Café Beermoth, Manchester

Visited a couple of weekends ago, prior to the easing of restrictions on 19 July. We had booked a table though when we arrived we discovered this hadn't been necessary as it was fairly quiet. However it did mean we had a nice booth reserved for us! Table service, of course, and at the time of our visit the staff were unsure if this would continue post "Freedom Day" or not. No app to order from, the friendly barman came and gave us a paper menu and crossed out a couple of items which were no longer available. We managed one drink of something on cask (Blackjack Amarillo Porter, unusual but pleasant) before the other cask options seemed to dry up, leaving us with the keg beers. Plenty to choose from on keg, varying styles, strengths and prices, and we had no issue staying for another couple of drinks and exploring the menu. Service was attentive, possibly helped by the place not being mad busy, but they certainly seemed to have enough staff on to cope so we weren't left waiting long between finishing our drinks and someone taking our order for the next round. With table service, this is key, and a recent source of frustration at some other establishments for me has been having difficulty attracting the attention of a member of staff when ready to order the next drink. Beers, as ever, in good condition, and for me this place is one I would happily recommend.

Official site of Café Beermoth - beermoth.co.uk

Official site of Café Beermoth - beermoth.co.uk

This is a spacious modern beer bar operated by the owners of a bottle shop in the Northern Quarter. The pub has a typical, modern craft beer bar feel to it, with a large, single room set-up that sees the servery run along the right hand half of the rear wall. The bar has a fairly drab, utilitarian counter, hop lined counter, handpulls along the bar back and windows behind that look through to the white tiled cellar room out the back. Rough cut wooden ledges with high stools run across the space opposite the bar whilst a series of padded banquette booths track the long row of front windows, each partitioned by a nice wooden frame structure that has been liberally decorated with more hops. The left side of the room has regular tables and chairs for the most part, plus a Chesterfield sofa to the far left next to the side windows, all under a series of shelves holding a beer bottle collection. The usual craft beer decorating company must’ve been employed here, as the walls are all painted grey, the ceiling is a mess of exposed utilities and decor is an afterthought. Somehow, this didn’t grate on me as much as it might normally, perhaps because the comfy seating, muted lighting and suitable background music helped make the place feel a lot more comfortable than it sounds on paper. That being said, I did visit at quite a quiet period and can imagine the room getting loud and echoey with a large crowd in. A board above the bar details the full beer range but I couldn’t figure out which beers were on cask, so a very helpful barman patiently talked me through all the cask options which amounted to Thornbridge Jaipur, Red Willow Smokeless, Torrside Monsters Imperial Porter, Hawkshead Lakeland Gold, Siren Undercurrent, Vocation Chop and Change and Fallen Local Motive. A further ten craft keg brews were also available including a few rarely seen, interesting sounding European beers. My pint of the Chop and Change cost £4.00 and was in excellent condition. This felt like it landed somewhere between your typical craft beer bar and a more well thought-out, contemporary ale house, without really delivering either. I thought the beer range and quality was up there with anything I’ve come across in Manchester and was more than happy settling down with my pint but question whether the beer alone is enough to keep me here for a longer session. Probably needs a revisit at a busier time to properly assess but I left with a favourable impression and would suggest it’s a must-visit for those seeking good craft beer bars in the city centre.

A modern opened out bar with the emphasis firmly on the beer,the cask line up on my visit is ably described by Bucking Farstard below, but I went keg and had a really quite good Brew By Numbers DDH Pale Ale. There is little in the way of any pub atmosphere here but there was a certain buzz about it, if beer is your main interest then this is a must.

I did make this newish entry to the Manchester drinking scene (opened December 2015) during the official PuG crawl on the Friday afternoon and was also impressed. Got in here before the Friday after work rush and it was comfortably busy but not overly so. It’s a very modern bar by design but is well done to allow plenty of space for vertical drinking as well as ample seating including several bench booths along the windows on the Spring Gardens side. And with a craft and cask range of beers as described by others below there should be something for everyone here. I had a very enjoyable Durham Karma Citra which I went for as much for the comedy name as for the beer style. I can understand why this one is gaining plaudits. The only small issue we had was making sure we didn’t go to the wrong Beermoth establishment and finding it because whilst the address is given as Spring Gardens the entrance is actually in Brown Street.

Unfortunately we didn't make this one on Friday's crawl, but managed to get here on Saturday at lunchtime. The pub on Saturday was nice and relaxed with a handful of people enjoying a relaxed drink. I found this outlet to be really out there in terms of design and layout of this large space. Six cask beers on our visit, so we went for the Durham Kama Citra and Fallen Brewery Just the Ticket. Both were in top shape and prices in here were very reasonable for this part of central Manchester. Would happily call again.

Not to be confused with Beermoth Bottle Shop on Tib Street,this modern bar is a treasure trove of all types of beer.The interior runs along the ground floor of a modern building,with a lot of seating at street level ,and mainly high tables and seating booths opposite the raised bar area.Vast amounts of hops hang down from every vantage point,and the lighting is very clever above the seating booths with the bulbs inside beer bottles. There is a very long series of taps and handpulls at the back of the bar,each numbered and with it's description written in very small font high above each tap,which is quite cruel to folk with slightly dodgy eyesight,either from overconsumption ,age or both. I was informed that real ale was held on pumps 6 to 11,and squinting revealed the options on my visit to be Summer Wine Ella,Durham Karma Citra,Hawkeshead NZPA,Torreside Monster English Barley Wine,Hawkeshead LaLa Lager,Kirstall De Abdij and th' Mill and Ridgeside Cascadia on sparkling form. Next time I'm here I will pay attention to the craft keg options,but the real ale selection mark this out as a serious operation and,despite loud muzak,I will most certainly return for a much longer stay.

Paid my second visit here on Saturday night. It's a big spacious place and getting a seat was not an issue. There are 17 beers on including 6 cask, the rest being keg. Unusually the cask beers are also served from the back wall of the bar instead of hand pulls mounted on the bar top itself. All the pumps and taps are completely unlabelled so you have to look up to the area above where there is a listing for each beer available. My only gripe would be that these listings do not always give an indication of the style of the beer, and with no pump clips to give you a clue it can leave you a little lost. On Saturday we were after a dark beer and the girl serving was trying to sell us a bitter, which wasn't exactly what we had in mind. She did, however, find out that a porter was due on in the next 15 minutes, so we had something else to keep us going and went back for the porter when it was on. By coincidence this was the same porter we had had in here on our first visit. Beer in good nick, worth a visit!