Wigan brewery Mayflower setting sail on new venture by opening beer outlets

A Wigan brewery is barrelling along when it comes to getting its beers in front of potential drinkers after unveiling a permanent outlet for its cask ales.

Caskbar in Darwen is now an official venue stocking the creations of Mayflower Brewery, which is based in Hindley.

Other news: WATCH: Wigan pupils trip the light fantasticThe venue will serve four of the core range of Mayflower’s beers, with other ales rotating alongside them.

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The move into property has come about courtesy of the company World of Beer, which is buying the outlets Mayflower will be using.

The brewery will soon have a second tap on a platform at Bolton train station and says it is definitely looking at getting somewhere specialising in its beer in its home borough.

It already has one unusual location for its ales in Wigan, meaning shoppers can take a quick break if they find retail therapy too thirsty.

Sales manager Amanda Gregson said: “We’re looking to spread our wings. It’s extremely important for us to get our ales in all different areas for people to try.

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“Caskbar has gone extremely well, the ales are flying off the bar.

“We’re definitely looking at a Wigan outlet. It’s something that is in the pipeline. We’re looking at a few places but just can’t say anything else at the moment.

“We do have a presence in Wigan Market at the moment and will be there until the end of December.

“That’s going really well. People can go in and have a pint and they can also buy bottles of our ales there.”

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Mayflower is a long-established name on the brewing scene, with the concern first appearing back in 2001.

However, it then closed for some time and re-opened last year on a site on Woodford Street.

The Wigan Beer, which in terms of name rather does what it says on the tin, is so far the biggest seller by far for the re-established concern.

Breweries seem to have divided in recent years in terms of their approach to getting ales in front of customers, both in the borough and across the country as a whole.

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Many have stuck with the traditional mode of arranging deals with pub companies and with free houses to stock their beer.

However, others have created brewery taps largely dedicated to one firm’s creations.

Mayflower says it sees its outlets as something of a mixture of the two.

Amanda said: “Getting our outlets makes us more unique. There are plenty of bigger pubs around and we wanted to do something different.

“We’re not just establishing our cask ales though. We will have other breweries on the bar and will help them by asking them to send us some of their beer while we send them some of ours.”

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