Five places where you can buy craft beer in Warrington

Twisted Wheel Brew Co has moved to the town, microbrewery Modern Day Monks has expanded and there are new dedicated shops like Anchor and Hops.

So to celebrate National Beer Lover's Day we have rounded some of the places in the area to buy or go for a craft ale.

ANCHOR AND HOPS

Anchor and Hops

Stockton Heath's dedicated craft beer bottle shop and micro bar is run by an owner with a wealth of experience.

Chris Kelly used to work at Salopian Brewery before opening Anchor and Hops in Walton Road late last year.

Great Sankey resident Chris worked as an account manager for Salopian for four years but was made redundant due to the coronavirus crisis.

That gave him the push he needed to launch his dream venture.

Anchor and Hops features a refrigerated stock of hundreds of modern craft beers with an emphasis on small batch north west producers.

But Chris also sells cans from some of the UK's most celebrated breweries like Cloudwater, Verdant and Deya and even sources hard-to-get beers from overseas.

The selection is ever changing and Chris is always happy to chat with customers to offer recommendations.

TWISTED WHEEL

Twisted Wheel Brew Co

Mark and Helena Dearman set up Twisted Wheel Brew Co with their daughters Laura and Charlotte in October 2019.

Less than six months later, they had lost all their customers when the pandemic saw pubs close in March.

Always a family to rise to a challenge, they changed their output from traditional cask ales to hop-forward craft beer in cans to jump into a market that was still viable during lockdown.

And by October 2020, they were moving their brewhouse from Standish to Warrington.

Another big change is that Twisted Wheel's new head brewer is Anthony Barrett, who helped spearhead the development of Hebden Bridge-based Vocation Brewery's core range when it launched in 2015.

He was there for three years and has also worked at the likes of Salt Beer Factory in Saltaire.

Anthony has been responsible for Twisted Wheel favourites like Mosaic-hopped Sunday Sessions and the hazy New England IPA-style, Soul City.

Twisted Wheel's full range and limited edition beers are available from the brewery shop at Easter Court, Europa Boulevard.

They also have an extensive guest beer range with the likes of Rivington Brew Co, Love Lane Brewery and Atom Beers available.

4TS BREWERY

4Ts Brewery

4Ts owner John Wilkinson started home brewing in his garage in Rydal Avenue more than a decade ago.

Now he has his own Latchford brewery run with the help of head brewer Jordan Millington.

The Manor Industrial Estate brewery has recently introduced its hop-forward craft beers in cans and the on-site shop always has at least 24 different beers on offer from cans and bottles to beer boxes and mini kegs.

4Ts offers free delivery to WA1, WA2, WA3, WA4, WA5 and WA13.

Warrington beer drop offs are usually on Wednesday and Friday between 11am and 4pm.

Alternatively, collection hours from the brewery are Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm.

MODERN DAY MONKS

Modern Day Monks

You may remember brothers Jon and Jim Waldron-Swift who seemingly came out of nowhere to become one of the finalists in the Young Trader of the Year competition in 2019.

They won the regional heat of the National Market Traders Federation event in Warrington armed only with taster bottles of their beer and bags of enthusiasm.

Jon and Jim, from microbrewery Modern Day Monks, make beers inspired by their travels around the world and now they have a dedicated brewery and taproom at Evans House.

CRAFT BROTHERS

Craft Brothers

This is a new online service which is run from Stockton Heath.

Ben Furnival and Dan Cotterell champion everything from Warrington producers to the UK’s top craft breweries.

Dan, who grew up in Stockton Heath, was made redundant from his engineering job when the first lockdown hit.

So he teamed up with Moore resident Ben, a digital operations director for a marketing firm, who liked the idea of building a company from the ground up.

They chose beer because of their shared enthusiasm for the UK’s craft breweries and the big rise in people getting cans delivered to their homes due to pubs and bars being shut.

Dan and Ben usually have around 500 cans in stock at any one time with a rotating selection of around 20 to 30 beers for customers to choose from so there is always something new.

People can either create their own custom box or buy a ready-made selection with the service supporting Warrington breweries like Twisted Wheel, 4Ts and Modern Day Monks.

Craft Brothers offers free delivery in the WA4 and WA7 postcode areas. Visit craftbrothers.co.uk