Piccadilly brewer takes on spot formerly occupied by Keg & Cask

So it wasn't to be for Keg & Cask, which came and went at No.127 Manchester Road in but a few months.

Step in Alphabet Brewery Company (ABC), the Piccadilly-based craft brewer owned by seasoned operator, Joe Fearnhead.

Fearnhead founded ABC in Manchester's red light quarter in 2014, with an aim to produce 'original, hop forward beers' (and probably to appear at the top of the Yellow Pages?). He is also the man behind pioneering Tariff Street bar, Kosmonaut, and Stevenson Square's craft beer/pizza parlour, PLY.

Now Fearnhead is taking it to the suburbs with the brewery's first standalone brew tap.

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ABC have opened a brew tap on Manchester Road in Chorlton

Speaking to Confidential, Fearnhead said: “We’ve always loved spending time in Chorlton, it’s a real beer-lovers neighbourhood, so it made perfect sense to open here.

"We have six Alphabet beers on keg, one on cask, and one guest line. Making regular appearances will be our core beers: A to the K, a 5.6% American pale ale; Charlie Don’t Surf, a 4% session IPA, and Flat White, a 7.4% White breakfast stout.

"The beers will come fresh from the brewery"

"The beers will rotate weekly and come fresh from the brewery. The bar will also be the first place to get our special beers and collaboration brews, and will sell cans at a decent price to take home." 

Fearnhead is also continuing plans to open a third site in Northern Quarter, the Quick Brown Fox, on the corner of Oldham Street and Swan Street. He told us the bar, which has been hit with delays since 2016, is "just about finished".

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"The beers will rotate weekly and come fresh from the brewery"

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