Mike Marcus isn’t afraid to make bold decisions.
Many lamented his call to stop canning the brewery’s beers several years ago. They sold well and got the Chorlton name out there, but he wasn’t happy with the quality. So that was that.
“You could argue we’re less visible now, but we’re selling more beer than ever before,” he enthuses. “However, we’re always going to be a boutique operation and I never want that to change.”
Chorlton’s founder, a Londoner, is graduate of the capital’s Saint Martin’s University of the Arts and it was during an MA in fine art when he started to become increasingly disillusioned with the art world that surrounded him. Dealings with other professions led him to the world of brewing and a desire to express his creativity in different ways.
Now, in 2018, Marcus, who is speaking at the Brewers Congress in London next month, is looking towards the next stage of the brewery’s development.
And all roads lead to Belgium.
“I love what we do here in Manchester, and thankfully drinkers do too. But I want to evolve Chorlton, and what it means to people,” he explains.
And that means opening a Lambic brewery in Belgium. Marcus is in the planning stages of a project where the business will open a Lambic operation overseas to complement the output produced in suburban Manchester.
“I pride myself in making simple, accessible sour beer,” he says. “But this market is getting increasingly competitive all of the time, and by complementing those beers with Lambic gives us a point of difference. I couldn’t be more excited.”
A Lambic brewery, Marcus believes, will help elevate Chorlton’s standing in both the UK, and wider world.
“We want to take that next step, and to do something that bit more special. I’ll never compromise what we do in the UK, but producing Lambic beer will help more people sit up and take notice of us,” he adds.
That’s not to say drinkers are not doing that as it is, though.
Marcus is seeing a notable increase in the types of beers resonating with drinkers, as well as the types of drinkers enjoying them, too.
Beers such as Mango Sour, English Strawberry Sour and Vanilla Sour are flying off taps as soon as they hit them, and Marcus says it’s not rocket science to know why.
“We’re making beer that’s accessible and affordable,” he says. “They may not be as complex as some of the other beers we produce, but they are drawing people into our space that may not have done so otherwise.”
Marcus adds: “People that previously drank stuff like Kopparberg, or even still do, are buying and enjoying our beers. And if you’re making beer that lots of people can appreciate and enjoy, then where’s the harm in that?”
