Runaway Brewery Tap, Manchester

This place has actually extended its opening hours following lockdown, which is pretty handy as we used to find the 8pm closure a bit tight. Open Friday 5pm-9pm and Saturday 2pm-9pm. A table can be booked, with a deposit taken, which we did to be on the safe side a couple of weeks ago, but on arrival found it to be pretty quiet so we probably needn't have booked (and this was a Saturday evening). Seating is now all outdoors, you are greeted in the car park, details taken, and you are shown to a table. The beer menu is available for you to make your selection from, and of course it's all table service and card only payment. It's all keg, same as before, with no cask beers available. Their own North West IPA was quite nice, but it was their Bourbon Barrel Aged Blackbird Imperial Stout that really ticked the boxes for me. There was an outdoor food hut doing pizzas which seemed to be separate from the brewery operation. I don't see Runaway beers in too many places, so it's always nice to visit the brewery tap once in a while.

Limited opening hours - midday to 8pm every Saturday. No cask beers but eight of their own Runaway beers on keg. I assume cask beers would simply not be viable in a place that opens once a week. It's a bit of a tricky one to find but you basically enter the gates to a small industrial area and then Runaway is in the last arch. The bar is upstairs, cash and card are accepted, there are board games and stuff available too should you so desire. It's a shame they aren't open a little bit later as we only ever have time to have one drink before last orders; there's usually a couple of groups in at closing time but not sure how busy it gets during the afternoon. It's a small unpretentious place, you get to speak to the brewer, he knows his beers so will answer any questions you have and is happy for you to have a taster before making your mind up. The beers have never let me down so that's the main thing for me.