Region & History

Manchester and Northwest England have been brewing since the 19th century for factory towns where beer was available on every street corner in its own pub. To this day, an unusually dense cluster of family breweries remains here, ones that still own their own pubs. Their hallmark is dark mild, a light, malty beer that has survived longer in this stretch of country than almost anywhere else.

In Stockport, William Robinson bought the Unicorn Inn on 29 September 1838. Brewing didn't begin there until 1849, when his eldest son George brewed the first Robinsons Ale. From 1859, Frederic Robinson ran the business and gradually bought up pubs to ensure his beer actually got poured there. According to the company, the brewery is now run by the fifth and sixth generations of the family and owns around 250 pubs, most of them in the Northwest.

Joseph Holt started in 1849 with a small brewery behind a pub on Oak Street in Manchester; in 1855 he moved to York Street, and in 1860 the Derby Brewery was built in Cheetham, where brewing still takes place today. Here too, the brewery speaks of six generations of family ownership and around 127 pubs. J. W. Lees in Middleton traces its roots to 1828, Hydes in Salford to 1863.

Thwaites in Blackburn began in 1807 with the Eanam Brewery, founded by Daniel Thwaites and two business partners. In 2015, Marston's took over the brewery for around £25 million. In 2018 it moved to Mellor Brook in the Ribble Valley, and the old brewhouse in Blackburn was demolished in 2019.

The young scene looks different. Marble started in 1997 behind the Marble Arch pub in Manchester, while Cloudwater was founded by Paul Jones and James Campbell, formerly head brewers at Marble, on 13 January 2014. There's no EU protected designation of origin for beer from Manchester; in England, only Kentish ale and Rutland Bitter carry that status.