September 2024. Manchester.
Matt knows all the best Manc pubs. Or, at least, the cheapest ones.
He’d tried to show me The Peer Hat only last month, but 4pm opening denied me,
but now one of those “weird gigs by unknown American women” you know me for brought me back to see Anastasia Coope (***),whose taciturn and brief appearance had left a mixed impression on the Taylor family only four days previously at End of the Road.
The Peer Hat specialises in the sort of gigs favoured by folk who 40 years ago were into Hawkwind,
solo artists with a particular calling, and it’s entirely appropriate the venue is in the less salubrious part of the Northern Quarter.
“It’s a bit scuzzy” says Matt, part warning, part compliment.
It really isn’t. It’s neat, warm and had the best welcome in a Manc pub since the Millstone.
I told Matt I wouldn’t be risking the cask, but I did, and won the cask lottery.
Nice to see Squawk again. Is it made in a proper brewing town (Wolverhampton) yet ?
A cool, chewy pint (NBSS 3+) for £4.50, enjoyed under the watchful gaze of Mark, who I’m sure loved the place despite the lack of Holt’s.
I must get Mrs RM’s opinion on the furnishings.
And hope the ladies loos are more inviting.
In the downstairs room you get 2 hours of ambient cello,
hardcore electronica and multi-talented Anastasia’s weird songs about boys with no feet.
For £11 (eleven).
Matt Curtis really needs to have this in the next edition of his marvellous Manc pub guide.
retiredmartin 
It’s all a bit Jackson Pollock’s.
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Well done, I was trying to recall what it reminded me of.
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I’ll have to remember to use “scuzzy” in the unlikely event that anyone asks me about Jackson Pollock’s paintings. Can’t imagine why this one didn’t make it into Matt Curtis’s book?
Your photos of the beer summarise very nicely what I think of Squawk brewery’s output. I like it when their beers appear on the bar in the Kelham Island Tavern because it means I don’t have to spend a lot of time before deciding to drink something else.
Perhaps you are right, they would be better if brewed in Wolverhampton.
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For “pubs that aren’t in the Manchester Beer Book but should be” I would nominate the Holts pubs of Eccles and Patricroft, all of them.
Is Anastasia Coope descended from brewer C E Coope ?
“the best welcome in a Manc pub since the Millstone”, a pub I was delighted to discover last February.
“Is it made in a proper brewing town (Wolverhampton) yet ?”. Well there’s all sorts of beers that could be revitalised by brewing in Wolverhampton.
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/10/teenagers-pubs-id-zoe-williams
Anyone?
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It’s not quite Wolverhampton, but Squawk are now brewed by Moorhouses after they closed their own brewery earlier in the year.
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Is it a new place, and do you know what was there before? I must have have walked past that spot at some point while crossing the Northern Quarter from Piccadilly to Port Street or the Unicorn, but don’t recall seeing it there.
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Same here, Matthew.
The Peer Hat opened in 2017. I recall a basement gig near Piccadilly a decade ago, perhaps it was this place ?
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