Popular taproom and Manchester brewery Beer Nouveau has left fans shocked after making the announcement that it is closing down and putting its taproom and brewing equipment on sale.
A longstanding gem of the city’s craft beer scene, the Temperance Street brewery tap has been a favourite haunt of local beer lovers for the best part of seven years – but now founder Steven Dunkley has said it’s time to wind things up.
Taking to social media to explain his decision, a tweet from the brewery tap account starts off by saying that “it’s not really a surprise given everything that’s happening”, before going on to explain how they will be winding up Beer Nouveau “for the time being”.
Revealing that they will be putting both the brewing equipment and the taproom itself up for sale, the post from Beer Nouveau continued:
“This isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly, we’ve worked hard for over 8 years to build up what we believe to be a great space for great beers, and especially great customers.
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“We’ll be around a while yet while we look for a buyer that will hopefully keep it all going, it’s got great potential.
“I’m sure there’s loads of questions, and probably even more gossip, and if you know me you’ll know I’ll happily answer all of them honestly. But for now, that’s all.
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“Unless you fancy buying yourself a brewery…”
Comments have flooded in thick and fast, with one person saying “Gutted for you folks.. Hope you find some nice buyers & best wishes for the future. You’ll always be one of our favourite Twitter accounts ever.”
Another reply said: “Urgh this sucks and I am so so sorry to hear it. You’re on my list to come visit so hopefully I can before you sell. Sending love and loads of good luck wishes to you all xxx”
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Image: Beer Nouveau
Image: Beer Nouveau
A third added: “So many great memories Steve. 2018 street party, pre-Crimbo Crawl, Various guest spot Saturdays, to name but a few. And just a nice spot for a beer. My favourite tap space in town by far. Thanks for the good times and I hope whatever the next move is a great one.”
A fourth said: “Really saddened to hear this Steve. All the best and hope you find a buyer who’ll be willing to continue your legacy.”
The Ardwick brewery taproom was first opened in October 2015, a year after founder Steve Dunkley plunged into the world of beer making using a £350 set-up in his Prestwich garage.
Having been in the pub trade since 1992, in 2014 he decided to go out on a limb and create his own styles of beer – plunging into the world of “traditional” 1970s recipes to resurrect old-school beers like Bass, Highgate dark mild, and Flowers IPA.
Soon enough his 40-litre garage set up evolved into a 1200-litre professional brewery, followed a year later by the now infamous taproom.
Here, as well as making his own styles of beer, Steve quietly nurtured a new generation of upcoming beer and cider makers – allowing emerging brewers like Temperance Street Brewing, The Steelfish Brewing Co. and the Doomed Brewing Project to keep overheads low whilst experimenting with new products.
However, now all that looks set to come to an end as the business prepares to close its doors for good – unless they find a buyer, that is. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. After all, we’ve said goodbye to too many good places already this year. We don’t want to bid farewell to any more.
Feature image – Beer Nouveau
Eats
A month-long, mile-long, margarita bar crawl is returning to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
An award-winning bar crawl that’s all about celebrating margaritas is returning to Manchester this month.
El Tequileño’s Margarita Mile will see venues right across the city centre creating bespoke tequila cocktails, alongside events and loads more.
The mile-long, month-long celebration will kick off on 16 February, with 11 brilliant local venues taking part this year.
Those involved will include Mexican restaurant favourite Madre (and its sister site, Mexican pool hall Salon Madre), margarita bar Ramona, and cosy cocktail dens like The Daisy.
Also joining in this year is the city’s newest rooftop destination, Chotto Matte, which is home to Claude’s Skyview Bar with staggering views over Albert Square to the Manchester Town Hall.
It’s all been handily laid out into a mile(ish)-long bar crawl that will showcase the best in tequila and some of the best watering holes in the city.
Billed as the ‘ultimate margarita experience’, you can spend the next month visiting participating venues to sample bespoke menus, with the main celebrations taking place during Mile Week from 16 to 22 February – ahead of National Margarita Day on 22 February.
The Margarita Mile launched in Manchester in 2023 and was initially a week-long celebration, designed to celebrate quality tequila, champion bartender creativity, and tempt people back out into bars during the quietest time of the year for hospitality.
Now in its fourth year, it’s grown to an award-winning event (it was named The Spirits Business Best Event of the Year 2025), spanning a full month.
Maps of this year’s Margarita Mile across Manchester are available online HERE, as well as at all participating venues, with no tickets required.
Steffin Oghene, VP Business Development for El Tequileño, says: “Each year, the Margarita Mile grows, and we’re incredibly proud that it is now an award-winning campaign.
“Our goal has always been to share a love of craft tequila while connecting Brits with the hospitality trade, especially in such challenging times.
“With some of the best bars and bartenders in the world, it’s more important than ever to inspire the UK public to get out, enjoy the Mile, and raise a margarita.”
All the venues on the El Tequileño Margarita Mile in Manchester
UK pub chain announces bottomless Guinness for the 2026 Six Nations
Danny Jones
As we all know, Guinness and the Six Nations go hand in hand, so pubs not only showing all of this year’s games, but also serving bottomless pints of the good stuff here in Greater Manchester, is an absolute match made in heaven.
With the 2026 Six Nations tournament kicking off this Thursday, 5 February – a France vs Ireland opener in Paris – Manc rugby fans are already nailing down their go-to spots to watch the fixtures.
However, we can’t think of many other places offering bottomless black gold in town, let alone anywhere else in and around Manchester.
So, if you were still unsure of where to watch this year’s tournament, the Social Pub and Kitchen group might have just made the decision for you…
That’s right, this widespread British chain is looking to keep the pints flowing throughout the duration of this year’s competition, thanks to a twist on their standard bottomless brunch format.
Running for every single televised meeting between the much-loved half dozen rugby union teams, all 103 of their locations across the country will be providing this impressive offer on pints.
Here in central Manchester, that includes Tank and Paddle in the Printworks, Crafty Pig on the edge of the Northern Quarter, The Beech Inn in Chorlton, and The Director’s Box right in the heart of the city – and dangerously close to The Manc office…
As well as these nearby venues, there are obviously plenty more around the North West for those slightly further afield, including the likes of Cheshire and Derbyshire.
With a new food menu too, which features several honey-based dishes like the sweet sriracha pizza, chipotle loaded fries, as well as honey chipotle chicken wings, the matchday scran is on point.
So too are the drinks, clearly, and if any of your party wants to stray away from the bottomless Guinness, there are series of special Six Nations-themed cocktails, such as the ‘Midnight in Dublin’, a ‘Peach on the Pitch’ margarita, Baby Velvet, and the bold ‘G-Bomb’.
Yes, we suspect it is as boozy as it sounds.
Running throughout February and March whilst the games are on, we imagine plenty of people will be making at least one Social Pub and Kitchen site their chosen destination for watching all the action.
Even if you happen to be reading this outside of Greater Manchester, you can find your nearest Social Pub and Kitchen and book your table right HERE.
And if you’d still like some other alternatives here in the city centre, you can do no wrong with our helpful little round-up.
Georgina Pellant -
5th October 2022 
