Friday PM behind Piccadilly Station. Trading estates, bars and luxury apartments take up the place of old warehouses and depots. Despite changing drastically in the last 10 years, pockets still keep their charm as my taxi driver takes me down various cal-de-sacs and car parks trying to find the brewery for Manchester Union, who claim to “brew the finest lager in Manchester.”
It’s a bold claim but as co-founder Jamie Scahill greets me, the claim begins to gain more substance as I see the pumps.
“I used to own Twenty Twenty Two in the Northern Quarter and my business partner used to work for Duvel. There were no decent lagers at the time here, so we did tons of research and went from there.
“We’re six years in now, the idea was to brew a good quality European beer on decoction which is what the German and Czech breweries use, we’re one of only three in the UK,” Jamie tells me in his office which looks over all the Manchester Union lager being made.
Despite it feeling like a European beer, the emphasis is definitely still on being local. The website boasts about brewing using methods unique to the UK and with a Mancunian swagger.
“We’ve always tried to use British hops and barley, we’ve always wanted to do our own thing instead of just replicating other people. It was a challenging thing for a few people when we launched to normal lager and IPA drinkers. We had the taproom for a good few years to educate people on this type of lager from a local brewery and then we ran out of space. The keg washer is where the bar used to be. When we started, the Manchester Union factory was a quarter of the size it is now.”
Jamie is no stranger to making stuff, as well as running the brewery, he’s also involved with Highest Point Festival in Lancaster alongside working with ticketing platform Skiddle and clubnight Funkademia.
“It’s our sixth year doing Highest Point in Lancaster. It’s good to spread things out a bit. Rents and rates aren’t as much out the city centre, people are local so they can walk there.”
“Manchester as a city has grown so as the audience gets older, people will move further out. I lived in the city centre when I was younger but now I’ve moved out to Monton because I’ve got kids and there’s stuff going on there as well. We try to keep stuff inside the M60 with the brewery only because we’re a Manchester brewery.”
“We know Manchester, where we could get the beer in, it definitely helped with distributing the lager. Refuge on Oxford Road and Exhibition off St Peter’s Square are where it’s been the most popular. It’s a small little community with other breweries especially with the cost of living.”
That has been a continuing problem for breweries in recent years. Costs and electricity rising is then passed onto the consumer who can be squeezed by the giant multinationals who can afford to keep costs down.
“Our sales have increased every year but so have costs. It would end up being £9.50 a pint if we passed on the costs we’d taken for the venue to still hit their gross profit. Electricity, gas, we’ve got a steam boiler and everything is electric. It costs a lot of money to run a brewery and you can’t just pass that onto a venue. Festival prices are the same, you try and just ride out a bit. Would you rather pay £6 for a Manchester beer or one that is made by a huge corporation in an area of London? Exhibition has a happy hour where you can get a £4 pint.”
The emphasis is on quality as I’m taken around the brewery, you can tell the process isn’t rushed.
“It takes about 6/7 weeks from start to finish to make a pint. They brew it, it sits in a fermentation vessel for two weeks and then conditions for another few weeks, settled and then kegged and straight out. We can keg something in the morning and you could be drinking it that afternoon. You’ve got no idea what preservatives or what’s been added to other beers that have been made in bigger factories. Ours is 100% natural and vegan.
“Some of the other brands will do craft beer to try and fit in with the market and people just see through it these days. You can tell that we’re 100% independent. We’ve not touched supermarkets because we wouldn’t make a penny.”
Although there are challenges with running a brewery, it seems that the future does look strong for Manchester Union.
“We’ve got another two years before we max this place out before we have to get new premises. We’ve got a new taproom with Trof we’re going to open in September/ October in the city centre close to the Union building which is going to be like what we used to do but on a bigger scale.”
Visit https://manchesterunionbrewery.com/ to find out more and Manchester Union.
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