Manchester’s Cloudwater Brew Co has thrown open the doors of its new brewery tap room to the public.
The new venue, Unit 9, is situated next door to the brewery and includes a bar with 20 draft taps to showcase fresh releases and aged beers. There is also a shop offering cans and bottles to take away direct from a walk-in cold store, as well as the latest brewery merchandise.
Unit 9 has been designed to showcase the artwork Cloudwater has commissioned over the years, and to present their beer at its very best, emphasising the importance of freshness.
All the draft lines are drawn from a 4°C cold store — situated immediately beneath the tap room mezzanine — via air-cooled, insulated ducting, while take-out customers will be able to select beer that has been held below 4ºC since packaging, right from the same cold store.
Aside from beer, customers will also be able to find local gin, low-intervention wine, small-batch soft drinks, and a small selection of cold snacks. There are also hopes to provide food in the future, if Cloudwater can convince its landlords to relax a restriction in the lease.
Opening hours
The initial opening hours will be 3pm to 10pm on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and 10am to 10pm on Saturday, with seven-day-a-week opening to follow completion of final installations.
Unit 9 can be found at 9 Piccadilly Trading Estate in Ancoats and replaces Cloudwater’s previous taproom, the Barrel Store on Sheffield Street, which closed its doors for the final time on July 22.
Paul Jones, director and founder of Cloudwater Brew Co, said: “This takes us a step closer to the taproom of our dreams and allows our customers to enjoy our beer direct from the source, in greater comfort than before.
“We make huge effort to champion freshness in beer and emphasise the need for beer to be cold stored at every step of the journey between brewery and customer. So it’s really exciting to be able to serve our beer from the same cold store it was moved to immediately after being packaged.
“Having worked closely with Chris Shearston, from Textbook Studio, Joe Hartley and Ben Young from Oh Ok Ltd, our lead carpenter and joiner, Rory Thompson, Yvan Seth from Jolly Good Beer, and a host of visionary craftsmen, designers, artists, and makers, we are thrilled to see our taproom vision launch with such a vibrant, spacious, creative energy, backed up by the highest-quality workings behind the taps.”
