Brewing is a curiously remote business. Drinkers go to pubs, enjoy a pint or two but have little or no idea how their favourite tipple is made.
The gap can be bridged by placing a small brewing unit inside a pub and many have taken up the option in recent years. It adds to the pleasure of drinking if customers can watch beer being brewed a few feet away.
The mystery of the brewing process is stripped away as we watch grain being mashed, boiled with hops then fermented with yeast.
But there’s always the risk of demand outstripping the ability of a tiny brewing kit to make enough beer. That’s the case at the Marble Brewery in Manchester. When I first went to see the brewing plant, it was at the back of the Marble Arch pub on Rochdale Road in the Ancoats area of Manchester.
Now Marble has two other pubs and some 70 free-trade outlets to supply. As a result, the brewery has been upgraded to 12 barrels and moved to a spacious warehouse beneath a railway arch a few hundred yards from the pub.
Earl Grey
Marble produces a large number of beers, but the one that’s on drinkers’ lips in the north-west is Earl Grey IPA, made with the addition of bergamot that gives the variety of tea its distinctive taste and aroma. Matthew Howgate, who runs the brewery with six colleagues, takes me to the hop store and opens a bag of Earl Grey tea leaves. Bergamot comes from a citrus fruit grown mainly in Italy. Matt and I agree that while neither of us is partial to Earl Grey tea, the addition of bergamot to the IPA makes for a sensational beer.
The 6.8% ABV beer presses all the right buttons for today’s beer drinkers. For a start, with that strength, it’s close to a genuine 19th-century India Pale Ale. But with Citra and Columbus American hops added to English Goldings, it has a massive charge of citrus on the nose and palate.
Matt says that to give the beer its distinctive flavour they make a brew of Earl Grey tea, chill it and strain it, and place it in a muslin bag in the fermenting vessel. Five kilos of tea are needed for each brew.
They believe in pushing the boundaries at Marble. As well as the IPA, Matt and his team make a beer with dry ginger and, on the day of my visit, they were starting work on their interpretation of a strong Belgian-style known as Triple.
Organic
When Marble started brewing in 1997, its major claim to fame was that the beers were all organic. But the strict demands and costs of the Soil Association, which gives permits to organic food and drink producers, meant that promise had to be abandoned.
Today, Marble says its beers are suitable for vegans and vegetarians. This is achieved by not using isinglass as a clearing agent for cask beer.
Isinglass is made from fish bladders and the main source is the sturgeon, which is being hunted to extinction in the quest for caviar eggs. It would, therefore, seem sensible to use alternative sources.
Marble uses silica gel and carrageen. The latter is better known as Irish moss and grows in abundance on the shores of the British Isles. Matt worked for AB InBev before joining Marble and studied yeast management. He says beer will drop bright in the pub cellar as fast as conventional casks if brewers have a good yeast strain and handle it properly.
The regular beers include Draft and Pint, both 3.9% ABV, and Manchester Bitter, a straw-coloured 4.2% ABV ale that is reminiscent of the much-missed Manchester classic, Boddingtons. As well as Earl Grey, there are two further IPAs — Lagonda and Dobber — and two dark beers, Stouter Stout and Chocolate Marble.
Three quarters of production is in cask form but Marble supplies about 15% of its beers in bottle and is developing a good trade with one-way kegs for outlets that can’t handle cask beer.
As well as the Marble Arch, the brewery owns the Beer House in Chorlton and 57 Thomas Street in Manchester, which is the name as well as the address.
Stalwart
The Marble Arch is a peach of a pub. It dates from 1888 and is Grade II listed. It’s built from red granite and the striking interior has cast-iron beams, ceramic tiled walls, a glazed ceiling, large mirrors and a blazing fire.
It is famous for a sloping floor: it was visited by Laurel and Hardy when they were touring British music halls and I can picture Stan Laurel removing his bowler and scratching his head as he slithered from door to bar. To commemorate the visit, the Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society meets regularly in the pub.
The Belgian-style beer being produced nearby marked the 900th Marble brew.
The brewery has become a stalwart of the Manchester drinking scene and the success of Earl Grey IPA gives drinkers every excuse for popping out for an afternoon cuppa.