Beers Of The Week: Manchester Bitter? At The Double... And More Of It, Please

Two ales, one pure Mancunian and another based on a century-old Manc recipe. Both taste sweeter against a backdrop of City and United misery

WHAT A WEEK for football in Manchester. First, City ended the campaign without a trophy after seven successive seasons of piling up silverware. Pep Guardiola’s team lost the FA Cup final 1-0 to Crystal Palace. And before you start, Pep, the Community Shield does not count. It’s a pre-season friendly.

Then United produced a truly gruesome performance in the Europa League final, falling 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. What made it so glorious is that Spurs were almost as horrible as Ruben Amorim’s side.

Little more than a decade ago, with Alex Ferguson still at the helm at Old Trafford and Abu Dhabi money flooding into the Etihad, Manchester was billing itself ‘the capital of football.’ It might be a long time before they can make a similar claim in the metropolis that brought you dark, satanic mills. And Oasis.

City are still waiting for a verdict on the Premier League’s 115 charges. The Glazers and their patsy Jim Radcliffe should be in the dock for what they’ve done to United.

So when I walked into Cask in Pimlico and looked at the bar, it seemed like the universe was sending a message – that it’s right and proper to take the piss out of our Mancunian friends. There was not one but two Manchester Bitters available at the bar.

Manchester. Bitter. Times two. The sheer hilarity of it all. Laugh? I thought my trousers would never dry.

But credit to our Manc mates. They do produce some top-class beer. One of those bitters was Marble’s. This is one of my favourite breweries. Their Manchester Bitter is a classic of the genre.

An entire generation was turned off this style of beer in the 1980s as the likes of Tetley Walker’s Warrington brewhouse churned out grim-up-north bitter but Marble have produced a modern-age version of the ale that’s only grown in stature since the brewery opened in Ancoats in 1997. This was the beer that got me back on the bitter.

But what caught my eye was the other Manchester Bitter. Confusingly, the pumpclip said, “Brewed in Burton-on-Trent.” Now that’s stretching Greater Manchester beyond the boundaries of good sense. The number 1909 is prominent on the badge.

The 1909 Manchester Bitter. Magnificent

It turns out that this bitter is produced by the Heritage arm of Burton Bridge Brewery. The Mancunian link is that the beer has been recreated from a recipe used in the north west’s second city 116 years ago. On this evidence, 1909 was a great time to be a Manc.

This ale weighs in at 5.8 per cent abv. Compare that to Marble’s 4.2 per cent. It may well be the strongest bitter I’ve come across.

This is an elevated version of bitter. It’s hoppy, with a lovely tanginess. A range of flavours cross the palate with fruitiness prominent towards the finish and a lingering bitterness remains after the swallow. I’d have probably thought it was a pale ale in a blind tasting. It also gets sweeter as it gets warmer. Absolutely lovely.

So, what were the Mancunian teams doing in 1909? Well, United won the FA Cup for the first time, a year after sealing their first title. City were relegated but they did bounce back up the next season. And if they were drinking this sort of stuff at Maine Road, even relegation wouldn’t seem too bad.

These are two ales to look out for this summer. Manchester Bitter. Trust me, these beers taste as good as those words sound.