Hydes too tough for executioner's axe

Who will be the next to go? That was the question on many lips when Fuller's bought George Gale's brewery in Hampshire last month. Hard on the heels of Ridley's and Jennings, which had fallen to Greene King and Wolverhampton & Dudley, the brewing world was full of speculation about the future for regionals and which might be the next to feel the cold steel of the executioner's axe.

Well, you can cross Hydes of Manchester off the list. I found the family-owned brewery to be fighting fit and full of confidence in the future.

The redbrick Victorian plant in Moss Side is Grade II listed and is the fourth site to be occupied by Hydes, which was founded in 1863.

The company was called Hydes Anvil Brewery until the 1990s, with the anvil as its logo.

However, the decline of heavy industry, even in Manchester, led to the disappearance of the symbol of muscular endeavour.

The good news is that the company has not totally jettisoned its past. It still brews three mild ales, Light, Traditional and Dark. Each is a separate brew: there is no 'parti-gyling', which means making one brew and then tinkering with the colour and hop rates. Anvils or no anvils, drinkers in the north-west still want to drink mild in abundance.

Hydes was once the smallest of Manchester's breweries but is now the biggest supplier of cask beer in the north-west. There has been a massive investment in the site in recent years, doubling production to 120,000 barrels a year.

The contract to brew cask Boddington's for InBev UK has taken up some of that capacity, but Hydes' own cask beers are growing in popularity. Total sales grew by 8% last year, while sales of Jekyll's Gold 4.2% abv premium beer have increased by a spectacular 38%.

Perhaps the surest sign of Hydes' success and the popularity of its cask beers is that the brewery's racking line and distribution area are packed with barrels.

At a time when most breweries supply nine-gallon firkins and 18-gallon kilderkins, it is a pleasure to come across so many proper 36-gallon containers.

Head brewer Paul Jefferies, who I last met when he held the same position at Cains in Liverpool, has a flexible and modern brewhouse in which he crafts his brews. In common with Adnams in Suffolk, which I reported on recently, Hydes uses the Continental system of a mash converter and separate filter or lauter tun to produce the sweet wort or extract that will be fermented into alcohol.

The system - which may become mandatory under new EU legislation to reduce the amount of energy required to make beer - enables 3.5 brews to be pushed through the brewhouse every day. In a conventional British brewery, a single mash tun produces the wort and then filters it, which slows the process.

English Maris Otter and Pearl malts are used, along with a wide variety of hops, including such traditional English varieties as Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings, with Styrian Goldings from Slovenia.

Original Bitter, 3.8% abv, is the flagship beer, accounting for half the cask-ale production. It is 'dry hopped' with Fuggles, which means a handful of hops are added to every cask for additional aroma and bitterness. It is a fine example of a traditional and, dare I say, old-fashioned bitter, full of biscuity malt, deep hop bitterness and tangy orange fruit.

The beauty of the brewing system is that Paul Jefferies can make lager as well as ale. Hydes produces Harp Irish Lager for Diageo while other contract beers include keg Trophy Bitter.

Hydes has a rolling 'craft beer' programme of bi-monthly ales. The most popular beers may become regulars, which is how the phenomenally successful Jekyll's Gold came to the fore.

On a bitterly cold day, I sampled a winter beer called Insulation (5%), jet black from the use of chocolate malt, as warming and comforting as a blanket and one of the best new beers I have tasted for some time.

Hydes, which owns 75 pubs and supplies 250 regular free-trade accounts, is about to invest a further £2m in a new warehouse complex adjoining the brewery. It is a further sign of faith in the future and in the cask-beer sector.