The Peer Hat, Manchester

Peer Hat is found down a grim back road facing the back of an office block and its multi storey car park. The entrance leads into the main bar area where a serving counter runs across the rear wall. To the left of the counter is an area with racks full of vinyl for sale. Just off centre is the top of a flight of stairs that has beer shelves and stool all around, I didn’t venture down. Tables and chairs run across the front windows that were drawn with wispy old curtains. You certainly wouldn’t have guessed that it was a beautiful summer’s afternoon outside. In the front left is a separate seating area and the graffitied toilets are found to the front right. There is lots of tat on the walls, including some impressive golden samurai armour. The four hand pumps on the bar were drawing Squawk Brewing’s Alauda Oatmeal Stout and Oriolus Pale Ale alongside Neptune’s Forecast and Shiny Brewery’s NZ Pale. Craft keg is also available alongside Guinness. The service was polite and I liked the non-mainstream background music coming from the jukebox, but I was the only customer. I would put this place into the late bar category rather than afternoon beer venue. This isn’t really my sort of place so I don’t plan on returning.

Has the feel of a locals local, but slap bang in the city centre. Loads of assorted bric-a-brac (aka tat) all over the place. They do have a few vinyl records in one area that are for sale. Very friendly and chatty staff. There are 4 handpumps, one always has Marstons 61 Deep on it, the others are changing guests, Cromarty Happy Chappy and 2 from Kirkstall on my visit. No live music during my visit, so chatting was easy. Personally I'd be happy to call in again.

Visited on Saturday evening for the first time, and to be honest I found it a bit strange. It feels like a locals' estate pub that has been picked up and dropped in the middle of town. That, crossed with a hippy drop in centre running an illegal rave downstairs. To me it seemed a bit weird, with customers to match. Beer wise there were four hand pulls, one of which was off, the others offering Marstons 61 Deep, California Golden Ale, Saltaire New World, plus a couple of craft keg options on the fonts alongside some of the more mainstream stuff (eg Guinness). Live music events operate downstairs, the stairway to which is in the centre of the main bar. At the risk of sounding old this was really loud, to the point that you could feel the beat vibrating through the floor, and when somebody went in or out of the basement music den it was actually deafening upstairs, so I dread to think what it would have felt like down there. Still, the place was reasonably busy and just because it wasn't quite my cup of tea doesn't mean everyone else will feel the same. I wasn't that taken by my drink of New World, but we had had a couple of stronger flavoured drinks in other pubs beforehand so I think it just struggled to compete against those, and is probably no reflection on the beer itself or the venue's keeping of it. I don't regret trying this pub, but for me it's not one to plan a return visit to.