June - Grove Alehouse
Grove Alehouse
145 London Road, Hazel Grove SK7 4HH
The Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA Pub of the Month for June is the Grove Alehouse on London Road in Hazel Grove. Mike Gilroy explains why it won the award.
After running the Grove Alehouse for two and a half years, Kevin and Tina Clarke sold the micropub to Angie and Scott Jepson last year. After a short period of closure, a grand re-opening on 4 August saw the pub packed with family and friends of the new owners. It's not looked back since, with trade increasing substantially over the past months.
There are five regularly changing cask beers on handpump, with the aim of having a variety of ales from both local brewers and those further afield. In addition, you will usually find a mixture of beer styles too, with a dark beer, a mild and a session bitter included in the mix.
Cider and perry lovers are also well catered for with three real ciders and perries available from the fridge. Again, these are sourced locally, with Stockport's Madhatters and Dunham Massey's Dunham Press being popular choices, and also from around the country too. It's a matter of pride that no artificially sweet fruit ciders are sold.
Angie and Scott have also worked hard to make the pub more of a community focus with the monthly 'cheese Sundays' proving very popular in this respect. They lay on cheese and biscuits but also invite customers to bring their own, a move which seems to bring people together and get them talking.
At the back of the pub is an enclosed beer garden and this is being upgraded for the summer months with refreshed paintwork and plenty of flowering plants. No doubt this will be put to good use on the presentation night, Thursday 27 June, when a full house is expected to see Angie and Scott receive this well-deserved award.