Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
Disappointment of the week with Tris39
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room, Manchester
Manchester
M1 2NP
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
I had tried to visit both Cloudwater and Track (diagonally opposite) last New Year's Eve. However, I was not allowed entry by a doorman at Cloudwater, who said that the Brewery Tap Room was full and also not to bother with Track as that was also full!
However, undeterred, I returned last Saturday afternoon. A brewery taproom with a bouncer on the door seems like it could be a very commercial experience, but if anything, this is less so than Track's Brewery Tap.
The Tap Room can be found on the first floor. The drinking space was busy when we arrived and was smaller than I had anticipated. As with Track, we shared one of the bench tables with a guy and a lady from the Netherlands. He was working for a brewery in Amsterdam and was another who was very interested in his beers.
The single cask ale was a collaboration between Cloudwater & JW Lee's, a 6.8% old ale called Piccadilly Star. I hadn't anticipated I would be drinking a beer from Lee's on this crawl of Manchester's railway arches and trading estates!
Craft beers from Cloudwater were Iridescent, Happy, Three Of A Kind, Fuzzy, Helles, IWD 2023, SoCal, Super Happy, Cascading, Window Seat, Kold IPA, Chubbles 53°N, Crystallography: Columbus & Strata Edition, Chubbles, Chubbles Chubbles & Chubbles 3 Enhanced. Guest beers were Two Chefs Funky Falcon & Pohjala Baltic Porter Day 2023 & Oo X (Cellar Series).
I'm glad that I've finally got here and can understand why I may have been refused entry when it is busy, as this is certainly a much smaller place than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I am likely to attempt a return visit one day.
On 12th April 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
Opposite the Track Brewing Co. Little to choose between the two and you would visit both, surely.
This is on a mezzanine floor above the main brewery. Tables, a strange rostrum style seating areas with bean bags - under a projector screen showing their wares.
I tried one crafty 2/3rds - Chubbles II: Discovering Pilsengris - and a cask handpull, Taking Over the Brew. Both excellent.
On 28th March 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1337 recommendations about 1323 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
Although housed in a typical anonymous modern industrial estate unit, the Cloudwater Tap is relatively close to Piccadilly Station and Ancoats. The bar is upstairs on a mezzanine overlooking the area where beers are being aged in wooden casks of various sizes (with the main brewery being in the adjacent unit). Basic, canteen-style furniture and limited decoration, as you would expect. As a (mostly) craft keg brewery, I found 17 on their own beers (in a huge range of styles) on the various anonymous taps. However, there are also a couple of handpumps, and I went for the cask version of their 7th Birthday Hopfenweisse (£4.50) which proved an excellent choice.
On 16th February 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
Visited on Saturday evening. We had booked a table, as is advised, though they do have limited space for walk-ups. However, it's a bit out of the way to walk up and take that chance. As it happened we were half an hour early for our booking and the chap on the door was very accommodating and managed to fit us in. I assume they must have removed a few tables for social distancing purposes but it doesn't really look much different to how it did on my previous visit. You can scan a QR code at the table to view the beer menu and place your order, but if you struggle you can place the order with a human being. Service was efficient, not just from speed of beer delivery to the table after ordering, but also in terms of collecting empty glasses and cleaning tables after customers had left. Complimentary water was provided. Overall a good experience with beer to match, the only downside being they seem to have stopped offering the weekly cask beer and it's now all keg - but there is certainly plenty of choice both from Cloudwater and guest breweries.
On 21st June 2021
- rating: 8
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
Further to my previous review, I revisited on Saturday evening and it is pretty much the same as before with the exception that there is a single cask ale available in the downstairs merchandise room. This can either be consumed down there (so long as you are seated) or brought up to the main bar.
This cask ale is put on fresh on a Friday and is available until it runs out. On Saturday this was "What Do The Numbers Say?" which was a 3.8% pale ale and for the rather reasonable price of £3.50 a pint (or was it £3.80?).
Currently Track have a pop-up bar in the downstairs room, although this is believed to be temporary.
On 18th November 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
This wasn't quite as drab and bland as I was expecting from ROB Camra's description, so either they have spruced the place up a bit or perhaps it looked worse for being empty on his visit. No such issue last night when we went, it was fairly busy but we were able to get a seat, this being a Saturday evening just before 7pm.
Indeed no cask here, which is strange as Cloudwater do brew cask beers and the tap room is open regularly enough that turnover should not be an issue. I counted 20 taps behind the bar.
It does lack the cosiness of the old brewery tap at the barrel store but at the end of the day this is an industrial unit I suppose. It was OK. Would I consider it worth the walk just to come here? Probably not. Would I come back if was in the area? Quite possibly.
On 17th March 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
ROB Camra left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
A bare and very basic 1st floor brewery tap. I called in about 40 minutes after opening on a Friday and it was dead. There's no cask ale here, they only sell their keg. A "serving" is now £3.50, which means that I was charged a rip off £3.50 for a 2/3rds glass of 2.8% beer. They don't take cash either, so it was lucky that I had a card with me. Some of these beer geeks must be loaded! There's a load of barrels in storage visible on the ground floor. There's no other decoration and nothing to see here in my opinion. Won't be bothering walking out here to get robbed.
On 26th February 2019
- rating: 3
[User has posted 3223 recommendations about 3134 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
We met one of the Head Brewers from Cloudwater in the Olde Vic in Stockport and he explained how easy it was to get here, and I have to say it was very straightforward. The unit had a couple of security guys on the entrance door on our arrival, well it was a Saturday eve. They guided us to the bar area upstairs and explained all the transactions for beer were on plastic only.
The place was quite busy on our arrival and a bit of patience is required at the bar, as the majority of the customers, including ourselves, do need to get a sample before purchasing, as this is an expensive brewery tap.
We went for a couple of pale beers which set us back £5.25 for a half and a 2/3. The next round was an IPL cashmere and an excellent porter, which was again a half and a 2/3 glass, and this set us back £9. The view from the bar looking down into the beer secondary fermentation area was interesting, with oak casks stacked four high. The music that was playing was very hip and the unisex toilets were even more bizarre, as there was some sort of self awareness, meditation track playing. This is a beer connoisseur's sort of place and a one off visit was good enough for me.
On 26th October 2018
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Cloudwater Brewery Tap Room
I hope I don't get lynched for proposing a brewery tap is added to the site, however since moving premises and extending their opening times I would suggest it definitely has a place on here now, and is perhaps open more regularly than some pubs!
Current opening hours (from their web site):
Monday—Friday 3pm—10pm
Saturday 10am—10pm
Sunday 3pm—10pm
On 3rd October 2018
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]