A cultural trip to Cheshire

The weekend just gone I visited my cousins in Cheshire. They are 9 and 5 years old (I think!) respectively and are bundles of noise and cheekiness. Despite spending the weekend calling me by my brothers first name in a bid to wind me up, they don’t half make me smile, especially when they (well, their dad, my uncle) took me to their newly opened local beer shop.

The Beer Emporium, Sandbach

The Beer Emporium is a small but well stocked beer shop in Sandbach, a quirky and slightly curious town, situated straight off the M6, with a far reaching history that’s most prominently displayed in the Sandbach Crosses, a scheduled monument dating back to the Middle Ages. Despite the wood framed buildings and a posh deli stuffed to the rafters with fine foods and continental delicacies I’m assured that the town is sports mad, with barely a dash of culture amidst the football posts and cricket stumps (the last bastion of hope is WH SMith’s, the only place you can buy a book). The ancient looking pubs are beautiful from the outside but to my shame we didn’t have time to venture in them with the young cousins in tow.

I liked the Beer Emporium because its emphasis is on local beers. There’s a solid if unadventurous Belgian inventory and a fine UK selection, but both were top-trumped with a wide selection of beers from Cheshire, the North West, the North Midlands and beyond.

Given the amount of away weekends in February and March which will be zapping my wallet for everything it’s got I plumped for just 7 beers: a kriek for Sarah (mandatory on visits to beer shops); a Lagonda IPA and an Orval to sample with my uncle; and 4 local beers to bring back to Leeds (2 of which didn’t make it past 11pm on Saturday).

Half the Lagonda was drunk and half or the other half ended up absorbed in kitchen roll in the front room (the joys of entertaining kids eh!) whilst the Orval was eminently pleasant as usual and wolfed down quicker than expected. I enjoyed Lymestone Brewery’s thinking man’s beer aptly named Ein Stein (Maris Otter + German hops) whilst I was underwhelmed with Dunham Massey’s Cheshire IPA.

I just hope this tiny little shop finds enough business to sustain itself. I’m told it’s the sort of unique retailer that opens up all the time in Sandbach…the implication being that all too regularly they shut down as quickly as they appeared.

Cheshire can keep its footballers wives but if you happen to be passing, try Sandbach, and call in the Beer Emporium. They’ll give you a free beer mat with your beers too.

By the way if any folk in Cheshire or the vicinity of Sandbach fancy some Marble Special or Decadence (included the fruity ones) they are in stock at The Beer Emporium! And whilst you’re there I recommend the ice cream from the little gelateria, amazing!