Bundobust Brewery, St James Building, 61-69 Oxford Street, Manchester
Track Brewing Company, Unit 18, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester
Cloudwater Brewing Company, Unit 8, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester
Sureshot Brewing Company, 5 Sheffield Street, Manchester
Late last summer, after pretty much a full year of trying to organise a day trip to Manchester, my friend Mike and I finally succeeded in this seemingly impossible venture. It was a sunny Saturday when we caught the hour-long train from Sheffield. Our main goal was to visit the Whitworth Gallery, but naturally we also wanted to sample some of the fine breweries the city has to offer. Located on the other side of the Pennines from Sheffield, Manchester is currently the third largest metropolitan area in the UK, and it has a rich history of cotton and manufacturing. But it’s also a really fun city to visit, with lots of stuff going on.
As we walked down from the train station to the gallery, it was already after 12:00, and we thought perhaps we’d have a bite to eat before continuing on to the art. And the Oxford Road location of Bundobust Brewery seemed a perfect choice of venue, because Mike had already told me about their excellent vegetarian food.
When we walked in we found a large room with long tables, a bar at the far end, and evidence of brewing all around. Before we perused the menu, we started off with two halves of beer. I first had a taste of Peela Pale Ale (4.0% ABV, Bundobust), which was a perfectly acceptable choice for the first half of the day. But on a sudden olfactory whim I decided instead to go with a half of Rock Coppice Pale Ale (4.8% ABV, Nothing Bound Brewing Company, Bewdley, Worcestershire). This pale ale was brewed with Citra, Nelson Sauvin, and Mosaic hops, and it was zingy and very zooey! Yep, that definitely describes it. Being faithful to the brewery we were now in, Mike went for a half of Durant New England White IPA (6.0% ABV, Bundobust), which was richly, um, floral in sort of a hoppy way.
We then took a seat at the end of a long tall table, where we decided to share a voice of five small Indian Street Food plates, two of them from their new Indo-Mexican menu. Our choices were impressively good: Paneer Tikka, Egg Burghi, Okra Fries, Achari Tofu Tacos, and to-die-for Corn Chaat, accompanied by an unbelievably light and airy puri. Oh my god, we were both in heaven: everything was so truly delicious. The menu is all vegetarian as well, and I honestly believe that food this good has the power to convert many diehard carnivores. Sadly the five dishes were way too much for the two of us to finish; so seeing as how we really were not equipped to carry leftovers around with us for the rest of the afternoon, we could easily have done with ordering just three or four dishes. Oh well, knowledge for next time. But what a great start to the day.
As we rhapsodised over our food, we saw that we were surrounded by large brewing vats, and there was another room with more brewery equipment as well as plenty of Bundobust t-shirts and hats. Established in 2021, Bundobust also has locations in Leeds and Liverpool.
After our meal we headed on to the gallery to see the art and the grounds. We then stopped at the Manchester Museum, where I insisted we go up to the Vivarium. As it was a sunny weekend day, the place was crawling with not only lizards, snakes, and frogs, but also children, so it probably wasn’t the most ideal time for two adults to visit. But I still enjoyed it a lot.
And then, as it was late afternoon and the sun was well over the yardarm, we headed back toward Piccadilly Station where there are some fine breweries to visit. The first one, Track Brewing Company, is located in a business park typical of many of the more modern American breweries and taps. The story of this brewery started in 2008, thirteen years before Track opened its taproom, when the head brewer Sam Dyson travelled by bicycle across the United States, checking out breweries along the way. He continued on through 25 countries and eventually returned to Manchester with the idea of starting his own craft brewery.
Sadly I found that even though the owner should know his East Coast beers from his West Coast, the woman who was serving us on this day certainly didn’t know much about the styles. And we were disappointed by the long beer menu which mentioned only basic styles such as “Pale", “West Coast Pale", etc. with absolutely no mention of the hops or malts used, or any tasting notes. It made me think of Kneedeep Brewing in Auburn, California, where the barman expected my friend Rick and I to just pick our beers based on the names. And then, when I realised that the dry-hopped IPAs were all way high up on the alcohol scale, with the lowest being 7.9%, I asked the woman which of the West Coast pale ales was the hoppiest. “Oh, West Coast ales aren’t hoppy at all," she declared with conviction. “Well," I said, “I’m from the West Coast, and I’ve had plenty of very interesting, very hoppy beers." No, I was wrong, she insisted; if I wanted a hoppy beer, I would have to go for a Double Dry Hopped IPA, which is a style brewed on the East Coast only. And she also insisted that pale ales tend to be more piney in taste, while the double-dry-hopped IPAs are more hoppy. And then she gave me a taste of one of the high-ABV beers that she thought would be nice and hoppy, and I found it so alcoholic that it tasted very sweet. And Mike, who is used to drinking higher ABV beers as a rule, agreed with me.
At this point I laughed in disbelief and realised it was pointless, as a native Californian and Seattleite, to argue with a completely ignorant Brit. And when she added that the East Coast IPAs are fruity, whereas the West Coast Pales tend to be more piney, I said that I love that pine-resin character of some hops.
Ultimately, I just asked for a taste of Come On In West Coast Pale Ale (5.0% ABV), which was indeed hoppy and, although not terribly exciting, it was pleasant enough to suffice as our first half pint of the late afternoon session. And later, when I looked up this beer online, I learned that it’s brewed with Citra hops, both in the boil and in the dry hopping. (The italics are meant to be dripping with sarcasm.) And the taste profile describes it as tropical with pine resin and a crisp finish. So why couldn’t they list just a brief note like that on the beer menu?
Anyway, the space itself is great, very reminiscent of West Coast (yes!) breweries located in industrial parks. There’s a nice-looking garden in the back, and it’s very dog friendly. If you're stopping into Track for a pint, my advice would be to look up the beers online before you order, so you’ll be able to choose something that you might like.
We moved on excitedly through the industrial park, just a few doors down and across, to the brewery we had both been looking forward to, Cloudwater Brewing Company. This place offers outdoor seating a few doors down, but we stayed inside the main room which offered seating at long tables and a few smaller, more intimate tables. A DJ was setting up his decks for the evening, and we soon discovered that the staff behind the bar were all very knowledgeable.
After a quick tasting I immediately went for a pint of Fuzzy Hazy Pale (4.2% ABV, Cloudwater Brewing), which had a really good hops character and was superbly gorgeous. Mike chose a stronger pint of SoCal Bright Pale (4.8% ABV), which imparted a wonderful aroma that greeted the nose before sipping. Both of these beers tasted like late afternoon/early evening relaxation with a touch of Oohyes!, and I was so happy I was practically purring. As I took in our surroundings, I wondered about the empty pegboards that were all over the walls. Were we waiting for some sort of meeting? They really made me want to post something.
I really did feel so comfortable here. But alas, we had to move on. But before we left, we returned to the bar to have a cheeky taste of Idaho 7, Mosaic & Waimea Foudre Beer (7.8%), a farmhouse ale that was unbelievably good, and as the saying goes, it definitely did what it said on the tin.
Cloudwater Brewing Company brewed its first beers only nine years before we visited. But even with their short history, they’re proud of having crafted an extensive array of styles of beers, from both classical to more modern and experimental.
For our last stop of the day before catching a train back to Sheffield, we headed over to Sureshot Brewing Company. This taproom is actually located just underneath Piccadilly Station, where we were to catch the train. And somehow we managed to find this place, no thanks to the help of GoogleMaps. (As it turned, it was actually my fault, because we passed under a bridge and shouldn’t have. But at least we didn’t meet up with any nasty trolls.)
Sureshot is situated in another nice basic industrial-park-style room. It’s quite dark and simple, with tall and low tables, and there are a lot of t-shirts for sale. This time I went for a half of The More It Stays The Same, The Less It Changes (4.0% ABV, Sureshot). This gluten free American pale ale is dry hopped with Mosaic BBC, Southern Cross T90, and Nelson Sauvin T90. And it was just a nice reasonably hopped pale which was quite good. Mike had a half of You Won Jane West Coast IPA (6.5% ABV, Sureshot), a West Coast IPA dry hopped with Moutere, Mosaic BBC, and Simcoe Cryo. This was a very Yum! beer, with a vertical Whoom!--I mean, that’s the best way I can describe it, with plenty of piney resin. Naturally Mike and I wondered who Jane was, but we never found out. As we were getting toward the end of our halves, we suddenly realised that we had another 45 minutes before our Northern Line train tickets could be used. So what does one do in a situation like that? Well, drink some more beer, right? So we each went for a half of His Girl Friday Mango Peach & Passionfruit Sour (4.5% ABV, Sureshot). A collaboration with Bundobust and Polyester, this was actually a very acceptable, highly enjoyable sour, pale in colour. The description on the menu described it as “thick Alphonso mango, juicy peach, and zippy passionfruit combining for one swell sour." And sales of this beer would help support The Eden Young Fellowship for Aspiring Working Class Journalists. So by having another beer we were doing a worthy thing, which made us feel great.
In one afternoon we only just scraped the surface of Manchester’s brewing scene, so we’ll definitely have to return one day. I mean, somebody’s got to do this work, don’t they?
Related Links
- A little about the history of Manchester (Science and Industry Museum)
- A couple of guides to Indian street food: from Tilda, and from Intentional Detours
- A few good vivariums to visit: in Manchester; in Berkeley, California; in New York City (featuring butterflies); and in Lausanne, Switzerland (featuring an aquarium)
- Hey, wanna have your own pegboard? Here are some great pegboard ideas, with instructions on how to install them (Pinnacle Hardware)
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