When I was growing up in Congleton, the only brewery I was aware of was in my mate’s garage, and its mercifully brief output made us all violently ill. The ‘beer’, which was the dubious product of a homebrew kit from Boots, was the colour of car wash run-off, and not dissimilar in flavour. None of us went on to make any significant headway in the brewing industry, and thank god for that frankly.
Beartown, however, Congleton’s flagship brewery since 1994, is a bit better at making beer than we were. Well, a lot better. Last week, as it re-opened its brewery space following a huge refit, its co-owner Joe Manning, surrounded by friends and family celebrating with him, pulled up two kegs and told me how he’s planning to write a new chapter for the business.
Like me, Joe is Congleton born and bred. So he knows the hoary old tale of the town’s nickname as well as anyone. In the 1600s, those in charge of Congleton’s entertainment budget decided to borrow money which had been set aside to buy a new bible to buy a new dancing bear instead, following the sad demise of the town’s previous bear. There was no Netflix, and you can hardly blame them. So henceforth, Congleton has been known as Beartown.
Indulge in more of Ben Arnold's food writing covering Greater Manchester...
-
One of Stockport's best takeaways is run by an ex-footballer and tucked away by Cash Converters
-
The takeaway inside an ex-council house in Blackley serves the 'best curry you'll ever have'
-
A guide to enjoying life in one of Manchester's favourite suburbs
But perhaps some of that appetite for distraction remains, hundreds of years later. With its dozens upon dozens of pubs, the town has always enjoyed a pint or two. Or three. It was from owning pubs, including Ye Olde White Lion, which also dates back to the 1600s and in which I had my first legal pint (and few slightly less than legal ones before that), that Joe first encountered the Beartown Brewery.
He would buy its beer from founder Ian Burns, and when he decided to sell the business in 2017, Joe, his brother Mikey and their dad David decided they’d buy it. They’d had a crack at making their own beer before - their dad was a pharmaceutical engineer, and came with the chemistry, so they started a small imprint called Manning Brewers, but they admit they had ‘no idea’ what they were doing at the time. “Not even sure what we’re doing now,” Joe laughs.
Back then Beartown was mostly a cask beer producer, traditional ales for the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) crowd, and very decent they were too. But since 2017, and amid the continuing rise and rise of the craft beer market, Joe, Mikey and head brewer Robin Pierce have decided to up their game.
Closing the brewery earlier this year, they had searched for larger premises, with a mind to increasing their output. But thanks mostly to a certain online retailer, all the units of the size they were looking to move to have been snapped up to become local Amazon fulfilment hubs.
In the end, they decided to stay where they were and get some better, bigger and more modern equipment instead, which allows them to make more beer in their beloved brewery building, and build themselves a shiny new taproom bar too, which, with its large windows gives drinkers a view of the whole set up.
“Our newest piece of kit was 25 years old, and our oldest was 60 years old,” Joe says. “We just inherited it. It was decaying as we were using it, and building up calluses and beer stones. We just want to take it forward, make more hoppy beers, which is where the market is going and what excites us. We want to show everyone what we can do, and push our brand out to be nationwide.”
That takes money, of course. And some new products. Some of the first beer to emerge from their shiny new kit is a new pale ale called Inception that they’re hoping could break through, boasting the brewery’s new branding and artwork.
“This is going to be a mainstay, to challenge your Beavertowns, your Neck Oil, your Tiny Rebel. That’s where we want it to sit,” he says. “We want to show people what we can do. But in all honesty, we can’t afford to take them on right now, we don’t have the same budget, we spent our budget in here. But that’s not to say we won’t challenge them in due course.”
They're on the right track. When they took on the brewery it was making around 200,000 pints a year. They took it to 1,000,000 in just a few years, and with the new kit, they now have the capacity to make 3,000,000 pints a year.
Head brewer Robin started as a delivery driver but then, after years of study and practice under its former owner, now drives all the new brewing kit. He told me: “The traditional beers we do won’t change, but we’re expanding to become more contemporary, so some more exciting styles. The craft scene is so massive now, so it’s a challenge for us to go from trad to craft, but it’s a challenge that we’ll relish, maybe one day being considered in the same sphere.”
Perhaps one way of taking on brewing giants when you don’t have a massive marketing budget is having an eye for a decent story, something Beartown has always had. Its storied golden ale Wojtek is so named after a real-life Syrian brown bear who was found abandoned as a cub by Polish soldiers during World War II and eventually fought alongside them, rising to the rank of corporal.
More recently, when Storm Eunice was rattling window frames and scattering wheelie bins, Beartown quickly brewed up a Big Jet TV ‘stormy pale’, in tribute to the YouTube channel which became an overnight sensation. It was the kind of agile marketing which is increasingly getting the brewery noticed.
But the town will always be intrinsic to the brewery’s identity, and they’re all for putting a bit back. Their beer Care Bear, produced in lockdown, was made specifically to be given away to local key workers. “Congleton is everything to this brewery,” Joe says. “When covid happened, the people of the town came out of the woodwork to support us. They were unbelievable. We announced we were setting up a drive through, and on the first day, 20 cars were waiting for us. We were really humbled by it.”
They still are too. On re-opening night, there’s a group of old boys from the Astbury golf club, just out of town. They tell me that beer from Beartown was a lifeline for their club during the pandemic.
The major brewers wouldn’t promise them any supplies at all, and left them completely high and dry. But Joe stepped in, and now the club has all but abandoned the major breweries and has a three year deal serving majority Beartown beers. They even labelled up one of their ales specially to celebrate the club’s centenary.
So while they could have moved to larger premises, possibly even out of town, Joe and his team seem pretty delighted that they didn’t, and that they’ve instead made the best of what they had all along instead. “It’s our heartland, our hub,” he goes on. “It’s just where it has to be from. From Congleton.”
Get the latest What's On news - from food and drink to music and nightlife - straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
-
'I found Manchester's best sandwich down a very dodgy looking backstreet'
-
Why the Jewish Museum's award-winning Cheetham Hill café is 'good for the soul'
-
Family, faith and 'the best' doughnuts: Life in Manchester's oldest kosher bakery
-
The takeaway inside an ex-council house in Blackley serves the 'best curry you'll ever have'
-
One of Stockport's best takeaways is run by an ex-footballer and tucked away by Cash Converters
