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

First started back in 2008, Track isn’t just one of Manchester’s most revered names in beer, but is genuinely up there with the best in the UK. During a trip to the US, founder Sam frequented the small taprooms scattered across the East and West Coasts, and it was here that inspiration for Track struck.

Track’s ethos is rooted in community. Its taproom hosts regular events, ranging from markets to running clubs, and its a gorgeous place to come together with your nearest and dearest to enjoy a cold one.

Cloudwater has been rightfully lauded nationwide as a pioneer of the craft brewing scene since its inception in 2014. Alongside an excellent selection of easy-drinking core beers, Cloudwater is particularly renowned for its seasonal barrel-aged beers, which are phenomenal.

Conveniently located just across the road from Track, Cloudwater’s Unit 9 Taproom features 20 draft taps, each of which draws from 3ºC cold store, so you really couldn’t get much fresher. The team also operates Sadler’s Cat pub, a ‘neighbourhood local’ right in the heart of the city. The quirky-looking pub overlooks Sadler’s Yard, which is a great spot to enjoy a drink when the sun comes out.

After cementing a legacy in the city centre for some years, Runaway has now completed its move to its new home in the increasingly lauded food and drink hotspot of Stockport. The new space is just as lovely, a big, light and airy old warehouse, 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 are seven brothers from Salford who have built something of a Northern brewing empire.

The team now operate out of their Ancoats Beer House, a dedicated brewery taproom at Salford Enterprise Centre and even in Manchester’s Terminal 2.

One of the newer faces on Manchester’s busy brewing scene, Sureshot 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.

Alongside offering brewery-fresh beers from just next door, Sureshot’s Sheffield Street taproom lets you enjoy click and collect pizza from Nell’s, puts on a lineup of rotating DJs and regularly shows big sporting events on its screens.

25 years on, Leeds’ North Brewing Co has finally found its long-sought-after Manchester home, on the growing 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. There’s also a pop-up kitchen, which is currently occupied by Pan Asian street food specialists, Koto.

South Cumbrian brewery Fell has three outposts in Manchester these days, each of which stocks an array of wonderful beers from the small indie team that started their life over in Kendal and Penrith. You can find them in the suburbs of Chorlton along Wilbraham Road, slap bang in the heart of the city centre, with Fell’s Northern Quarter space occupying the former Pelican site, and most recently, a brand-new venue in Stockport!

Combining Bundobust’s widely acclaimed Indian street food offering with the team’s 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 in 2021. The ever-rotating list of innovative creations, including regular collaborations with those who make up the rest of this list, makes 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 has 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 the 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. There are 6 taps of rotating goodness, alongside well-stocked fridges of bottles to be enjoyed there and then, or back at home.

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 its flagship pub on your doorstep, it makes the list. North Westward Ho, the brainchild of the esteemed 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.

The Smithfield Market Tavern is definitely more pub than taproom, but it does act as the outpost for local brewery Blackjack, and it’s a truly brilliant place just on the edge of the Northern Quarter. As the weather heats up, the team usually begin to open up their Angel Meadows taproom to the public, too, so keep an eye on their socials for that.

Northern Monk’s massive Northern Quarter Refectory offers a stylish industrial backdrop for enjoying some of the finest beers in Manchester. At the moment, the fantastic Cardinal Rule operates out of the kitchen, serving up delicious American fried chicken and biscuits, which are a near-perfect accompaniment for Northern Monk’s constantly rotating taps. There’s plenty of seating out front too, so it’s always a solid choice on a sunny day.

While Marble’s taproom may not currently be open to the public (you can book it for private events), the brewery’s flagship, multi-award-winning pub, the Marble Arch, is one of the most outstanding in all of Manchester, and we’d be remiss not to include it. It’s an alluring old-school boozer, and the rotating tap list is dominated by whatever the team have been recently brewing. The food is exquisite, too.

Located within New Mills’ historic Grade II*-listed Torr Vale Mill, Torr Vale Tap certainly wins when it comes to scenery. The tap’s beer garden boasts stunning views out over the River Goyt, sitting up above the famous Millennium Walkway. Its location makes it a firm favourite amongst walkers, sitting directly beside the Torrs Trail, and it’s just a few minutes’ stroll from New Mills Central train station.