The Premier League of British beer, like the Premier League of football, is increasingly competitive and stands comparison to the best that the rest of the world can offer, using the best global techniques and ideas and with some inspiring leaders across the country. And, when you look at the table at the end of the day, Manchester still wins. Fortunately the analogy breaks down there because we don’t get into arguments about success being facilitated by mega investors who attract public controversy.
The quote in the title of this blog comes from Sir Matt Busby, and it is apt. Let me rattle off some others. “We do things differently here” (Tony Wilson). “We just like pissing people off” (Noel Gallagher). “We’re a bit chippy about Londoners but we’re also very friendly and the two things kind of cancel each other out” (tour guide on a recent visit). And “a city that thinks a table is for dancing on” (Mark Radcliffe) - not sure what message I am sending there, but I just like it.
So enough exposition and dubious analogies, let’s talk beer.
I first focused on Manchester when the late lamented Beer Hawk (in their day, an amazing online bottle shop but whose business model never quite survived COVID and are now rebranded as an AB Inbev business selling “Perfect Draft” home kegs) started telling me about Cloudwater and flagging that this was something special. It was. Their exotic and ever-evolving DIPAs - complete with wonderful can design - were phenomenal, but also their core range of pales and pilsner was just really high quality. This would have been around 2017-18, at the point when the US site Ratebeer.com ranked them second in the world, breaking up what was largely a pack of American breweries.
This was, incidentally, also the moment at which I wondered which brewery Ratebeer put first, and saw “Hill Farmstead, Greensboro Bend, Vermont”. Which is a whole other story, told elsewhere (https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/green-mountain-state-of-mind)
So, when I had a couple of hours to spare before catching a train from Manchester back to London following a work trip, I managed to pay a visit to Cloudwater under the Sheffield Street railway arches just behind Piccadilly Station, and it was everything that I hoped for.
Then, much later (October 2023, in fact), I was told about Track Brewing and set out to explore them. I wandered down to the Piccadilly Industrial Estate and found a taproom in a great set of premises. I started with the wonderful Somona Pale on cask - one of the best easy drinking pints of pale ale that I can remember for a long time - and escalated from there eventually reaching the “Sea of Stars” DIPA. Strolling out, I found Cloudwater’s new premises next door and, as a boat dweller, discovered with delight the “I Have Become the Boat” 7% IPA. This unpromising looking industrial estate had clearly become an unparalleled hotbed of beer excellence.
How did this all happen? In part the story is a familiar one. The circle of brewing. US homebrewers were inspired by the best of European brewing to create the craft movement. UK (and other) brewers were inspired in turn and brought the best American ideas back to Britain. Track was founded by Sam Dyson, who tells an inspiring story of his travels in the US and the riches that he found there.
But there is also the particular story of James Campbell. It begins at Marble microbrewery, which started brewing at the Marble Arch Inn in the north of Manchester in 1997. “JC” joined as a brewer in 2000 and came up with many creations that have stood the test of time well. But then he wanted to do something different, and founded Cloudwater with Paul Jones in 2014. This was the classic combination of the businessman and the beer man. Jones had no previous involvement in brewing, but brought an approach that he had honed on the engineering side of the music industry - a combination of obsessive ongoing creativity and technical precision (I am indebted on this, as I often am, to an article written by Martyn Cornell for his Zythophile blog).
But, the story goes, JC was restless. Having helped get Cloudwater into the exalted place that they reached in such a short time, he left in 2018 to roam widely across the beer industry as a consultant and pursue other products. In this capacity he helped a wide range of brewers develop their craft. (He had built such a strong team at Cloudwater that they decided to dispense with the concept of a “head brewer”). Then he popped up recently as the founder of Sureshot Brewery, which has now taken one of the places under the Piccadilly Arches on Sheffield Street vacated by Cloudwater and Track.
Speaking of the Arches, it is now time to talk about Will Harris and James Horrocks. They first met at Chorlton Brewing in 2018. Then they went their separate ways - James to Squawk, Will to Track. But they discovered that they shared a niche and vaguely obsessive passion for Lambic - the sour and sharp beers of spontaneous fermentation produced to the south west of Brussels. They came back together in 2021 to start Balance Brewery, which moved under the Arches in 2022, specialising in Belgian style sours and saisons.
On subsequent visits to Manchester I have continued to explore all of these options. On a recent Sunday night, I just about managed to fit in a visit to Sureshot and Balance before closing time. Sureshot offered excellent beers in the standard craft range, and a stunning £2 / pint Sunday evening offer for their cask pale. Balance were mind-blowing - their famous “Saison de Maison” and the “Squeak” (pun on James’s previous home, and also rhymes with “Kriek”) second use cherry sour.
Most recently I decided to make a nod to history by visiting the Marble Arch Inn where it all began. Two excellent offerings in the form of the Nilsson lime and coconut gose and the Earl Grey IPA.
And I haven’t even mentioned the amazing Pomona Island Brewery from Salford, with their North Westward Ho bar in the centre of Manchester offering an excellent range of their stuff. I took note in particular of their “Ibuki IX” (apparently Ibuki is the daughter of the head brewer and a whole series of beers are named after her) yuzu sour IPA. Also their breakfast stout with just a hint of fennel pollen to counteract the sweetness.
To anyone reading this and angry that I have not mentioned other excellent Manchester breweries, nor their favourite pub (there are many), my apologies. To do justice to Manchester would require the War and Peace of beer blogs. Please consider this a taster encouraging the reader to explore further. I certainly will.