Manchester Beer Week – Co-Op meets Black Jack 

Around this time last year, I was fortunate enough to witness the creation of a beer melding the old and the new with J W Lees & Cloudwater. I was pleased therefore, when Connor Murphy invited me back to witness the creation of the MBW 17 festival beer. 

The Co-Op supermarket has recently (as have many competitors) started to pay more attention to updating their beer offer. And I was chuffed when I heard that an organisation founded in Greater Manchester was locally stocking beers from Black Jack. It’s a simple (and somewhat lazy) move to approach just the craft goliaths, with the likes of Brew Dog, Camden et al freely available in most supermarkets, but Black Jack in Co-Op made my radar tweak. 

It was plain to see that Black Jack have expanded as a company. Times have changed from the days where Rob Hamilton (that most self-deprecating of brewing folk) looked run off his feet. A number of the guys brew there now and some of the recent beers coming out of this (amazingly only) 5 barrel Irk Street plant have been truly lip smacking. 

This beer is to be – at base – a session pale ale. Brewed (by Lane) with aromatic UK hops (Admiral & Minstrel) with the Co-Op addition being a fruit compote added to the boil – something I’ve never done with fruit before – in advance of the bulk of the hops. This turned the beer from an almost ghostly pale to something of a darker hue. 

Having thrown away a lake of dark beer at 2 previous ISBFs, I learned the hard way something that a wise fellow blogger once told me. That Manchester is – so far as beer is concerned – a Pale city. So this beer should go ever so well. And (unlike last year’s festival beer) there won’t be much of it about. 

So I wouldn’t be hanging about!