THE DEATH of the English Pub by Christopher Hutt (1973) was a fierce polemic in the fledgling days of the Campaign for Real Ale. Since then doom mongers have regularly lamented the loss of these stalwart community assets. How we cried into our beer again recently when the British Pub Association announced almost 30 pubs a week are currently closing in the UK.

All the brewers came together to brew a special Expo American Pale Ale

How to reconcile this with the more encouraging news from the 2015 Good Beer Guide that we now boast more breweries per head of population than any other country in the world? And that was before a dozen or so opened around Manchester just before Christmas. 

The real evidence of changing ale drinking habits lies with this surge of interest in brewing – dubbed ‘craft’ because of the anything goes quest to expand the range of beer styles beyond the traditional bitter and mild that once fuelled all those vanished street corner locals. 

For a new younger generation of beer fans pubs don’t have a monopoly just as restaurants have to compete with pop-ps and street food. Most of the new brewing operations have opened or plan to open their own ‘taps’, while the plethora of bottle shops that have popped up are effectively microbars, not just providing draught beers for carry-out in flagons or ‘growlers’ and running meet the brewer events but also encouraging punters to sit down and sup there regularly.  

Inspired by IndyManBeerCon (tickets for this year’s event go on sale on Monday 1 June) there’s a huge spirit of co-operation among the microbreweries – and not just in the trend for collaborative ales. Hence the inaugural Manchester Brewery Expo 2015, which takes place on Saturday 23 May 23 and Sunday 24 May reads like a roll call of Manchester’s new craft beer hopistocracy.

.The brewers behind the special Expo American Pale Ale

The Saturday features Piccadilly area breweries – Alphabet, Cloudwater, Privateer, Squawk and Track, all opening their doors to the public for tours, classes and tastings, climaxing with a Manchester tap takeover of First Chop Brewing Arm on Trinity Way, Salford.

Sunday it’s the turn of the Green Quarter brewers, Blackjack, Runaway and old stagers Marble for a similar line-up of events plus street food and live music. The May Day mayhem is complete with a tap takeover of Blackjack on the Sunday evening. There’s even an involvement from a brewery up the road with a bit more history. Joseph Holt (founded in 1849) have joined forces with the Green Quarter trio to create a special ale for the occasion.

All the brewers (pictured above) came together to brew a special Expo American Pale Ale, which will be on sale at every venue. All Weekender tickets have been sold, but some (starting at £5) remain for the Sunday. You can keep up with the Expo via @MCRBrewExpo.

A more traditional, longstanding CAMRA beer festival takes place the following weekend (May 28-30). The 29th Stockport Beer & Cider Festival at Edgeley Park Stadium, features over 200 beers, ciders and perries, along with food and live music.

Back again after its launch success last year is Bar Nouveau, where a dozen specially created beers will make their debut from an impressive roster of local breweries. Quantum have brewed a Sorachi Ace Stout, Offbeat a Pineapple Saison, Deeply Vale a Banana Split Stout, while Runaway/IndyMan Brewhouse have come up with a Hopen Weisse, a hoppy German-style wheat beer.

For full details visit www.stockportfestival.org.uk or via @skbeerfestival. Admission prices range from £2 to £5, depending on which session.

.The Epicurean, West Didsbury

Beers of the Month 

One is from the Expo’s Green Quarter contingent, the other from the Piccadilly, and demonstrate the current ferment of invention. First up is Little Meiko.

To celebrate the imminent arrival of a first child for Gaz Bee, manager of the Marble Arch pub and his wife Meiko, Marble head brewer Matthew Howgate has created a beer in the baby’s honour inspired by Meiko’s Japanese heritage. It’s a cracker – a 7 per cent Sorachi Ace IPA pepped up by the addition of hyper-lemony yuzu fruit to the batch. The refreshing citrus whack marries well with the Sorachi Ace, a high alpha content hop originating from Japan. It’s a weirdly wonderful drink, which you may find on draught at the Marble Arch on Rochdale Road. It’s certainly available at £4.50 a bottle from Saddleworth Real Ale Co and also at Bottle on Shaw Road, Heaton Moor. 

Another of those new wave bottle shops, West Didsbury’s Epicurean, stocks my second beer – a 6.5 per cent Espresso Stout from Squawk Brewing Co. Made with fresh roasted coffee from Bean Brothers, it pours from the bottle like treacle with hints of licorice, slightly sweet but with an earthy rasp to it. Warning: one for caffeine addicts.