June 2025. Macclesfield.
Half a dozen pubs in Macclesfield on our Proper Day Out; the Castle (again) the top pub, but our final stop probably won the coveted Beer of the Day.
The Queens has the top mobility scooter, too, but lacks the classic multi-room interior of the best of Holt’s Salford estate.
Lovely tinsel in the function room, though, and an unfussy feel us Old Codgers love. It may also be the only pub in Macclesfield where we didn’t hear The Boys of Summer that day*.
By law, Don Henley’s classic must be played on any day where the temperature exceeds 18 degrees.
Our boys of summer all picked the Hobson’s choice,
a cool, chewy Bitter I reckoned a 4, just as it was in the similarly unfussy Grey Horse in Reddish last month.
“Not what it was” says Discourse. Nothing is, mate. Some things are better.
*We did get a slice of 1985; Feargal Sharkey’s take on Maria McKee’s “A Good Heart”. Like Holt, timeless.
retiredmartin 
We’re not what we were either. I’m guessing we’ve fallen off more than that beer. If it even has…
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A good pint of Holt’s is hard to find this side of the Pennines (wrong side, the side of Banked Bass and that “want a flake with that” nonsense).
I grew up in Solfud innit, four pints of Holtseys one lunchtime then back int’ class at Eccles College.
Somehow we got two hour lunch breaks back then, and at sixteen must have looked much older.
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Yes, and remember the horror of when Holts reached £1 a pint ?
It was £3.75 in the Queens eight days ago.
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“our final stop probably won the coveted Beer of the Day” but not for the two Mudgies who went on to the Nags Head for disappointing final pints.
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You really are Pub Men.
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I’ve drunk Holt’s bitter at my local since 1989. Whatever the brewery might claim, the beer has definitely changed over those years (not as dark or hoppy), but I still rate it as my favourite pint from the four family breweries in the Manchester area.
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Imagine my delight if finding Holt’s Mild in the Posada this lunchtime.
And at £3 a pint.
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