CAMRA members can now get a discount in cask ales at Urmston’s Prairie Schooner Tap House. The Flixton Road micro-pub is offering members 20p a pint off their four cask ales. Members can also use their JD Wetherspoon vouchers in the pub to get the same 50p off that they can get in Wetherspoon pubs. Having just celebrated their first birthday, the Prairie Schooner have overhauled their bar set up, installing four handpumps (beers were previously served by gravity). They have also installed a new “cellar” behind the bar to replace their previous in-cask cooling system. An ingenious construction of welded steel and plastic, the casks are hoisted onto pull out draws which then retract into the wall. Magnetic covers form a sealed cooled box to create cellar conditions. The new construction can accommodate 8 casks at a time and means cask beer availability and quality is much improved.
Pub company Stonegate have been playing musical bars with their outlets in Sale. The former Waterside has now been rebranded as a Slug & Lettuce, while the former Slug & Lettuce is now the Block & Gasket. The latter has four handpumps on the bar – an increase of two from its predecessor on the site.