Pub & Club News

Many fans of live music have long had to suffer mass produced national lagers if they wanted a beer while watching their favourite bands at venues like Manchester Arena & Apollo.

Now they can look forward to something more flavoursome to accompany the tunes with the news that Manchester University Students Union have teamed up with Bury's Brightside Brewery to launch their very own beer.

Academy IPA is midweight, modern IPA which is brewed from a blend of four fruity American hops. It is available on cask, keg and in bottle conditioned form and the really good news is that it is available now in all four of the Student Union's Academy music venues as well as the Students Union Bar on the ground floor of their Oxford Road building.

The Students Union Bar will be selling the cask conditioned version as a permanent real ale in the recently refurbished bar. The bar is open to the general public11 to midnight Sunday to Thursday & noon until 1am on Friday & Saturday.

Academy 2, Academy 3 & Club Academy (all of which share the Students Union building) will offer the bottle conditioned version. The main Academy One venue also has the beer in keg form - filtered but unpasteurised - as well as bottles. The launch of the beer coincides with the 25th anniversary of The Academy which opened it's doors with a concert by Manchester legends The Buzzcocks way back in October 1989.

Flixton Conservative Club have launched a monthly series of "Brewery Awareness Evenings" which see one brewery being showcased across the 5 handpumps which have been installed in the club's Abbotsfield Suite. Bolton's Bank Top, Accrington's Big Clock & Bury's Brightside brewery have already featured at the club which is on Chassen Road between Urmston & Flixton centres.

Held on the last Friday of every month, non-members are encouraged to come along and try the beers and see what the club has to offer.
Entrance is £2 including a pie & pea supper. Pints are priced at £2.50.

On 27th March the featured brewery will be Lancaster Brewery and on 24th April the beers will be from Elland - hopefully including including the new Champion Winter Beer of Britain - 1872 Porter.

For details of future evenings, check out the club website  flixtonconservativeclub.co.uk

The club is also putting together details of their 3rd Beer & Cider Festival which will again be held over the Easter weekend.

Urmston's Britannia has gone through several incarnations in recent years, mainly operating as a late night venue under names such as Juicy, TFI Mambos and most recently The Ivory.

Now new tenant Matt Price has reverted the Flixton Road pub to its former name of The Britannia and set about returning it to the traditional pub model, including immediately introducing real ale.

The pub relaunched under it's old name on 31st Janaury and is serving freshly made, locally sourced food with a main gourmet burger menu and a separate lunchtime menu served from 12-4 Monday to Friday.

The permanent cask ale is Sharp's Doom bar with a second guest ale on rotation.

All sports are shown live in HD across 5 TVs and a large screen. There is live entertainment every Saturday night, and DJ/karaoke on a Sunday night.

Follow all the news from the pub on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheBritanniaUrmston

The Spoon Inn, Balrow Moor Road, Chorlton has launched a new evening menu to complement their regular daytime menu of sandwiches, salads & snacks. The new menu includes Sausage Mondays when you can get a gourmet hot dog (or vegetarian option) and a pint of ale for £6.50.

The café bar has also become a drop of point for Barakah Food Aid, the food bank project set up by local business people Manzoor and Aiysha Ali to help those in need of food in the Whalley Range and Chorlton area. Members of the public can drop non-perishable food items at the drop of point in the bar and the staff will arrange for them to be collected and distributed to those in need.

On Thursday 12th March, the award winning Hawkshead Brewery will be down at The Sedge Lynn in Chorlton for a Meet The Brewer Evening.

The event will be the area launch for the Wetherspoon Real Ale Festival which begins on Friday 13th. A selection of festival ales will be available on the night, a day before the official start. Further details are to be confirmed.

Entrance is free. Hawkshead will be there from 6.30pm - 8pm.