The Briton's Protection, Manchester

Terrific old-school boozer close to the G-Mex (I understand it has a new name since my last visit to the city). I entered from the back, so came through several rooms to get to the front bar, which mostly featured cask ales from Mancunian brewers Beartown & Squawk. Unbelievably, Star/Heineken are threatening to remove the leaseholder and presumably close or "upgrade" it to something less interesting, so I'm glad I was able to get there and enjoy the pub in its current incarnation. Hopefully a future visit will find it little changed.

Facebook page of The Briton's Protection - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Briton's Protection - www.facebook.com

The Briton’s Protection has a thin front bar that runs across the front of the pub. The counter supports eight handpumps, five of which were on during a visit last Wednesday evening. There is also a standard and premium keg range. This pub proudly boasts of having the UK’s biggest collection of Jack Daniels and the North West’s biggest whisky collection. A tiled corridor leads to the rear where there are another two rooms. Out the back is a good sized beer yard with lots of seating. I found the service to be very friendly and I will make sure I visit here again.

Visited yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. 8 hand pulls with 5 of those being on. Theakston Old Peculiar and four Beartown beers were available. The Beartown beers were 201 Pale, Peterloo 1819, Peterloo, and 201 Best. There were two further pumps with the clips turned round and these looked like they were probably Beartown beers too as the clip style looked the same. Hand sanitiser is available, no contact details requested, you can sit where you like, inside or out. A bit of a shame that all the Beartown beers were bitters and pale ales; my Peterloo 1819 best bitter was OK but nothing to get excited about.

Visited mid week. This pub has a traditional layout with a fairly small narrow front room, with a corridor to the side of the servery with a rather grand looking red and gold ceiling, then taking you behind the servery (where there is a serving hatch) and two separate rooms. The toilets are then further to the back of the building and the entrance to the beer garden. At the bar I noted eight hand pulls for real ale, all of which were on, offering a range of beers from different breweries. Further down the bar were a further two hand pulls which seemed to be dedicated to real cider, with one of these being off. I remember years ago the beer selection was rather mundane, but not so these days. My Saltaire Stout No.5 was pretty decent and slipped down very nicely indeed. Decent beer selection, decent traditional interior - what's not to like here?