Next up in the trip clockwise round the UK regions we get to the North West. Hopefully this region isn’t controversial as it only includes: Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside
As with the other regions I have just added up each persons rates in the counties top 50. The number are dominated by Greater Manchester, but below are the top 40…
Position
Rater
Total Rates
1
ManVsBeer
4381
2
fonefan
2486
3
cgarvieuk
2479
4
DJMonarch
2333
5
Theydon_Bois
2149
6
mR_fr0g
1997
7
madmitch76
1847
8
imdownthepub
1794
9
Stuu666
1681
10
Leighton
1541
11
allmyvinyl
1501
12
MrTipple
1409
13
harrisoni
1350
14
Garrold
1257
15
AshtonMcCobb
1215
16
Mr_Pink_152
1056
17
Beese
1046
18
Grumbo
1046
19
mr_h
1025
20
Rune
950
21
minutemat
859
22
WingmanWillis
855
23
leaparsons
852
24
Scopey
848
25
Towey1989
832
26
RichTheVillan
780
27
Trolleo
768
28
LazyPyro
730
29
mike_77
702
30
BlackHaddock
697
31
Finn
697
32
Fin
681
33
Ungstrup
661
34
redders1974
660
35
planky84
643
36
Desverger
630
37
jamestulloch
587
38
yespr
572
39
Nocturne
532
40
anders37
506
As before I’d be interested to see your best beers, brewery or general stats for the region.
Only part of the North West Region I have visited is Greater Manchester and that was only the airport on the way home from Leeds. We rated Thornbridge tZara, and Belhaven Old Gold at The Spinning Jenny (now defunct or just not on Ratebeer) inside the terminal. I believe this was also the airport where Mabel and I delighted in trying to figure out how to get the most amount of chocolate while spending the most of our leftover GBP coins
Greater Manchester is my 7th most rated English county. My top ratings are:
Beer
Rating
Entered
Place
Track Skyway C.E.VS.G
3.9
3/18/2018
On tap at Mother Kelly’s Bethnal Green, London.
Cloudwater DDH IPA Citra BBC
3.9
9/30/2018
On tap at Birreria Volo Zwanze Day event, Toronto.
Cloudwater A Fire By the Bines
3.9
10/21/2019
On tap at Cask Days, Toronto, ON.
Cloudwater / Salt Proper
3.9
10/26/2019
On cask at Cask Days, Toronto, ON.
J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Calvados)
3.8
11/7/2010
2004 Vintage, Bottle from Premier Gourmet, Buffalo, NY
Marble Decadence
3.8
3/14/2018
On tap at BrewDog Shepherd Bush, London.
Cloudwater Invention and Other Tools
3.8
11/3/2019
On cask at Bar Volo, Toronto.
Interesting that most of those were rated in North America.
Cumbria 7 ratings. The most notable being Hardknott Vitesse Noir shared at a tasting at cgarvieuk’s in Edinburgh, and Hardknott Granite 2009 at ChrisO’s.
Lancashire 6 ratings, only minor quality of note being that all six were rated in different cities, and three different countries. (Canada, England, Scotland.)
Cheshire a mere three ratings. Mostly not notable except that Frodsham MynzaMild was rated at my only trip to the GBBF in 2010, and RedWillow Wreckless made it across the pond to Cask Days 2013 in Toronto.
Merseyside - One of my two outstanding counties that I have not ticked along with Isle of Wight.
I thought I might be in with a shout to be on the leaderboard for the North West. But nope. Actually, not even close with 433. My Greater Manchester rates aren’t terrible with 217, but all other counties are 216 combined.
Part of the problem is that I haven’t had that many breweries. Cloudwater are way out in front with 71, followed by Pomona Island (21), Hawkshead (14) and Marble, Mobberley and Thwaites at 12 each. With the exception of Cloudwater (although less recently I note: only 2 rates are from 2023) and PI, I just don’t see them in Leicester that often.
While Thwaites are skewed by some early high rates, I have had some lovely specials by them so I kind of stand by this. I haven’t had Hwakshead since the takeover, but they were certainly decent in their day.
Scrolling a little further down I find breweries that are no longer with us that I enjoyed like Mad Hatter and Hardknott.
Total 273 so well off the pace
Cheshire 37
Cumbria 15
Greater Manchester 168
Lancashire 21
Merseyside 32
I seem to prefer Hawkshead from the Cumbrian brewers.
Cloudwater and Marble fight it out for top spot among the Mancunians.
Beartown and Mobberley are my Cheshire standouts.
As a Lancastrian by birth, the low total and a low high rating of 3.7 for Northern Whisper’s Chinwag IPA are doubly disappointing and the banal quality of many Cross Bay and Lytham beers drag down the average.
Merseyside is redeemed by Axvez and Mad Hatter although I have drunk more Neptune and Liverpool Organic of average quality.
Maybe a trip back to Blackpool will improve my scores.
