According to the latest CAMRA real ale Premier League table there are twenty-five breweries in the Greater Manchester area. This total puts us a slightly disappointing 11th in the table; well behind our always-friendly rivals over t’Pennines, West Yorkshire, who are sitting pretty in the top-spot with 34. (Dammit, we need to open another 10 breweries in Greater Manchester! Tandleman, Tyson, what are you waiting for?)

But anyhow, Wars of the Beer-Roses aside (that not actually being the point of my post) I’m immediately intrigued to know how many of those 25 breweries’ brews I’ve managed to sampled to-date. Off the top of my head I’d guess maybe half of them. Then again, the figure could actually be higher. So here’s the plan:

Step one: Obtain a copy of the list. That’ll involve purchasing a copy of this year’s Good Beer Guide, then. Right, over to Amazon.co.uk (sorry CAMRA shop, but they’re only asking £7.99 and I get free next-day Amazon Prime delivery as well) and that’s on the way now (along with a copy of Pete Brown‘s Hops and Glory – been meaning to read that for ages) and should be here tomorrow.

Step two: Double-check the list against my posted Tasting Notes to-date and the as-yet un-posted scribbles in my pocket notebook. I realise that this technically constitutes some form of ticker-like behaviour, but I’m prepared to take one for the team there, in the name of supporting local (indeed: locAle) businesses.

Step three: Aim to track down one example of each as-yet un-sampled brewery’s best beers, hopefully before the end of the year (it’s always good to set yourself a deadline for this sort of thing, I reckon).

I rather suspect that step three might be the best bit. And there’s a Manchester Beer Festival on in at least one of the Manchester city centre Wetherspoon’s branches in a couple of weeks. That might help.

Chocks away!