MANCHESTER

From the start of the Industrial Revolution through the Microbrewery Revolution  to the Craft Beer Revolution, Manchester has always been a city at the forefront of change.

With the help of local beer experts John Clarke and Lianne Williams we look at how Manchester's beer scene started and changed over the generations.

Manchester's brewing history started in earnest during the Industrial Revolution as people flocked to the cities for work in the sprawling factories, brewing in their houses in narrow streets, supplying themselves and their neighbours with beer. Towards the end of the Industrial Revolution, brewing itself had become industrialised and Manchester saw some of the first large scale industrial breweries. As well as retaining four family brewers whilst most areas of the country no longer have any.

Later it was at the forefront of the Microbrewery Revolution with brew pubs that were ahead of their time in equipment and décor, breweries that were recreating American IPAs and Pale Ales before Craft Beer existed, and a little brew pub that has gone from strength to strength to become a family owned global brand.

And in the modern Craft Beer Revolution there are a lot of surprises for visitors to the city, with far more breweries than most realise.