Bet Shop Boys in the Nags Head at Macclesfield when we arrived back, but scooted straight past the door with my Travelodge bed calling out instead.  Turns out starting a craft beer tour at midday and picking a fair few 6%-and-upward beers isn't conducive with staying out late watching 80's tribute bands.