The Cream of Manchester is back!
“When I returned north to join the family business in 1994, Boddingtons was the most popular beer in the North West. It was a massive brand.” says William. The thing that changed William’s mind was a focus group with drinkers in their 20s and 30s, a generation of Despite never having drunk it, they loved the idea of a creamy pint of Boddingtons Cask Bitter, in much the same way Guinness is finding a whole new generation of drinkers. Family history Boddingtons Brewery was founded in Manchester in 1778 as the Strangeways Brewery. It was a modest operation serving the cotton workers of the city. consumers who’ve grown up alongside the craft beer boom. Henry Boddington joined the brewery in 1832 before taking it over in 1853. Over the next 25 years, he increased output tenfold, making Boddingtons Manchester’s largest brewery, and one of the largest in Northern England. During the Manchester Blitz, the brewery’s water tanks were badly damaged, closing the brewery for several months, and production was temporarily moved to Hydes Brewery, in the Moss Side area of Manchester. “Boddingtons is to Manchester what Fuller’s London Pride is to London.”
Boddingtons captured the zeitgeist of Manchester in the 90s and noughties. It was made famous across the UK with the advertising campaign from Bartle Bogle Hegarty which featured the model and actress Melanie Sykes and phrases like “By ’eck” or “Would you like a flake in that?” At the time, Boddingtons was arguably the city’s most iconic brand alongside Manchester United and Coronation Street. It gave Manchester a voice, put it on the map and played a role in the regeneration of the city. It is so much part of the city that since 1900 the Boddingtons logo has featured two worker bees – the symbol of Manchester. So, when William Lees-Jones was approached by Budweiser, two years ago, to ask whether he would bring back Boddingtons as a cask beer, he was nervous.
Boddingtons is a brand that’s synonymous with both Manchester and family business. Having disappeared as a cask beer years ago, after the Boddingtons family brewery was sold, it is back and being brewed by Manchester’s oldest family brewer, JW Lees. Martin Greig spoke to William Lees- Jones about the fall and rise of the Cream of Manchester. “We can’t brew enough of it,” says William as we talk at JW Lees’ Greengate Brewery in Middleton, about 6 miles from the centre of Manchester. “Pubs are putting it on their bars and it’s selling out almost as soon as it goes on the bar.”
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