Food & Beer Culture

What do people eat with beer in Lancashire? The classic is Lancashire hotpot, a stew of lamb and onions topped with thin potato slices and slow-cooked in the oven. The potatoes turn crisp on top, the meat tender. Dark mild pairs well, since its sweetness and light body don't overpower the meat juices.

From the town of Bury comes black pudding, a blood sausage that's sliced and fried. Pie and peas, a meat pie with mushy peas, is a typical staple around Bolton and Wigan. A bitter pairs well here, its dry spice cutting through the fat.

Things turn sweet with the Eccles cake, a round puff-pastry pastry filled with currants. In Lancashire it's also eaten with a piece of Lancashire cheese, and a mild with roasted notes plays nicely with that sweet-and-salty interplay. Manchester tart, a shortcrust base with jam, custard, and desiccated coconut, rounds out the meal.

The pubs are the Northwest's living room. Many old houses have separate rooms, the vault for a quick drink at the bar and the snug as a small, cozy nook. One ritual is the round: whoever's turn it is pays for everyone at the table, and the next person follows suit. The Marble Arch, where Marble started brewing in 1997, is known across the city for its sloping floor.

The family brewers carry this culture forward: Robinsons with around 250 pubs and Holt's with around 127 sell their beer almost exclusively there. Anyone wanting to try a cask ale is best off heading to a pub and asking for the beer of the day. It's drunk in small sips, and it stays a matter of conversation, not intoxication.