CityLife

Wild about mild

JOINING IN THE FUN: Marble Arch

A TYPE of beer once considered ‘endangered’ is making a comeback and being celebrated by the Campaign for Real Ale and pubs in Greater Manchester this month. Yes May is Mild month.

It’s hard to believe that mild was such a huge seller in the north west as recently as the 1970s (remember Chesters Fighting Mild?), yet by 1999 there were only 88 mild beers being produced in the country.

Indeed, mild had such a bad reputation as a flatcap granddad drink that Thwaites recorded a huge increase in sales of its mild simply by changing its name to Nutty Black.

Now Camra is promoting mild as a drink for real ale novices, probably because milds are usually sweeter and maltier than bitters.

Card stamped

Ninety pubs in Manchester, Salford, Tameside, Derbyshire and Trafford are getting in on the act with a Mild Magic promotion, sponsored by Stephensons Catering.

Drinkers need to get hold of a mild ‘passport’ from one of the participating pubs, or from 173 Shearwater Road, Offerton, SK2 5XA.

When you buy a pint or half of mild in the pubs, get your card stamped and when you’ve got 16 stamps from 16 different pubs you win free entry to the Stockport beer festival or two free pints of mild at the festival if you’re a Camra member.

There are more prizes for those who can get 32 or even 90 different pub stamps. The offer ends on May 17.

Pubs taking part include the Marble Arch, Ape and Apple, Smithfield Hotel, Old Monkey, Waterhouse, Crown and Anchor, Bulls head (London Road) and Paramount, all in Manchester city centre; the Crescent and New Oxford in Salford; and the Arden,  Bakers Vaults, Calverts Court, Crown, Pineapple, Red Bull, Sun and Castle, Swan with Two Necks, Waterloo and White Lion in Stockport.

Black Pig Mild

For full list of pubs see the April edition of Opening Times.

Greater Manchester breweries producing mild include:  All Gates Mild At Heart, Bazens' Black Pig Mild, Boggart Hole Clough Dark Mild, Dunham Massey Chocolate Cherry Mild, Dunham Massey Dark Mild, Dunham Massey Light Mild, Holts Mild, Hydes Light Mild/1863, Hydes Traditional Mild, Hydes XXXX, Leyden Black Pudding, Phoenix Monkeytown Mild, Saddleworth Mild.

But my favourite mild is made down the road in Burnley – Moorhouses Black Cat.