It has to be said, I am a wine lover. I love a glass of nicely chilled Pinot Grigo after a long week at work – I may occasionally have a spirit or a nice cloudy cider but generally, wine is my alcoholic drink of choice. It was therefore rather surprising that I found myself in Brewdog on a recent trip to Manchester however, I had heard such good things from friends, on twitter and on facebook that I couldn’t resist a sneaky peak….
Brewdog was born in 2007 when its two owners, fed up of commercial largers, decided to have a stab at brewing their own. From there on, Brewdog craft beers became more and popular which has resulted in 7 bars being opened around the UK and many of their beers being sold in major supermarkets.
Brewdog Manchester is in Peter Street in the city centre. I found the bars location slightly unusual to start with – it is in a slightly more ‘mainstream’ part of town surrounded by bars like Walkabout and the former Branigans and Chicago Rock Cafe. I really expected Brewdog to be in a more chilled out part of the city like the Northern Quarter however, I soon understood why the bar is where it is – the founders of Brewdog are passionate about educating as many people as possible about good quality beers so the prime location on Peter Street makes good sense.
The service at Brewdog is seriously fantastic – as soon as we walked in we were served by the lovely Sarah who quickly found out what we drank and got us a few tasters. We were given four different beers to try whilst choosing what to order and Sarah talked us through the history of each beer, how it was made and the various ingredients. I was seriously impressed about how passionate and knowledgeable each of the staff were about what they were serving – a really refreshing change in a city centre bar.
Each beer was deliciously tasty and varied in strength. I liked the fact that the bar serves beer in different sized measures depending on strength. My choice was rather strong however, its deep, dark taste was just too good to resist.
We both thoroughly enjoyed our beers at Brewdog and enjoyed the experience of visiting a city centre bar that wasn’t run of the mill – it is well worth a visit even if beer isnt your normal tipple! And I am reliably informed that they do pretty good pizzas too…..