Back In Business: “It was scary” The Marble Beer Ltd’s Taproom on serving the public again

After nearly 5 months in lockdown, the public rushed to the pubs for a much-needed drink.

Marble Beer Ltd’s Taproom has been brewing some proper Salford beer.

The Marble Beer Taproom, just off Langworthy Road, is now back open to the public with increased opening hours.

Customers are now welcomed to drink between 4pm to 8pm on Friday and 2pm to 8pm on Saturday.

The bar serves its own core range of beers brewed in their onsite brewery for both drink-in and takeaway.

Their spacious outdoor area allows customers to enjoy their drinks at a safe distance to keep the possibility of transmission low.

The Taproom sell their beers in casks, kegs, mini-kegs, barrels and cans, with pubs across the world buying their stock.

On Saturday, the venue hosts guest brewers as well as street food vendors so customers can enjoy a meal while they drink.

The onsite brewery is still closed to the public while the team find the correct way to safely showcase their production. But Marble Beers Ltd’s two sites, the Taproom and The Marble Arch in the Northern Quarter, are now back in business.

The company closed one of their sites on Thomas Street to ensure that they were able to reopen post-lockdown.

Jan Rogers, 57, is the owner of family-run Marble Beers Ltd; “We wouldn’t have survived without the furlough scheme, the grants that were given for licenses premises and business rates being cancelled. All three of those things really helped us out.”

She also explained how the business adapted to the lockdown; “The brewery found a new source of income doing home deliveries.”

The company were extremely lucky to install a canning line in February, just a month prior to lockdown, which allowed them to switch to can production and sell their beers as a takeaway option. Their beers are packaged in cans with their own designs and are available onsite, online and in independent shops.

“It was good to meet customers and go to deliver beer… it was more back to basics,” Jan said.

Shift brewer Carl Eccles added: “During the major part of lockdown, canned beer sales went through the roof dramatically”

“We’re not back to full production capacity but we are producing a good amount of beer, but we are going to see if there is a second lockdown.”

However, Jan admits “it was scary” reopening after lockdown, especially with all the new regulations they had to adhere to in order to keep safe against the virus.

Mars Bascale, 31, is the manager of the Taproom site.

She explains how the taproom have been keeping staff and customers safe upon reopening; “We have track and trace at the entrance, and we’re taking everyone’s information that we then store for a month. We take temperatures at the entrance for both staff and customers. We have a one-way system from the entrance to the toilet and the exit. We are keeping social distance between tables and people.”

The Taproom are looking forward to welcoming more customers, and to hopefully reopen the brewery for tours.

With an 8pm closing time, the Taproom will not be affected by the 10pm curfew.