Hip Flask scours the globe to bring the best craft beers direct from brewers to your doorstep.
It’s as simple as that.
But perhaps ‘simple’ is not the word, as without a great deal of passion and drive to make it work, this finely-tuned operation founded right here in Greater Manchester would fall short, but after two furloughed friends started the company with ambition and the intent of selling to a couple of people they knew, Hip Flask has since flourished.
The craft beer delivery company has taken hundreds of Mancunians on “a journey of beer discovery” since the start of lockdown, and it’s all done through expertly-selected picks with the perfect blend of flavour, character and strength to please the palate.
A Pub In A Box, you could say – which also happens to be the name of its first collection.
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Hip Flask is the brainchild of Sam and Phil – childhood friends with a mutual love for all things craft beer – who after finding themselves, like many others, with a few extra hours on their hands at the start of April this year, started chatting about what they could do to fill the time.
“We’re both into our beer and we’d compare notes on any new and interesting beers we’d tried since we last met.” Sam explained to us.
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“We subscribed to a couple of craft beer delivery companies, but we found them a bit lacking,
“There didn’t seem to be any context to the beers we were drinking or any information on who produced it [and] we know the passion and the artistry that goes into making craft beer [so] we wanted to show this to other people.”
The Manchester Box by Hip Flask
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though at the start.
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Sam continued: “We naively thought it would be a case of buying the beer and start selling.
“It turned out we needed a couple of licences before we could do that, but eventually, we’d licensed a spare bedroom in my house in Manchester to sell craft beer and Hip Flask was born.
“We started selling a few boxes to friends and we’ve slowly grown from there”.
And it’s fair to say that a pretty significant part of that growth is the city in which it was born, or more specifically, a hand-picked collection of beers that pays homage to and celebrates everything the city is loved around the world for.
So, what exactly is The Manchester Box then?
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The Manchester Box by Hip Flask
Well, every proud Mancunian knows that Manchester is a city with a rich and iconic history, right?
Think the Haçienda, L.S. Lowry, Paul Scholes, Emmeline Pankhurst, Franny Lee, Liam & Noel, Caroline Ahern, Anthony Burgess, Shelagh Delaney, FAC51, and not forgetting Vimto, of course – but Hip Flask wants to show the world that beer needs to be added to that list too.
The Manchester Box is designed to “highlight the unique identity of Manchester” and is filled with some of the best beer this city has to offer.
“Pubs and breweries have been some of the hardest hit financially throughout this year, particularly in Manchester,” said Sam, “[and] we wanted to do what we could to help, so we created The Manchester Box,
“A celebration of Manchester’s brilliant independent craft breweries.”
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“We wanted to capture the spirit and the vibe of Manchester and the city’s continual defiance in the face of adversity. Manchester has a history of pulling together in dark times and that’s what we wanted to achieve with this box.”
Say hello to the Manchester Box! Featuring 12 beers from our favourite Manchester breweries.
Manchester is iconic for football, art and music. We want to show the world that beer needs to be added to the list.
An ideal Christmas gift for any beer lover, or even just someone with a special place in their heart for the rainy city, The Manchester Box is filled with a diverse range of lagers, pale ales and IPAs created in breweries across the region.
Each box contains a total of 12 specially-selected beers (5x 440ml cans and 7x 330ml cans).
Beers from beloved Greater Manchester breweries Alphabet, Beatnikz Republic, Brightside, First Chop, Seven Bro7hers, and Shindigger all proudly feature.
It also comes complete with tasting notes on all of beers featured in the collection as a way to enhance the drinking experience, as well a map with details about the breweries that each of the beers have been crafted in, adding depth to each sip.
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And crucially, the purchase of each box directly contributes to small and independent local businesses at a time when they truly need the support more than ever before.
The Manchester Box by Hip FlaskThe Manchester Box by Hip Flask
The Manchester Box will set you back just £35 for the full collection.
Hip Flask is currently offering free local delivery to households within eight miles of its premises, and national delivery of £4 or free on orders above £50.
All boxes are expected to be delivered within three working days of the order being placed.
More information can be found via the Hip Flask website here, and you can also keep up to date with Sam, Phil and the Hip Flask team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
How a cult classic game helped create the sound of Blossoms’ new album
Danny Jones
More specifically, their soundtracks, as in a recent chat with the Blossoms boys, we found out that their upcoming album was at least partly influenced by a beloved PlayStation 2 classic from 2006.
This is just more proof that you really can find inspiration in just about anything.
Yes, even if only in part, an old video game that many of you may have played back in the day is somehow connected to the latest and technically still yet to be announced release.
We’ve heard of groups such as The 1975 trying to make an album that sounds “as if John Hughes had directed a movie about our lives”, and Red Rum Club leaning further into the growing Western aesthetic with almost every outing, but we never thought we’d hear of a record born out of a love for Bully…
The lads actually touched on that whole ‘still TBC’ when we spoke to them at their studio in Stockport, joking not just about divorce but how they’re baffled by the whole ‘are they working on new music?’ speculation in the media. “Well, yeah, we’re a band – that’s what we do for a living”, as they put it.
But back to the point at hand: lead guitarist Dewhurt’s affection for Bully, a cult favourite PS2 title released by Rockstar Games – the same people behind Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Red Dead Redemption – and the score behind it, essentially served as a seed for the feel of their newest work.
As he explained above, before being expanded on by frontman and primary lyricist Tom Odgen, they were fortunate enough to be in possession of the details for one half of a duo they both admire: Young Gun Silver Fox, a.k.a. British artist Andy Platts and US multi-talented instrumentalist, Shawn Lee.
Lee also just so happens to be the composer of the original Bully video game soundtrack.
Ultimately, this all came about because Josh contacted him over email simply to praise the game’s music (sure, when he was a teenager, we promise), and only took them until the last year or so to put two and two together. Small world, eh?
Oh, the nostalgia.
It has since occurred to us that we’ve come across him before, too.
For us, it was when playing the first Tales From The Borderlands (a spin-off of the popular action role-playing looter-shooter series that has since been turned into a Hollywood movie), which features his song ‘Kiss The Sky’ and ALSO enjoyed in our late teens.
It still continues to baffle us how things can come full circle like this.
As it turns out, his music appears in various pieces of pop culture, and with Tom professing his love for the funky, bass-forward 80s vibes of Lee and his partner Platts’ stuff, he was then roped in as part of the production team on the hypotheticalBlossoms LP number six. Not that we know anything about that…
What has now come out of all this is the previously alluded to lead single entitled ‘Joke About Divorce’, the music video for which dropped last month.
‘Joke About Divorce’ our new single is out now! We love this record, we recorded it live to tape at Tilehouse Studios with Shawn Lee producing. The second we got the mix back it felt like an instant Blossoms classic (if we do say so ourselves)!
We’re still not sure whether or not this is just the first finished song from the project, the opener or indeed even a title track; all we know is it’s another catchy creation from the Stopfordians.
But yeah, in a roundabout way, somehow that ‘problematic’ game that our parents and teachers complained about when we were kids, either by sheer chance, serendipity or perhaps the divine will of the audio gods, appears to have served as a kind of sonic sapling for a fresh era of the local outfit.
Sadly, we have very little else to offer you in terms of information regarding the ‘as yet confirmed’ next studio release from the Blossoms, but we can tell you we’re very much looking forward to hearing what comes next – especially live.
In case you missed it, they’re headlining this year’s edition of NBHD Weekender music festival at the end of the month; you can see the rest of the lineup down below.
Featured Images — Rockstar Games/Audio North/Press shot (via Go! Entertainment)
Feature
Inside Tyga, as a Manchester favourite changes its stripes for a new era
Danny Jones
We recently had the pleasure of visiting Tyga, Manchester city centre’s latest Indian restaurant, which has taken the place of former local favourite, Asha’s.
The Peter Street spot had always been a great place for a curry and progressive takes on the nation’s staples, often pulling inspiration from the Rajasthan region, but now the unit is the start of a new chapter.
In truth, the food was always pretty damn good here – often truly great, even – as we found out the last time we reviewed it; however, it’s clear that there’s been a greater honing of the concept.
Put simply, Tyga is trying to elevate what the team already did so well, whilst adding an extra layer of fine-dining refinement.
@the.manc Peter Streets Indian spot Tyga, has had a serious glow-up, bringing a more refined, fine-dining take on Indian cuisine while keeping all the bold flavours at the heart of it. The 24-hour slow-simmered lamb shank is an absolute must, as is the butter chicken which just melts in your mouth. 😍 It’s not just about the food here though, with an extensive cocktail list that brings theatre to the table, they’re the perfect accompaniment to your table full of scran. It’s the perfect spot for date night, celebrations, or when you just want to seriously impress someone over dinner. 🍸 Get it booked. 📍 47 Peter Street, M2 3NG #themanc#tygamanchester#manchesterfoodie#manchestercurry#wheretoeatinmanchester♬ original sound – The Manc
You hear sentences like a ‘contemporary twist on cuisine’ and ‘modern approaches to classics’ recycled quite a lot, and we get it: it can be a great way to get across that you’re trying to push culinary tradition(s) forward, but it often feels a bit of a throwaway term that’s used far too much.
That being said, while there’s definitely a feeling of familiarity to this recently refreshed foodie lineup, this is one of the times and places where it actually seems like that phrase means something.
While the building and stunning venue itself might have stayed largely the same, bar some knick-knacks being swapped for a few different tiger-based decorations, the authentic clay-pot lamb, ‘Tyga’ prawns, salmon tikka, and Vepudu spiced stir fry show some real innovation.
A lot of these might be rooted in a kind of food we know very well here in Britain, but these latest iterations in recipes and experimentation with their components result in some very cool creations.
The ember wings were smoky and moorish in a way that we’ve not had in a restaurant like this before, and the lamb chops alone were worth ordering by the wheelbarrow full.
Small plates have also been thrown into the mix more seamlessly this time around, too, as have some of the Indo-Chinese options that feel less like a footnote now and, instead, like a continuation of the tweaking and trying out new things seen throughout the rest of the offerings.
Even the vegetarian/vegan section of the menu has been lifted in certain aspects, too, with previously popular dishes being brought back better and more beautifully presented than ever.
Before we forget, a special shout-out goes to those beetroot dill patties.
Speaking of presentation, although they might have simplified some stuff (such as the okra fries that simply need to be dumped on the table and be devoured in seconds by gannets like us), as mentioned, plenty of other bits have been levelled up.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that they’ve just been voted alongside some fellow standout spots by the Asian Catering Federation.
They’ve never shied away from a bit of pageantry, and nothing has changed in that respect.
Everything from the plating to even giving you a rotating water jug that revolves on a single point and never spills has a bit of flair, without being too much or straying into gimmicky territory.
Most importantly of all, whether you want a classy room for your next date night, somewhere intimate the next time you go out for tea with your partner, or still fancy a more banquet-style feast for you and your mates in the form of the updated ‘Maharaja’s Grand Platter’, Tyga can turn its paw to any occasion.
Emily Sergeant -
4th December 2020 
