Manchester’s popular Winter Warmer Wander Ale Trail is back offering participants the opportunity to visit pubs, try winter beers and win prizes.
This year’s celebration of festive beers runs from today until Sunday 28 December, with 65 pubs involved across Greater Manchester. From Bramhall to Bredbury, Salford to Stockport and Manchester to Marple, there will be plenty of stouts, porters, old ales and barley wines available to try.
You will be able to enjoy the seasonal beers brought out by local brewers, which include Holt’s Sixex and JW Lees' Plum Pudding. As usual, several pubs on the trail will be offering Robinsons’ multi-award-winning barley wine, Old Tom (pictured). These include the Crown in Heaton Mersey, the Duke of York in Heaviley and the Royal Oak in Cheadle, the newest recruit to the ale trail, as well as several pubs in the centre of Stockport.
You can also expect to find qualifying beers from independent microbreweries in the many free houses participating on the trail. The three station taps in Manchester at Piccadilly, Victoria and Oxford Road as well as the Stalybridge Station Buffet will serve a large range of beers. Micropubs on the trail include the Mounting Stone in Bramhall, Reddish Ale in Reddish, Jack’s Bar in Hyde, Samuel Oldknow in Marple and the award-winning Heaton Hops in Heaton Chapel.
To win prizes, participants must collect stickers from a minimum of 12 pubs and drink at least half a pint of a cask winter beer in each. Increasing the number of pubs visited to 24, 36 or all 65 will also see entrants win bespoke garments embroidered with the ale trail logo, as well as entry into a draw for a case of 12 bottles of beer. All successful entrants will receive cans and bottles including one of Robinsons’ Old Tom barley wine.
Full details and entry forms can be found on the website at ssm.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=202262
Alternatively, pick up a copy of the free November/December Opening Times magazine in local pubs, which has the details and entry form.
Organiser Sue Lightfoot said: “Once again, the Winter Warmer Wander provides a bit of a fun challenge to win prizes in the run up to Christmas. The number of excellent, independently brewed winter ales to be found in our local pubs is astonishing, and I’m sure you will find something to tickle the taste buds.
“Not only can you visit familiar haunts, but there is also plenty of opportunity to seek out unfamiliar bars, pubs and taps which you may want to return to in the future. Pubs have been facing a rough few years, so please go out in record-breaking numbers once again and support the pubs involved in the trail.”
Winter Warmer Wander is organised by Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA, in association with surrounding branches. The wander was first introduced in December 2006 as the Stout, Porter and Old Ale Trail with 30 pubs involved, mostly in the city centre and South Manchester. The trail was held annually until 2019 and restarted in 2023.
In 2024, almost 160 participants completed the trail, up a third on 2023, making a total of around 4,400 pub visits.
Picture: Lawrence Devaney
