Bitter sweet (Joseph Holt)
Nigel Huddlestone gets to grips with Joseph Holt of Manchester
Head clockwise around the Manchester inner ring road and eventually you’ll come to the ghost of the Boddingtons brewery, unloved and abandoned, a sorry contrast to the sparkling Manchester Evening News Arena that stands opposite.
While the former “cream of Manchester” awaits the developer’s ball and chain, half a mile away one member of Britain’s dwindling band of family regional brewers is proving resistant to the rush to make big retail and leisure money which is sweeping away the old industrial heart of the city.
Joseph Holt has been brewing since the 1860s at what is confusingly known as the Derby Brewery, built on land that at the time belonged to the Earl of Derby.
More than 150 years since the original Joseph Holt started brewing on a different nearby site, the company is enjoying a minor rebirth with a flotilla of bottled ales that stretch the boundaries that family regionals normally like to stay in.
Holt’s is both refreshingly modern in its approach and steadfast in its unwillingness to change for change’s sake. It’s one of the few regionals that continues to make its own brands of lager for its pubs – Crystal and Diamond – rather than succumb to the temptation of listing fees from major international brands, and has just invested £1 million in tanks and kegging lines to suggest that the big players will have to wait a while yet for their piece of the Holt’s action.
The introduction of a Hurlimann yeast and lower fermentation temperatures have produced a truer .....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Spotlight
Page number : 44
