Location: 73 Enid Street
Saturday opening hours: 1000-2200
Other days: Sunday 1500-2200, Wednesday-Friday 1500-2200
Official site: https://cloudwaterbrew.co/location-enid-st/
Last updated: 04/07/2021
Oh, we'd been waiting for this one. As far back as our initial research trips in July 2018, there were rumours flying around that Manchester's finest brewery - there's a lot of competition, I know, but don't @ me - had their eye on a site on Enid Street. We always suspected that our first major update to this place (as in one that'd require us to plot a couple of extra Google maps) would be the one that covered Cloudwater's taproom. And here it is. Apologies to commenters like Richard on the front page who might have thought we'd missed it - we hadn't, we've just been busy.
At the time of our first visit, there was no actual sign at the front of 73 Enid Street containing the word Cloudwater: the assumption seems to be that if you can recognise the distinctive cloud logo on a panel on the back wall, you're in the right place. Judging from the crowds inside, people are finding it just fine. (Although by the summer of 2021, they'd cracked and put an enormous sign over the door - see above photo.) Cloudwater's visual identity also extends to a series of large banners featuring artwork from some of their more famous cans, hanging from the arches to give this bar a look unlike anything else on the Mile.
There are twenty taps on offer, though trying to find out what they're serving could be a problem: that minimalist design approach means there are no tap lists on the walls, just an awkward set of loose paper sheets that you have to retrieve from the bar itself. The range here seems to tip strongly in favour of the DIPAs and other high strength beers which made the brewery's name. In a particularly neat touch, there's a straightforward pricing structure - one standard price for all the beers, with the strongest ones only coming in 1/3 pint measures. It's worth going for those high strength beers if you can, partly for the obvious reason, partly because the dinky 1/3 glasses are actual fetish objects in their own right. (There's also a lengthy menu of their canned beers available, on yet another loose paper sheet.)
As a relative newcomer, Cloudwater seem to have done their preparation to ensure that they fit into the Mile just fine, while going above and beyond the requirements. The lighting, decor, toilets (labelled as urinals and loos, rather than being explicitly gendered) and atmosphere are all lovely. But would it kill them to have a tap list on the wall somewhere?
Cloudwater is cashless and proud of it, by the way.
Pandemic update: Cloudwater have no inside tables and just four outside tables, which you can occupy for a maximum of two hours. Space is tight, so plan accordingly. Amusingly, in these unprecedented times, nowadays virtually every bar on the Mile has to hand out their tap list on tatty old bits of paper.
Now walk 23m to Brew By Numbers ----->
<----- or go back 54m to Moor Beer
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