Ep86 — In Simpatico with Manchester's Blackjack Brew Co.

Manchester in the mid-2010s was an electric period in the city’s brewing history, with several modern brewing trailblazers—including Track and Cloudwater—exploding onto the scene. Before either of them existed, however, there was Blackjack, which has been quietly plugging away with its wonderful beer since 2012.

Over the years they’ve established themselves not simply as a well-respected brewery and taproom, but through the opening and adoption of several venues around Greater Manchester. These now include Station Hop in Levenshulme, their bars at Mackie Mayor and Altrincham Market, and at their fantastic pub on Swan Street, the Smithfield Market Tavern—or simply ‘The Tav’ to its regulars.

It’s never been Blackjack’s style to boast about their achievements, however, so at the end of last year I decided to do a bit of that for them. Over the summer their lager program was, to put it modestly, having a moment. During this time I became completely enthralled by their Italian Pilsner, In Simpatico, a beer that possesses the crisp, structured body of a pilsner, and a hefty dose of aromatic Enigma hops, planting it somewhere between a lager and a pale ale. Such was its quality, I decided to name it as one of my top ten beers of the year in 2025.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I get a call from the brewery inviting me down for the canning of a new batch. Unable to resist the offer of trying the beer fresh off the line, I headed down to the brewery. Afterwards I settled in at the Smithfield with Blackjack’s managing director Jon Hartley, plus team members George Charlton, Matt Drage and Jack Williams, for a chat about the past, present and future of Blackjack Brew Co.

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