This week I’m up in Manchester/Paisley/Preston, making sure Matt is settled into his barbering (?) course in the Eternal City (that’s not Preston).
So I’m snatching the odd 20 minutes of WiFi to bring you up to date with the glories of Mid Wales.
This one comes to you from the Etihad before kick off, home of BRAPA’s favourite plastic fans.
Three pubs in Machynlleth with Paul, one of them highly unlikely to trouble the GBG since it doesn’t sell beers called Cwr.
Despite serving homemade pasties on Thursdays (it was Tuesday).
Oh how I miss Burtonwood Top Hat.
No, two beers from a Wolverhampton beer factory won’t get you in the Beer Guide, even in Wolves.
But £2.30* a pint will guarantee a busy pub on Tuesday night, just as it will a Craft Union one in Dereham.
Easy choice.
“I’ll have the second one pulled, Paul”
We sat in the corner next to a couple of visitors scoffing fish and chips, and fondly recalled Richard Coldwell.
Richard would have pretended to hate the Banks’s, but secretly admired the cool foamy pints (NBSS 3.5).
Once again, we find you rarely get what you pay for.
*Give or take. Paul will know, he takes proper notes.
retiredmartin 
I still can’t work out whether Burtonwood still brews or not. Apparently the site was sold to Molson Coors in 2016. I’m sure Stafford Mudge will know!
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Paul,
I don’t know but I think I heard recently that Doom Bar is bottled there and so there’s probably not much room left for brewing.
Also Molson Coors’s main brands would be too big for the Burtonwood site and Brains brews their three cask beers, M&B Brew XI, Hancocks HB and Worthington Bitter.
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I was out of town and initially missed the news of Richard’s passing– what a shock, had he been unwell, or was it quite sudden?
He was such a lively voice on your blog, the needed straight-shooting counterbalance to those of us who natter on about the glories of traditional ales and so forth. Though he often disagreed with various opinions, he was never mean spirited about it– it was always in the spirit of getting to the truth about things. And what a great photographer! He is missed by a great many, to be sure.
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Thanks for those lovely words, Mark.
It was sudden and unexpected, and I confess I’m still struggling to accept it.
I actually only met Richard a handful of times on pub crawls, but the comments on blogs such as mine made me feel I knew him. A lot of his contrary opinions were pure mischief, by the way. His sense of humour mirrored mine.
A sad loss.
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Yes, lovely words.
I also actually only met Richard a handful of times on pub crawls.
I would agree that “a lot of his contrary opinions were pure mischief” and shortly after his death I wrote that “I was gradually coming to the conclusion that Richard wasn’t really the Banks’s-Marstons Hater that he liked to suggest”.
We won’t forget Richard. And we’re especially reminded of him when in pubs we both visited on Proper Days Out such as Worcester last Saturday nearly a year after last September.
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The Skinners Arms might be the top Machynlleth pub just as it was in the 1970s. Three times I was there in as many days.
It’s photos like that that gets strangers stopping me on railway stations asking if I know you !
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I’m determined to make you a social media star, Paul!
Seriously, if we didn’t meet up in places like Skinners that aren’t likely to trouble the Beer Guide I’d miss out on a lot.
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£2.30!! Like Coalville…what is the cheapest region for pints??
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I thought £2.90 for London Pride in Worcester two days ago wasn’t bad, especially as it was drinking well.
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That’s very good value
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Places with loads of social clubs can seem quite cheap, Wigan has loads of small bars and micros with beer under £3.
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good point social clubs often help bring prices down….Wigan worth a visit?
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Wigan always worth a visit. Smarter than you’d think, particularly the centre.
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That surprised me as I was thinking Chorley etc
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Chorley is a pleasant market town, loads of micros. Wigan has a bit of history and some great Victorian/Edwardian pubs from their prosperous years.
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Excellent 👍 a lot of northern towns have cracking architecture …and they appear to be king of the micros
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