Matt, our Head Brewer, has a rich history in the world of brewing that began long before he joined our team. His journey started in the most humble of settings, his own basement.
What started as a hobby soon became a passion, leading him to enter home brew competitions and seek out a community of like-minded people.
Matt Dutton - Head Brewer
As his skills and ambition grew, Matt's desire to turn brewing from a hobby into a career took root. He joined our team, initially shadowing Sam to learn what it was to scale small batches to thousands of litres.
Despite his transition, Matt has maintained strong connections with the home brewing community. It was through these connections that he learned about the Manchester Hop Project's search for a new brewery partner following Beer Nouveau's closure.
This news would open an exciting new chapter for us, blending Matt's passion for brewing with locally sourced ingredients.
Alex - Manchester Hop Project
We caught up with Alex from the Manchester Hop Project, to learn more about their beginnings:
"We had the idea for the Hop Project in September 2017 while chatting at the bar at Beer Nouveau and our first harvest was a year later. A couple of us were home-brewers already growing our own hops and Steve thought it might be worth growing some for the brewery. He'd get some free hops and we'd get some beer in return.
There were already a few community hop growing groups around the country so we weren't the first but thought it would be good to have one in Manchester, We publicised the project on social media and got a few people interested so we bought some hop plants in Jan 2018.
There were already a few community hop growing groups around the country so we weren't the first but thought it would be good to have one in Manchester, We publicised the project on social media and got a few people interested so we bought some hop plants in Jan 2018.
By buying in bulk we were able to get a better price. The growers planted them all around the Manchester area and we got 14.6kg of fresh hops in Sept 2018. Every January we promoted it again and got more people interested.
In 2019 and 2020 we received over 23kg and in 2021 we got 45kg. 2022 was our record year with 86kg harvested, Due to some uncertainty about the brewery's future plus a few other issues we didn't really promote it in 2023 and only got 19kg off some of the regular growers.
However after Track stepped in last year and wanted to do more this year we were able to resume promoting the project so in 2023 we hit our second best harvest of 75kg."
As we mentioned in our previous post, the ability to use ingredients, grown and rooted in our local community feels incredibly special and a rarity for a city based brewery.
A huge thanks to the Manchester Hop Project and everyone who took part in this years Harvest. We are already excited for what next year might bring...
However after Track stepped in last year and wanted to do more this year we were able to resume promoting the project so in 2023 we hit our second best harvest of 75kg."
As we mentioned in our previous post, the ability to use ingredients, grown and rooted in our local community feels incredibly special and a rarity for a city based brewery.
A huge thanks to the Manchester Hop Project and everyone who took part in this years Harvest. We are already excited for what next year might bring...