Readers Writes

Welcome to our new "Readers Writes" section on the site, the place for you to tell us about your real ale travels !. 

In this section, we will be featuring our branch members out and about, be it on brewery trips, CAMRA social events or beer festivals. If you aren't a member of our branch, come and be a guest for the day as we also welcome any articles by members from other branches.

Articles can be any length with pictures, however we do reserve the right to amend and refuse to publish any articles. Click on the 'submit' option on the left if you wish to submit an article.

We begin our Readers Writes articles with a visit to the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester, plus the city's legendary real ale "Northern Quarter" by branch members Ian Jackson and John Magson.

Mild in Manchester.
100%, Printing Complete !. The Spring Thing Beer Festival flyers are at last done, talk about a last minute thing !. It's 8.50am and I'm ready to head out down to Darlington train station for a day out in Manchester at the National Winter Ales Festival with fellow branch member John Magson. We catch the 9.42 train, it's quiet and surprisingly the weather isn't too bad but it soon comes clear what it has been like when we get to York. The River Ouse was almost bursting its banks, and further down what is the Transpennine Ale Trail we saw more 'paddy fields'. Just over two hours since we set off, we were almost at Manchester Piccadilly and spotted the 'outer marker' that was the City of Manchester Stadium meaning it wasn't far now.

Outside Piccadilly, we got the Manchester greeting of rain so opted for the Bury tram which took us to the Northern Quarter disembarking at Shudehill. As we passed the Grade II listed Hare and Hounds Tetley pub, our plan was to do visit some Northern Quarter pubs as opposed to heading straight for the Winter Ales Festival at New Century Hall, next to Victoria Station. Passing the iconic Smithfield Hotel and Bar Fringe we carried along Swan Street to the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road to our first pub, the Crown and Kettle.

Reopened in 2005 after being closed for 16 years, the Crown and Kettle is a new entry to the Good Beer Guide and has been extensively restored with the main focus being the superbly decorated ceilings in the two large rooms, pictured left.

On the bar, four handpumps dispensed beers from local micros including Phoenix and the house beer Crown and Kettle brewed by Greenfield. John chose the house beer while I went for one from further afield, the Cat 'o' Nine Tails from Nelson Brewery in Chatham, Kent. As we went to sit down on one of the large tables, we spied another smaller temporary bar with a couple of handpumps offering Blindman's Grain Surgery and a tongue in cheek promotion from Phoenix Brewery entitled "One Fot Tickers" which was called Smarmy Git.     

As we later found out, Smarmy Git, pictured left, was No 5 in of a series of ten different beers distributed around Manchester and formed what can only be described as a type of "Tickers Treasure Hunt".

While we tucked into a fish and chip lunch with John having another pint of the house ale and me going for a bit of "Grain Surgery", we became amused by the CAMRA beer tickers coming in and spotting the Phoenix clip on the mini bar, what became even more amusing was seeing some of the tickers getting their Good Beer Guides out to see whether the beer appeared in the guide !.

The food menu offered excellent value along with daily specials including curry as mentioned by the chef, the proof was the number of workers coming in for their lunch hour for meals. The fish and chips was ideal in filling a corner and the curry would have to wait another time, possibly in Rusholme's famous Curry Mile.

To get to our next port of call we headed back along Swan Street and on to the Smithfield Hotel and Bar, pictured left. The Smithfield was running its own festival, dubbed "The 2008 Alternative Winter Ales Festival" and looking at the beer menu this was definitely true !. White Park Blonde and Robinsons Dark Hatters Mild were the first beers tried and there were plenty to choose from not only on handpump but also available on gravity via jugs from behind the bar.

The Smithfield began filling up with a few more beer tickers checking out beers from predominately new breweries, a few were recognisable having been seen at previous festivals. Tyneside resident and former CAMRA National Executive member John Holland popped in from taking time out from working at the festival and gave us the latest news on the acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle while I supped Rockingham Frosty night and John had Elmtree's Road Crew's Swan Street Swansong. After these beers, it was our Swan Street swansong and onto the Marble Arch which lies along Rochdale Road.

It was a short walk from the Smithfield Hotel and Bar to the Marble Arch, one which we have done over the last eight years and the landscape has somewhat changed over the years. We went past the sadly boarded up Beer House on Angel Street, pictured left, a fine establishment in its hey day. Behind the Beer House are now newly built apartments, this was where the Pot of Beer pub once was, it had excellent beer and an unusual food menu that included Polish dishes; how ironic that with a large number of Polish people now living in this country, one of the first pubs that brought us kabanos with cabbage was no longer around. Further up Rochdale Road new apartments now dwarf the Marble Arch on what was waste ground only a couple of years ago.

The Marble Arch is a listed building and it is renown for its interior tiling, even on the floor. The brewery has been organic for a number of years and is visible from the  back room. We met a couple of familiar landlords from our region, Neil Amos from the Newcastle Arms in Newcastle and Norman Weatherburn from the Boathouse at Wylam on a day out with friends from Newcastle. Plenty of Royal Mail workers had come in after their shift plus a few tickers were around, by now I had got the impression that they had the same idea as us in visiting the Northern Quarter pubs followed by the Winter Ales Festival. On the bar we went for the Manchester Bitter, an excellent golden coloured beer at 4.2%. Other beers included Marble's Ginger Marble, Chocolate Marble and guests which included Blackwater's Marley's Ghost.

So onto the festival where it covered two floors of New Century Hall with the Lancaster Suite on the lower floor containing the Champions Bar, where you could find Wickwar's Station Porter, the newly crowned Champion Winter Beer for 2008. The beer festival flyers table was topped up with our Spring Thing flyers along with the latest issue of Darlington Drinker which soon disappeared !. Crouch Vale Brewery's Brewery Liaison Officer was one to pick up a Drinker and after a chat over a beer asked for a copy of our updated Real Ale Guide too. My beer highlights were Bazen's Pacific Bitter and Thornbridge's Embers while John raved at the Saltaire Chocolate Stout. Before leaving, it was time to check out Wear Valley's festival offerings in Excalibur and Hamsterley Dark Ale. Both were on form.

Time to head back to Piccadilly for the train home. It had now stopped raining and was noticeably mild, not what you expect in January. Like the outward journey we were back in Darlington in just over two hours. A great day out.