National Winter Ales Festival Pictures and Round-up – pages 12 & 13 Also – Bulls Head: Stockport & South Manchester Pub of the Year – page 6 Proud to be a CAMRA National Pub of the Year 2008 finalist The Crown Inn, Heaton Lane 16 Handpumps Real Cider Guest Lagers Foreign Beers Lunches Served 12 - 3pm Monday - Friday Special Occasions Catered For Folk & Acoustic night every Tuesday from 8.30 pm Come along and have a sing or strum Open every day from Noon http://thecrowninn.uk.com/ 2 OPENING TIMES February 2012 The Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA Pub of the Month for February is Ye Olde Woolpack on Brinksway. Pete Brown is a regular and explains why it won. E OLDE WOOLPACK on Brinksway, is a pub we almost lost. Closed for more than 12 months, its fate seemed uncertain Yuntil Mick Flynn and his family came to the rescue in November 2010. Situated on the banks of the River Mersey, close to the town centre and the M60 motorway (the Co-Op pyramid is about 100 yards away) it is ideally situated for passing trade and regulars alike. It is particularly popular in summer months with walkers and cyclists. As you enter you are greeted by a U-shaped bar, with an open seating area to your left, and two small rooms to the right. There is the odd hand pump on the bar, 15 to be precise, five dispensing an ever changing range of quality beers, and 10 (yes I did say 10) given over to some of his range of up to 16 ciders and perries. This makes Ye Olde Woolpack the pub in Stockport if you enjoy the occasional pint of cider. Add to this a range of bottled ciders and 14 German bottled beers; the Woolpack really does cater for everyone. Lunchtime food is also on offer here with both a regular menu and a daily specials board. It is simple, no frills fare and excellent value for money. As with any good pub, the people make all the difference. While much of its lunchtime trade comes from local businesses, there is also a loyal band of regulars old and new who ensure it has that “local” feel. There is a quiz night on Wednesday, and for those that like such things, Karaoke on Friday night. Add to that, the friendly, welcoming atmosphere created by the whole team and you end up with a great place to spend an afternoon or evening (or both). Not only have the efforts of Mick and the team prevented another pub from being turned into offices, but it is steadily increasing in popularity. A fact illustrated by the speed with which the beers are changed. All in all, a worthy recipient the Pub of the Month award. So please come along to the award presentation on Thursday 23 February from 8pm onwards. The Pub of the Month award is sponsored by Stephensons, a local family firm that has been supplying the local pub and catering trade for over 140 years. Check out their advert on this page. February 2012 OPENING TIMES 3 Comment, Notes & Contents What’s On Opening Times – Comment Local CAMRA branches organise regular events in pubs across the region – members of other branches & general public are welcome Well, another National Winter Ales Festival has been and gone. to attend except some Branch business meetings (contact branch Another triumph for organisers Graham Donning and Peter contact if in doubt). Organising branch in brackets. Alexander and their huge team of volunteers. It was less of a triumph though for our local brewers who failed to feature in the February medals table when it came to judging the Champion Winter Beer of Britain. Saturday 11th Knutsford Pub Crawl starts Legh Arms, Brook St. 12:30pm (MEC) However it promises to be an interesting year on the local beer Monday 13th – Winter Pub of the Season presentation to White scene – Robinsons will be commissioning their new brewhouse House, Stalybridge. 8pm (NB will be followed by Branch Meeting at shortly and Hydes are on the move. At the micro level, Q Bar) collaboration seems to be the name of the game with all manner of joint enterprises planned with other brewers from both the UK Wednesday 15th – Social: Jolly Angler, Ducie St 8pm; Piccadilly and overseas. More on all of this in future issues of OT. 9pm (NM) Last month we said that OT predicted that there would be more Thursday 16th – City Centre Social: Moon Under Water, Deansgate than 900 breweries in the UK by the end of this year. We seem to 8pm; Oast House, Spinningfields 8.45pm; Gas Lamp. Bridge St have been well out – a recently published statistic showed that 9.30pm; finish at B-Lounge@Bridge and Sawyers Arms (TRH) there were now 1,002 breweries in operation. This is by any standard an astonishing figure. Who’d have thought it? Friday 17th – Bramhall & West Hazel Grove Stagger: 7.30pm Three Opening Times - Information Bears, Jacksons Lane; 8.30pm Shady Oak, Redford Drive. (SSM) Opening Times is produced by the Stockport & South Manchester Thursday 23rd – Pub of the Month Award to Ye Olde Woolpack, Branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. Additional material Brinksway, Stockport. From 8pm (SSM) is supplied by the High Peak & NE Cheshire, Trafford & Hulme, Saturday 25th – Social at Old Hall Hotel, Chinley. Starts 12 noon. North Manchester and Macclesfield & E Cheshire Branches. The (MEC) views expressed are not necessarily those of CAMRA either locally or nationally. 7,200 copies a month are printed by Phil Powell Wednesday 29th – Leap Day Crawl: Lass O’Gowrie, Charles St, Printing of Failsworth. All articles copyright CAMRA unless 7.30pm; Eden, Canal St 8.15pm; Alibi, Oxford St 9pm; Paramount or otherwise stated. Peveril of the Peak to finish. (NM) News, articles and letters are welcome to the editorial address 45, Wednesday 29th – Macclesfield Pub Crawl – starts at The Wharf Bulkeley St, Edgeley, Stockport, SK3 9HD. E-mail 7.30pm. (MEC) [email protected]. Phone 0161 477 1973. Advertising rates on request. Wednesday 29th Macclesfield Pub Crawl add Brook St after Postal subscriptions are available at £9.00 for 12 issues (make Wharf. cheques payable to Opening Times). Apply to Opening Times, 4 Sandown Road, Cheadle Heath, Stockport, SK3 0JF. Your Local CAMRA Branches: SSM: Stockport & South Manchester www.ssmcamra.org.uk Trading Standards – for complaints about short measure pints etc Contact: Mark McConachie 0161 429 9356, [email protected] contact Consumer Direct (North West). Consumer Direct works NM – North Manchester www.northmanchestercamra.org.uk with all the Trading Standards services in the North West and is Contact: Dave Hallows 07983 944992, [email protected] supported by the Office of Fair Trading. You can email Consumer Direct using a secure email system on their website HPNC – High Peak & North Cheshire www.hpneccamra.org.uk (www.consumerdirect.gov.uk) which also provides advice, fact Contact: Mike Rose 07986 458517. [email protected] sheets and model letters on a range of consumer rights. Their MEC – Macclesfield & East Cheshire www.eastcheshirecamra.org.uk telephone no. is 0845 404 05 06. Contact Tony Icke 01625 861833, [email protected] Copy Date for the March issue is Saturday February 10th TRH – Trafford & Hulme www.thcamra.org.uk Font cover – CAMRA’s Bev Gobbett launches the Winter Ales Branch Contact: John Ison 0161 962 7976, [email protected] Festival as she gives Thwaites Shire Horse Bomber a drink at The Venue in Manchester. Picture courtesy Bell Pottinger CAMRA Branch Business Meetings Contributors to this issue: John Clarke, John Tune, Dave Hanson, Thursday 9th February – Magnet, Wellington Road North, Peter Butler, Robin Wignall, Peter Edwardson, Frank Wood, Phil Stockport. Includes selection for 2013 Good Beer Guide¸Start Booton, Mike Rose, Caroline O’Donnell, John O’Donnell, Adrain 8.15pm. (SSM) Palmer, Stewert Revell, Marc McConachie, Andy Sullivan, Tom Lord, Pete Brown, Dave Hallows. Monday 13th February – Q Bar, Market Street, Stalybridge. Includes final selection for 2013 Good Beer Guide. Starts 8.30pm (HPNC) Distribution Manager – Janet Flynn Wednesday 15th – Good Beer Guide 2013 Final Selection Meeting: Opening Times 330 - Contents Unicorn, Church St, Manchester City Centre. Starts 7pm. (NM) Pub of the Month 3 High Peak Pub Scene 11 Monday 20th GBG 2013 Final Selection, Dog & Partridge, Curmudgeon 5 NWAF pictures, etc 12 Palmerston St, Bollington. (MEC) SSM Pub of the Year 6 Pub News 15 Thursday 1st March – New Lloyds Hotel, Wilbraham Road, Stagger 7 Andy the Hat 16 Chorlton. Starts 8pm (TRH) Marple & District 8 Letter to the Editor 17 Pub News Extra 8 Awards Gallery 19 Thursday 8th March – Nursery, Green Lane, Heaton Norris. Guest T & H Pub News 9 Brewery News 21 speaker: Paul Jefferies, Production Director Hydes Brewery. Starts 8.15pm. (SSM) 4 OPENING TIMES February 2012 When is a Beer not a Beer? HE term “India Pale Ale” or IPA originates from strong, heavily hopped beers that were specifically brewed for export to India Tin the early part of the 19th century. By the middle of the century, beers of this style had become popular on the domestic market, and the export trade eventually died away as local breweries were established. The First World War saw a dramatic cut in beer strengths across the board, and for much of the 20th century IPA became a common name for a relatively light bitter, mostly, but not exclusively, in the South of England. Thus we had beers such as Darleys IPA, Wadworths IPA, Bass’s Charrington IPA – which must have been one of the sweetest and least hoppy bitters known to man – and Greene King IPA which has now become probably the best- selling cask beer in Britain.