Straight from the source: A guide to Manchester’s best breweries and taprooms

First started back in 2008, Track is now one of the city’s most revered names in beer.

During a trip to the US, founder Sam frequented the small taprooms scattered across the East and West Coast—this is where inspiration for Track struck.

Born from an idea that beer was more than a way to end the day, instead a way to reflect, connect and share.

Paying close attention to the way our lifestyles change throughout the season, Cloudwater have modeled their process on creating booze for special moments with friends and loved ones.

Dip into their unit behind Piccadilly to see exactly why that approach has worked so well, for so long.

After cementing their legacy in the city centre for the past few years, Runaway have now completed their move to their new home in the flourishing food and drink hotspot of Stockport. The new space is just as lovely and you’ll still find all those same sublime pours that have made them a consistent favourite for what feels like forever.

A huge local success story,  Guy, Keith, Luke, Dan, Nat, Kit and Greg and we are seven brothers from Salford who have gone from strength to strength in their brewing journey.

The team now operate an array of locations across the city, including Ancoats, Middlewood Locks, Media City, the recently opened 11 Central and their dedicated brewery taproom at Salford Enterprise Centre.

One of Manchester’s newer faces on the brewing scene, Sureshot, have now opened up their brand-new city centre taproom.

Sureshot was founded in 2020, but emerged properly at the beginning of this year, and their gorgeous pours have been popping up at various bars and bottleshops around Manchester to overwhelming approval.

The brewery is the brainchild of James Campbell, who over the last decade has spent time at an array of Manchester’s most respected indie breweries as head brewer.

Now fans will be able to drink straight from the source, with Sureshot’s own taproom now open on Sheffield Street, just down the road from Depot Mayfield.

25 years on, Leeds’ North Brewing Co have finally found their Manchester home, on the flourishing Circle Square development just off Oxford Road.

The taproom boasts 24 draught lines, including 18 keg beers and one cask, pouring North Brewing’s ever-evolving range of core beers, specials and collabs. They’ve worked with all our local favourites in the past, Cloudwater, Track and Pomona, so fingers crossed for more of that.

The team behind Green Arches had previously brewed for Beatnikz just a few doors down, so we’re pretty confident beer fans are in more than capable hands.

Despite their relatively short time in the city, Green Arches has proved an immediate hit and they’ve worked wonders with the space beneath the railway arches.

South Cumbrian brewery Fell have two outposts in Manchester these days, both of which stock an array of wonderful beers from the small indie team that started their life over in Kendal and Penrith. You can find them either in the suburbs of Chorlton along Wilbraham Road, or slap bang in the heart of the city centre, with Fell’s brand-new Northern Quarter space occupying the former Pelican site.

Combining Bundobost’s widely acclaimed Indian street food offering with the team’s own in-house brewery was never going to be anything other than a hit, and that has very much been the case since the doors to their huge Oxford Road spot opened. The ever-rotating list of innovative creations, including regular collaborations with those who make up the rest of this list, make it one of the best drinking spots in all of the city, and that’s before you factor in being able to grab a Vada Pav alongside.

Stubborn Mule have come a long way since their brewing was done in a back garden in Timperley. Very much a labour of love, Head Brewer Ed Bright packed in his banking job to build Stubborn Mule into what it is today, and their Altrincham taproom is a proper hidden gem over in the suburbs.

Balance’s niche is complex mixed-culture, barrel-fermented beer which utilises the best of British ingredients. The brewery’s Sheffield Street taproom is a beaut of a space and a welcome addition to any city centre taproom crawl.

Fine, it’s another that isn’t technically a taproom, but when you’ve got one of the most celebrated breweries in the country operating their flagship pub on your doorstep, it makes the list. North Westward Ho, the brainchild of the incredible Pomona Island team, has 18 world-class beers on tap,  5 cask lines and 4 lines of natural wine and cider, along with a substantial collection of German lagers, Belgian beers, English cider, mixed fermentation ales, Italian spritzes, bitter cocktails, vermouth and amaro.