Franconian Beer Message Board

Cerevisiae Mancuniumis
Posted by barry on 2011-08-21 03:15:21
No apologies needed - your knowledge of English ales is admirable. However, you are adding insult to injury! Holt's is one of the beers that I was brought up on and that I, personally, revere. They stood out against the tide in the keg beer boom, maintaining good solid boozers, not messing about with them or the beer and keeping prices extremely reasonable. Ok, maybe their beers are boring to the current generation of drinkers but, from my exile across the Irish Sea, it seems to me that the craze is all about novelty, while Holt's, Hyde's, Lee's and Robbie's, thankfully, concentrate on providing ample quantities of high standard, reasonably priced beer in decent pubs. I know that, when I return to Manchester next week after a 3-year absence, I will be able to go in to the Griffin in Heald Green and have pints of bitter and mild that will taste, more or less, like the beer that I'm used to drinking. To me, that is worth more than if these breweries started messing about with the recipe. These breweries are succesful commercially, they know their market and cater for it. I know that most of my friends and relations in Manchester would desert them in droves if they started muckin' abart with their beer. What would we all think if the Schlenkerla Marzen suddenly turned into a craft-produced pils or, even worse, Mahrs started messing with the 'U'? Now, it seems, we have the best of all worlds, the old reliables and a ready supply of new boys providing variety. Viva la difference! Incidentally, I'm trying to identify the Ape & Apple. I assume that this is one of Holt's new pubs, because there was never one such before. Trying to identify it from the photograph, it looks as if it is on Deansgate. Holt's did not use to have any pubs in the city centre (I think the nearest was their brewery tap on Cheetham Hill), now they have quite a few and all quite nice. I assume that this is a boozer that they've bought and done up, very tastefully as well. Incidentally, it took them years to get into food - not long ago, you were lucky to get a bag of crisps - but their food is pretty decent now. Like their beer, good solid fare at an affordable price.