Indian street food favourite Bundobust has been secretly brewing its own beer in Manchester for eight months – and now the creation is about to be revealed to the public.
The restaurant has always had a strong reputation for sourcing excellent craft beer, but this new batch has been made to certain specifications.
Head brewer Dan Hocking has been quietly working away at the new brewery on Oxford Road for the best part of a year, using the lockdown-forced reopening delays to play around with new specialty ingredients.
The new Chaitro beer – a smooth and creamy Porter with roast malts, chai masala and fresh ginger / Image: Bundobust
To kick things off, he’s created three new bespoke house beers – a coriander lager, a masala chai porter and a tropical pale ale – that will be available exclusively at Bundobust restaurants.
Now they’re about ready for drinking, meaning they will all be available to try in Manchester at Bundobust’s Piccadilly restaurant from tomorrow, Thursday 24 June.
ADVERTISEMENT
The new beers will also be available at Bundobust restaurants in Leeds and Liverpool.
New drinks set to be revealed include their 5 percent Chaitro beer – a smooth and creamy Porter with roast malts, chai masala and fresh ginger.
ADVERTISEMENT
Then, there’s the Peela – an easy-drinking 4 per cent hazy pale ale with tropical fruit flavours.
And last but not least, there’s an adventurous coriander lager the Dhania Pilsner is available at 4.8 per cent.
The popular Indian restaurant’s new brewery is housed in a site on Manchester’s Oxford Road, with construction first starting in 2019.
ADVERTISEMENT
The home of Bundobust’s secret brewery, due to open to the public later this summer / Image: Bundobust
Initial plans for the venue included a second restaurant and brewhouse, with a small private room in the brewhouse for paired dinners and events but these were postponed by the pandemic.
This delay, however, has given the head brewer time to experiment with more adventurous ingredients.
“It’s been really great to have that time, with no deadlines or pressure, to just focus on the beer and how we can make it exactly how we want it,” said Dan.
“Not a lot of breweries can say they had eight months of practice on the kit before they sold a single beer, so in that respect, I feel really lucky to have had this time to play around.”
All new beers have been created to complement different dishes at Bundbost / Image: Bundobust
Previously at experimental Dutch brewery Uiltje, Dan knows a thing or two about working with weird and wonderful ingredients.
This will come in handy at Bundobust, where the plan seems to be to mix up traditional beer styles with more unusual flavours that will complement their food.
ADVERTISEMENT
Housed in a unique 100-year-old space within the iconic Grade II listed St James building, the brewery is a custom-built 10-hectolitre facility capable of producing 20,000 pints a month.
Bundobust plans to open its Oxford road brewtap and restaurant in late summer 2021.
Feature image – Bundobust.
Eats
Beloved Manchester pizzeria Nell’s to give one lucky person FREE pizza for a year
Emily Sergeant
A beloved Manchester pizza place is offering one lucky person the chance to win free pizza for an entire year.
That’s right, how does a year’s worth of free Nell’s sound to you?
Since first opening inside Common in Manchester‘s Northern Quarter back in 2020, Nell’s Pizza has gone from strength to strength, and has since opened two other successful sites over in Chorlton and down at the city centre waterside neighbourhood, KAMPUS – serving up its signature NYC-style pizzas, slices, ice cream sandwiches, and so much more.
And now, another new Nell’s chapter is set to begin, as the eatery will be opening the doors to its brand-new site in Altrincham in the Stamford Quarter’s ‘Foundation’ building this weekend.
The new Nell’s will be located on the ground floor of Foundation, and will feature a large bar and outdoor terrace.
Nell’s is giving one lucky person free pizza for a full year / Credit: The Manc Group
To celebrate the exciting launch later this year, the new Nell’s Altrincham site will be serving up a whopping 250 ice cream sandwiches to hungry shoppers from midday right through until 2pm this Saturday 14 September.
There’ll be hundreds of ‘everyones a winner’ golden tickets for people to claim with their ice cream sandwiches too, with prizes like a round of drinks, and a free slice of Nell’s enormous 22” NYC-style pizza – but the grand prize everyone will be hoping to get their hands on is the golden ice cream sandwich that gives one lucky person free Nell’s every month for a full year.
“People know about our pizza, but we also hand-make an incredible range of ice cream sandwiches too,” said Nell’s founder Jonny Heyes, ahead of the event this Saturday.
“This event is a really fun way to get the people of Altrincham to try them before our arrival later this year.”
Speaking on the launch of the new Nell’s Pizza site inside the Stamford Quarter, James Tootle, who is the Head of Retail and Leisure at Bruntwood – which manages the Foundation building – said: “We’re really excited to welcome Nell’s to the Stamford Quarter. Not only will they be serving up the best NYC-style pizza around, but they’ll also bring a great sense of fun and community feeling, which is exactly what this giveaway is all about.
“Stamford Square has been revitalised into a fantastic new space where the local community can come together, and we’re thrilled to partner with businesses like Nell’s to bring it more to life.”
Head on down to Nell’s Altrincham from 12pm on Saturday 14 September for freebies.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
Eats
Maray’s Middle Eastern-inspired Sunday roasts are returning to Manchester – and they’re FREE for one day only
Danny Jones
We know Sunday roasts very much fall into the ‘if ain’t broke don’t fix it’ category of British food -and rightly so, they’re absolutely glorious – but every now and again they’re made fresh and exciting again, and that’s exactly what Maray have done with theirs.
Plus, who on Earth is ignoring a FREE roast dinner?
That’s right, not only are Maray’s incredible Middle-Eastern twists on the classic carvery combination of lovingly cooked joints of meat, exquisitely cooked vegetables and their take on firm favourites like the potato (the best bit, let’s be honest), but they’re also going to be dishing them out for absolutely nothing.
What better way to celebrate one of the best Sunday roasts in Manchester than by serving up heaping plates at absolutely no cost to the hordes of customers bound to line up regardless?
Now, if you’re wondering what exactly it is that makes a Sunday roast from Maray so special and, crucially, showcases those Middle-Eastern influences, then let us tell you: crispy fenugreek roasties, butternut squash Tershi and, the true star of the show, the truly immense protein options.
Whether you want a simple roast beef picanha sirloin that would slot in perfectly on any roast dinner around the country, a spiced chickpea nut roast for the plant-free patrons, or the quite frankly stunning lemon, za’atar and saffron spiced chicken, either way, your collective mouths will be absolutely singing.
But they’re doing much more than just the standard staples of a Sunday plate. Along with proper Yorkshire puddings as big as your head and the addition of the new ‘disco’ cauliflower cheese side, you can also start and end your meal with a true taste of the East.
Be it a selection of traditional mezze such as whipped goats’ cheese with pickled apple, dukkah and basil oil; creamy hummus, complemented with aromatic falafels or scooped up with soft flatbreads to start, or the peoples’ favourite Baklava cheesecake whilst polishing off a bottle of red, Sunday truly is a holy day once again.
As for copping a complimentary one, it’s all very straightforward…
Waves of free Sunday roasts will be dished up by the staff at Maray over on 14 Brazennose St (just between Albert and Lincoln Square) on a first-come-first-served basis from midday on 22 September.
It’s strictly no bookings, just walk-ins and they’ll be giving away the freebies until they run out, so you best get there early to secure a spot and some Sunday goodness.
The same deal is happening over in Liverpool a week later their roast offerings will be available at each restaurant from these respective dates onwards starting from £19pp. Simple as that.
There’s a reason this roast was named one of the best in the country back in January – it genuinely lives up to the hype and it’s definitely the go-to option if you’re looking to mix up your roast dinner game. Don’t miss out, seriously.
Georgina Pellant -
23rd June 2021 
