Brilliant Beers

FROM AWARD-WINNING beers to locally brewed pints, Saddleworth pubs offer real ale lovers the cream of the crop.

With dozens of pubs in the area recognised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) or their coveted Good Beer Guide, drinkers are spoiled for choice.

But with CAMRA research showing 42% of people visit pubs less than a year ago, April’s Community Pubs Month aims to get them back enjoying the industry regularly.

At The Waggon in Uppermill, run by landlord Addy Dearnaley and in the Good Beer Guide since 2001, seasonal special ‘Hoptimus’ offers a rich array of malt and fruity hops.

Regular favourites Unicorn and Dizzy Blonde – whose ratings are compared on the pub’s beer wall chart – are also not to be missed at this CAMRA pub of ten years.

Award-winning Millstone Brewery Tiger Rut is a firm favourite at Royal Oak Th’Heights, which was the first pub to ever put on the beer permanently ten years ago.

Michael and Sheila Fancy, landlords at the pub – which was built in 1767 – since 1988 and in CAMRA for 22 years, also serve Moorhouses and Black Sheep Bitter alongside a rotating guest beer.

And at Richard Duddle’s Rising Sun in Mossley a Millstone Trilogy of Tiger Rut, exclusive Rising Sunsation and Stout draws in drinkers to the Good Beer Guide pub of three years.

Six changing guest beers and Rising Sun cider are also served by bar staff Veronika, Sophie and Jenny at the Greater Manchester CAMRA Cider pub of the year 2012.

At The Navigation Inn, Dobcross, guest ‘explorer beer from the coast’ Adnams joins mainstays Wainwright, Millstone Brewery Tiger Rut, Timothy Taylor Landlord, and Bombardier.

The pub, run by Sue and Mark with daughter Laura, and in CAMRA for eight years, prides itself on offering beers from within 25 miles, and has a surprise ale lined up for St Georges’ Day.