The Grain Loft, Manchester

for an airport bar, quite good. Modern and comfortable and a few real ales on (Jaipur, Cheshire Cat and Doom Bar). eye wateringly expensive, as expected.

We were also surprised to see a bar with six hand pumps on the counter. There were four ales to choose from on this occasion, two from Thornbridge, Weetwood Cheshire Cat and Salopian Shropshire Gold. We went for the Salopian Shropshire Gold and Weetwood Cheshire Cat, which were both ok.

A major surprise occured as we were ready to jet off on our Summer holidays. I thought that I had had my last pint of cask ale for 2 weeks. Wandering around Terminal One Airside looking for somewhere to sit I spotted a sign saying Grain Loft on the first floor. We went up and found a bar that had 6 cask ales on the bar. Problem of where to sit sorted. It's about as close to a pub as you can get in an airport. Marble Manchester Bitter & Pint, Weetwood Cheshire Cat, Dunham Massey Bitter & Thornbridge Jaipur plus one I can't remember, available on the bar. The prices were extortionate as you would expect within an airport with my Jaipur coming in at £4.80. It was a good pint as well, so good in fact that I had another. We spent a pleasant hour here and after a couple of pints of Jaipur I even managed to doze off on the plane despite the nearby screaming brats. Anywhere else this pub would be a 7 but here, as a lifesaver, it's at least an 8, if we'd been delayed it may well have got a 9. :-))