WARNING : CONTAINS PUB WINDOW PORN
Five points for the obscure ’90s album reference.
Back to Brum shortly (yesterday’s photos still uploading), but first here’s more Northern Sky for you. Sunset in Stalybridge is a wonderful thing.
The annual trip to Staly for a new Beer Guide pub is a GBG highlight. Decaying nightclubs and Beer Guide Labour Clubs have a strange fascination for me, but the civic architecture is the big draw.
This year, two newbies, and one of them isn’t a micro !
The Wharf looks an absolute classic. How has Quosh not told me about this before ?
It’s multi-roomed gorgeousness reminded me of a Sam Smiths or Holts, though with a wider clientele on an early Saturday evening. Some were even younger than Mrs RM.
Of course, if you live in Stockport or Salford you can get a bit blasé about proper pubs like this, but there’s little that looks or feels this good in Cambridge.
I presume a limited beer range, rather than quality, has edged the Wharf out of the GBG over the years, as the cheerfully served Wainwright was very cool and tasty (NBSS 3+).
To minimise Mrs RM’s walking, I left her with a bag of crisps and rugby league on the telly, and nipped out to do the other newbie (that’s not what I told her).
It took me ten minutes to walk to Bridge Beers, take a photo of that button at the top, and nip back to the Wharf, where Mrs RM was still “liking” FaceFriend posts.
That means I probably didn’t do full justice to a micro/bottle shop which actually manages to look like a proper Stalybridge pub.
I drank at the bar, just like the bar flies I complain about, and enjoyed a tasty but challenging TicketyBrew Muchner, which I confess I read as Murcner (it wasn’t murky).
The pubs were busy enough, but the town was quiet at 7pm. I suspect the Station Buffet was looking like Sodom with all the TransPennine Ale Trailers though.
retiredmartin 
I never got round to doing all of Stalybridge’s pubs which was a shame and i dont think i have done The Wharf.
Just posted a blog about your home city,i hope you like it,Martin.
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Just read and enjoyed that, Alan.
http://neverendingpubcrawl.blogspot.co.uk
Tweeted the link to it as well.
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Thanks for that,Martin
I wish i could do links and the like,but it is hit and miss with me not really knowing what i am doing.
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I went in a new Micro pub in Bristol yesterday,very friendly bar staff and they even took a photo of me with the landlord,probably to warn other pubs of my forthcoming visits.
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They only put up photos of Simon (BRAPA) so staff know to put up the “closed for staff party” sign 😉
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“and enjoyed a tasty but challenging TicketyBrew Muchner, which I confess I read as Murcner”
I think you need new glasses. Looking at the photo it’s actually Munchner. 🙂
It’s classified as a lager (well, half lager at least) so that big red button is telling porkies. 😉
Cheers
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Muckner was close enough, then !
ohh Trade Descriptions Actbreach.
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What was the beer temperature like in the micro? Acceptable or no? Been having much debate on this recently. Are cooling saddles and insulated jackets sufficient in a small room that may become packed with people, and all the heat this generates, at busy times? Is the ‘cellar in a cupboard’ style better? I’ve got a mate who’s been looking for premises recently and his philosophy is ‘cellar or bust’. He’s found premises now and signed the lease but the hardest part was finding somewhere with a decent cellar. There is a small bar near me that has a cellar, yet still struggles to maintain a constant acceptable temperature, what you get for setting up in an ex Halifax Building Soc. who would have required a very dry cellar within HSE limits for staff working i.e. not a cool and slightly damp cellar.
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I prefer my beer a bit cooler these days, but it was OK.
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