21/05/21 - Back in Manc for the new Good Beer Guide Ticks

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #544 and #545

Other Manchester Pub Days Out - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

With both kids living in Manchester, I've made steady progress with Good Beer Guide Ticking in the City.  18 months since my last visit - a Mark Lanegan Gig (remember gigs?) - and a new edition of the bible has surprisingly been published.

In typical fashion, it holds new delights at both ends of the beer drinking spectrum.

Hare and Hounds - 46 Shudehill, Holts Bitter

The blog is nothing if not a cliche.  We had to get out of the rain.

Should your eyes get distracted by street art, you probably walk straight on past this inconspicuous boozer.

Street Art

An unassuming exterior

All the beauty remains within - you know you will be spoiled when you learn its in CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors book.  I'll leave them to discuss the half-height wall tiling, the glazed panels and the central serving lobby.  I was more delighted to be back inside a living, breathing pub - complete with cast of characters you would expect at 11am on a Friday morning.  The bloke taking work calls.  The bloke with his paper spread out across his table - knowing that his day was both sorted and better than 95% of the populations Friday.

Mrs M channeling her hidden Bet Lynch.

My favourable untappd check in of Holts Bitter was met with a brewery response that if I like it there, I should move on to the Lower Turks Head.

However, we have made arrangements to meet the kids - and I've found somewhere that may suit a 23 year old final year student, a marketing executive and their pub ticking parents.

Beatnikz Republic Bar, Dale Street. Kernel IPA

The other end of the scale.  A shared door entry could lead to confusion and you ending in the Idle Hands Cafe.  If I was going to be 100% honest, I'd tell you I mistakenly checked in hear.  Pub ticking in Covid is fraught with confusion and new rules.

In the correct entrance and we are in a light industrial unit canteen - with hard furniture, harsh lighting and exposed ducting.  Possibly being added to be historic pub interiors book in 2090.

But a couple of things have been enjoyed in lockdown....  Beer Podcasts and sampling my DIPAS, NEIPAs and West Coast IPAs.  I am so unfazed by their menu, I take the chance to have a (first ever in public) 2/3rds of Kernel IPA.  

C21st Good Beer Guide Ticking

Camera is already on a wobble and its only pub 2.

A third tick was attempted at Northern Monk but we had no booking, so they couldn't fit us into an empty bar.  We'll no doubt be back but for now, will leave them to work on their weather forecasting.

Summertime, Manchester

We spend the rest of the day/evening looking at more street art in the Northern Quarter, dining out Spanish Style, something called "Escape to Freight Island" and an ill advised, yet much enjoyed visit to the Temple Bar to ensure they still had Coniston Bluebird in bottles.

Two Ian's Mappiman and Curtis - 40 years + 1 Day since he left us

Still haven't got the hang of tapas