Category: Branch News

Torrside brewery is celebrating after scooping gold for the Beer of the Festival at the recent Stockport Beer and Cider Festival. From a selection of around 200 beers, Torrside Brewing’s Bardo, a 9% Imperial Stout, was voted the favourite tipple by thirsty drinkers.

But thanks to the pandemic, the beer nearly didn’t get brewed. In early 2020, Nathan Pratt, of the Sheffield Homebrew Club, won a first prize for Limbo, his 5.5% stout, at the Stockport & S. Manchester (SSM) CAMRA homebrew competition. The reward was to visit a commercial brewery and brew the beer so it could be sold to the public.

Then along came coronavirus and things were put on hold. Finally, two years later, Nathan went to Torrside Brewing in New Mills to brew his winning beer. Nathan also agreed with the Torrside brewers that they should produce an Imperial 9.0% version of the beer at the same time, and this was named Bardo. Both beers made their public debut on Bar Nouveau at the Stockport Beer & Cider Festival in June and quickly sold out.

In late July, Nathan returned to Torrside, where the Chair of SSM CAMRA, John Clarke, presented both Nathan and the brewery with their awards.
Chris Clough from Torrside Brewing said “It was a delight to host Nathan and his enthusiasm is reflected in the fact that the beers have won awards. In fact, they have been so successful that we intend to brew them again in the autumn, and it is likely that some of the Bardo will go into our barrel-aging programme for release later in 2023”.

Nathan added “Thanks to John Clarke and CAMRA for organising the competition and Torrside for hosting me. It has allowed me to experiment and it was great to see my recipes being enjoyed by the public. This has spurred me on and I will certainly be entering some more beer in next year’s competition”.

John Clarke commented, “Our homebrew competition, where beers are blind-tasted by a panel of enthusiasts, publicans and brewers, has been running since 2016 and sets high standards. It covers a variety of styles and gives category winners a chance to work with commercial breweries. We are grateful to Torrside and others for helping to bring their beers to a wider public. As well as featuring at the Stockport Beer & Cider Festival and in local pubs, some of the winning beers have been spotted as far away as London during the summer”.

Details of how to enter the 2023 competition will be revealed in the Autumn – please contact Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA.

Nathan Pratt (left) and Chris Clough of Torrside Brewing are pictured below with their certificates.

We recently selected the Gillery in Mossley as its Pub of the Season for Spring 2022.The pub opened in March 2020 and has gone from strength to strength since.  A one-room bar, with a small side room suitable for small meetings, is complemented by a pleasant outdoor drinking area.  Its previous history as a bank is amply evidenced by the architecture of the building, and the polished wooden fittings and wainscoting. The Gillery is ideally situated outside the railway station and on the bus routes from Lower to Upper Mossley. Open from Wednesday to Sunday 12-12, it has four handpumps, and is a good outlet for the local Millstone beers, amongst others.