Northern brewers unite for new collaboration series

14-Mar-2018 - Last updated on 14-Mar-2018 at 13:37 GMT

Great eight: the beers will be available in 440ml cans from the opening day of the exhibition

Wylam brewery has announced details of a new collaboration series with eight craft breweries from the north of England.

The project, dubbed The Northern Powerhouse Brew Series will run in conjunction with the Great Exhibition of the North (GEOTN) a three-month-long celebration of art, innovation, industry and culture.

The beers will be available in 440ml cans from the opening day of the exhibition (22 June 2018), with 6,600 cases containing all of the eight collaborations being made available for sale.

Celebrating brewing history

The participating breweries are: Buxton, Cloudwater (Manchester), Black Lodge (Liverpool), Northern Monk (Leeds), Magic Rock (Huddersfield), Hawkshead (Kendal), Thornbridge (Sheffield), Box Social (Newcastle). Each brewery will visit Wylam at its home at The Palace of Arts in Exhibition Park, Newcastle, to brew their one-off beer.

The Palace of Arts is the last remaining building from the original GEOTN, which took place in 1929.

Wylam director Dave Stone said: “I wonder what attendees of the exhibition in 1929 would have thought if they had been whisked forward in time to find us mashing in and canning beers together as a celebration of northern industry.

“For us, it’s a real honour to host these exceptional breweries here at Palace of Arts and to be involved in a brew project that celebrates the history of the brewing industry in the region.”

Fuller's & Friends returns

Stone added: "All the breweries involved are extremely passionate about the heritage of the towns and cities they operate in and this project is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the history of industry in each place.”

Cloudwater managing director Paul Jones added: “The north has long been the seat of industrial innovation in the UK. The modern beer scene continues that tradition. We are proud to take part in the first Northern Powerhouse Brew Series alongside some of the most progressive breweries in the country.”

Earlier this week, Fuller’s Beer Company managing director Simon Dodd confirmed that the London brewery’s popular Fuller’s & Friends Project, which saw Fuller’s brewers team up with UK craft breweries to produce six different beers, would return in 2018 and 2019.