Well, we're assuming you're going to be drinking proper beer. Real ask, cask ale, just decent beer - call it what you want, but it's what this guide is about. If you want to drink lager, cider, alcopops or even bloody smooth beer, go where you want. They sell it everywhere. (With a couple of exceptions: the Coal Clough, winningly, refuses to sell smooth beer, while in the Ministry of Ale, encouragingly, they've taken smooth off due to lack of demand.)
No, we'll concentrate on the beer. One of the joys for me of being a football supporter is the opportunity it offers to travel around England and sample local food and drink, discovering different regional tastes. In Burnley, there are several Lancashire and North West beers available that are very definitely worth trying.
For a start, don't leave Burnley without sampling the beers of the town's main brewery, Moorhouses. Moorhouses' range consists of Black Cat (mild), Premier (bitter), Pendle Witches (strong bitter) and, less frequently, Pride of Pendle (another bitter, mid way between Premier and Pendle Witches). They also do one off brews.
You might think your best bet of sampling the range is to go to the town's Moorhouses' pubs, but it's not as easy as that. Of four pubs that Moorhouses owns in town, one, the Dragoon, has been closed and has an uncertain future, while two others, the Stanley and the Wheatsheaf, can be relied on only to sell Premier. Only the General Scarlett, being the brewery tap, can be expected to stock the three main beers. It is, unfortunately, somewhat out of your way if Turf Moor is your aim.
Your best bet in the town centre is Burnley's long-standing real ale flagship, the Sparrow Hawk, which promises to stock Black Cat, Premier and Pendle Witches as regulars. They also sometimes get the occasional brews. The George IV on distant Padiham Road is also, I'm told, stocking Black Cat, and it's often available in the excellent Ministry of Ale, handily close to Manchester Road station. The Ighten Leigh Social Club, while not open to all-comers, also takes beers from Moorhouses. The new Wetherspoon's, the Brun Lea on Manchester Road, should also have something from their range, although knowing them it will be either unavailable or undrinkable, and it won't be Black Cat.
And that's more or less it as far as Moorhouses goes. Although it's better than it used to be, it's still quite hard to get hold of beers from the local brewery around town. Moorhouses face a problem shared by many small brewers. Most pubs in town are tied houses with their own beers to sell, or owned by pub groups looking for heavy discounting, and free houses further afield prove a better source of business. That said, Moorhouses don't make the most of their own tied houses, which are too basic for some tastes, feel rather down at heel and are all out of the town centre.
As for the beers, Black Cat (3.4% alcohol) is Moorhouses' multiple award-winner, which took the ultimate accolade of the Campaign for Real Ale's Champion Beer of Britain in 2000. It is almost impossible for a dark mild to win this competition dominated by bitters, but Black Cat really is something special, a black, dark chocolately and surprisingly bitter brew. As well as champion beer, it's won a string of awards in its class. It's surprising really, because unlike certain parts of the country - the West Midlands, for example, or Manchester - mild has never been popular in Burnley. In Burnley, the tradition is to drink bitter, and Moorhouses brewed mild to sell in other places. To some extent, Black Cat has changed that, and in the few places around town where it's sold, it sells well. I'm biased, because I prefer dark beers, but I'd say that the Black Cat is their best beer, and you should not leave Burnley without a pint.
The Premier (3.7% alcohol) is fine, being a good example of a bitter, well-rounded, full-headed Northern pint, but the quality of what you'll get is variable. It must be hard to handle, because I've had some excellent pints of it and very poor pints - often in the same place. Pride of Pendle (4.1% alchohol) is not something you'll see much of, but it's a fair pint as I recall.
Pendle Witches, at 5.1% alcohol, is too strong to drink in any quantity. It's deceptively easy to drink, not sweet like you might expect, and certainly doesn't taste its strength.
The town's second, new brewery is the Moonstone Brewery, a micro-brewery located in the Ministry of Ale. So far, beers from this brewery are only on sale at the Ministry. What you'll get is hard to predict, as the range includes several beers, but they're not all available at the same time. Mainstays include a dark mild, Dark Star (3.4% alcohol), a recent and welcome innovation that's every bit as drinkable as Black Cat and rather cheap too, a bitter called Tiger's Eye (3.8% alcohol), a stronger, dark beer called Moonstone Dark (4.8% alcohol), which can be excellent, and a skull-splitter, Red Jasper (6% alcohol). There are also some one-off beers, which have included the very nice Sunstone bitter (3.8% alcohol). The quality of the beer in the Ministry is never less than splendid, so if you want to do Burnley properly, call in.
The other main local brewer is Thwaites, said to be one of only two good things to come out of Blackburn, the other being the road to Burnley. Thwaites markets itself as a traditional brewer, but unfortunately the reality doesn't match the spin. They own a lot of pubs in Burnley - they may be the main local tied brewer - but very few of their pubs sell proper beer. They seem inordinately keen to push smooth stuff, and would appear to have lost confidence in their ability to sell their fine real ales. This is particularly marked in the St James's Street area of Burnley, the town's centre and worst place for real ale, where Thwaites have several smooth pubs.
It's a shame because their real bitter (3.6% alcohol) is still a fine pint built for easy drinking, if someone declined in recent years. (Don't even think of trying to get hold of the superb 3.3% alcohol mild they sell just about nowhere.) About the only place you might get one is the Dugdale Arms on Padiham Road, which seems to alternate between selling it and not. In the town centre, the White Lion may sell a pint of their new / sort-of-revived beer, Lancaster Bomber (4.4% alcohol). Otherwise, you've probably got more chance of coming across a pint in a free house in London. Pity, eh?
Of course Burnley is a town like any other and large numbers of people drink lager, smooth beers and the latest yukky, heavily marketed something-with-alcohol-in-them confections. There are a growing number of bars in the centre, particularly around Hammerton Street, where people who haven't learned how to drink properly are catered for.
On the other hand, there are lots of places to drink real ale, providing you get away from the pedestrianised stretch of St James's Street, and most recent developments have been positive. Since we began the first version of this guide in 1999, things have certainly improved. A number of new pubs have sprung up, particularly the Ministry, but also the Brun Lea, the Orange House and the Litten Tree, which all serve real ale. There's also been an improvement in the variety of beers available in town. You can now get Hardy and Hansons in the Inn on the Wharf, Jennings in the General Havelock and Everards in the White Hart. Not in my drinking time has there been such a variety of beer around town.
Lancashire and North West beers are some of the country's finest, and can be sampled in Burnley, if you know where to go. Lovers of Robinson's of Stockport - and that should be everyone - are catered for by the Coach and Horses on Church Street and the Wood Top on Accrington Road. If the excellent bitter produced by Hydes of Manchester is your fancy, you can go to the Commercial up on Briercliffe Road or the Grey Mare over on Gannow Lane. For a pint of Lees from Middleton, go to the Garden Bar on St James's Street. For Cheshire Burtonwood, you've got the Manor Barn on Padiham Road. Even people searching for Yorkshire beer are looked after, with dirt cheap Sam Smith's on sale at the Tim Bobbin.
Apart from beer, one other thing you should look out for in Burnley is the liqueur Benedictine. No really. The working class town of Burnley is pretty much the number one place on Earth for the consumption of this French, monastically inspired elixir, made from a secret blend of 27 plants, herbs and spices. The story goes back to the First World War when local soldiers in the East Lancashire Regiment were stationed in Fecamp, Normandy, where Benedictine is made, and got a taste for the stuff. On return they demanded it be supplied in their locals. The habit has been passed down through the generations, with more bottles of the liqueur still shipped to Burnley, Nelson and Colne than anywhere else. Burnley Miner's Club is apparently the worldwide hub of Benedictine drinking. (The Burnley Miner's Club website at www.burnleyminersclub.co.uk offers a fascinating, if Benedictine-free, history of the club.)
The local variation is the Bene and Hot (pronounced bennyanot), a measure of Benedictine topped up with hot water, drunk to keep the cold out. It's a sweet, aromatic drink, and a perfect nightcap. A few Bene and Hots at the end of the evening will have you sleeping like a baby. All those secret herbs and spices are also supposed to cure any number of ills.
Many pubs will sell you a Bene and Hot. This must be one of the few places where Benedictine takes its place up on the optics alongside the major spirits. It does not hide behind the cocktail mixers here. Look out for the long necked bottle with the red embossed seal, but the key clue is the Thermos flask behind the bar. If you see this, you're sorted, as that's the hot water. Don't leave Burnley without one!
To find out more about Benedictine (you can even visit where it's made), visit their website
at www.benedictine.fr/anglais. It has some rather
shaky English, but disappointingly no mention of Burnley.
Happy drinking!
