A NIGHTCAP

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So, only three of us standing at the end of MancCrawl 2018 in the backroom of the Circus.

Quite how Paul persuaded me into the Grey Horse (as well as the Lost Dene for breakfast), only he knows. Never try to keep up with the Stafford Mudge.

Photo from the balmy days of September when we were all so young

But it was only half six, my bedtime isn’t till the last Chinese takeaway closes, so I joined the great PubMan for a nightcap of Hydes Dark, or whatever the marketing men have rebranded it too. On excellent form (NBSS 3.5), as was all the beer in Manchester.

Lovely bar
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Who knows if we asked for CAMRA discount ? Who knows ?

My notes say “Youngsters flock to Paul“. I assume it was these two lovely young people from Widnes again, seen here arranging their visa so they can cross the Mersey for Kirsty Walker’s Victorian Pub Crawl this autumn.

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Following Paul !

My other notes say “Money’s ruined the game” and Cheryl, possibly Cole. Goodness knows how BRAPA manages coherence after six pints.

Anyway, another hour mysteriously squandered, time to go. “Night, Paul”

Oh, what’s this ?

No harm looking.

Oh dear.

At last

Wonderful beer in a wonderful pub. I can’t remember anything except that plum taste.

Lacings

As the song goes.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

35 thoughts on “A NIGHTCAP”

  1. “Only two of us standing at the end of MancCrawl 2018 in the backroom of the Circus” – no, you’re forgetting Luke whose train from Victoria wasn’t for a while, and there’s Luke looking at the pumpclip for the “excellent form” Old Indie in the Grey Horse.
    Maybe I persuaded you into the Grey Horse because it’s such a lovely pub and a fitting one to end the day.
    And had I told you in advance about the sausages in the Lost Dene ?
    I had booked into my accommodation in Castlefield – “a walkable area filled with canals, casual waterfront bars and green spaces” – by about 8pm and a while later thought I might manage a half in the Oxnoble which I remember as a reasonably good Whitbread pub. Now though I couldn’t really understand anyone wanting to go there other than the Potato Tickers before or after the Blue Bell, British Queen and King Edward.

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  3. I had a two day Manchester Crawl a few weeks ago. Plum Porter was responsible for an extended sojourn in the back room of The City Arms on a Saturday tea time. The same drink had also been responsible for me staying too long in The Peveril the previous evening (where I discovered, much to my surprise that I’d been married for 15 years). Both nights we failed to make The Marble Arch!

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      1. I’ll look forward to it. I’ll certainly be up for the mythical Isle of Wight. I can almost see it out of my bedroom window.

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  4. An excellent, if disjointed, series of posts on very familiar watering holes on my home turf. Did you consider taking your American friends into The Wellington? A winning combination surely for them of Sam Smiths, historic building and unrestrained Mancness. It shows how fortunate we are her in Manchester that you could leave it out under the circumstances.

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    1. Sam Smith’s (keg) is in Sinclair’s, not the Wellington. The Southworths were staying in Manchester for a few nights, so did make it into some other pubs, but not sure if it included that one.

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      1. I stand corrected , you are right of course. I had mixed the two up AND forgotten the fact that it is Keg only in Sinclairs. Still an interesting place for our transatlantic cousins though.

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    1. Richard,
      If you ever see it try Titanic’s 6½% Plum Porter Grand Reserve, a beer that I, though not everyone on here, consider to be infinitely better than their ‘ordinary’ Plum Porter.

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      1. To be fair, I only had a half of the Grand Reserve (in Bakers Arms 2 years ago) and just found it a little too much compared to the normal PP. Don’t care for the Cherry variant they did, either.

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    2. Yes, and I had half of the Grand Reserve and half of the Old Tom in the Bakers Vaults just over two years ago but that’s because they wouldn’t sell me a pint of Old Tom.

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  6. Luckily they had just run out of Plum Porter Grand Reserve when I asked for a pint in The City Arms. Things could of got a bit messy otherwise. As it was I ended up in Prestwich Liberal Club until one in the morning.

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  8. Loved this: “My other notes say “Money’s ruined the game” and Cheryl, possibly Cole.” –I’m assuming even you, reading your own notes, don’t know what game it is that money has ruined! 😉

    These posts, gathered together, begin to take on the air of one of those Deserter chapters, where the reader thinks, “They can’t possibly go to yet one more pub at this stage.” But that same reader is of course very pleased to find that they did!

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    1. Fairly clear I was thinking of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal a century on, Mark. Y’know, “Say It Ain’t So, Joe” and all that.

      Talking of which, Burton must have been given a bribe to lose 9-0 to City Reserves tonight.

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  10. “Photo from the balmy days of September when we were all so young”

    Crikey. That fellow in the bottom left looks a bit like one of my regulars on our lunch truck run.

    “Following Paul !”

    Actually I was just going to ask something similar.

    “At last”

    Oh dear indeed!

    “As the song goes.”

    Ain’t that the bloody truth.

    Cheers

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