The quirky Manchester brewery with some of the funniest beer names in the city
Having co-founded Cloudwater Brew Co and spent thirteen years at Marble before that, Sureshot's head brewer is as knowledgeable about beer as his wit is dry.
Independent breweries and taprooms have been having a real moment in Manchester.
Over the past decade, there’s been a real gold rush with the advent of Piccadilly’s beer mile heralding a whole new era for local brewers and drinkers alike.
In fact, the choice nowadays is overwhelming – with some feeling a bit out of their depth given the never-ending element of choice. For others, though, that is the fun of the whole thing.
As a keen beer drinker and taproom fan, it has been a treat to have so many exciting indie breweries springing up in recent years.
Even if a few sadly had to close their doors because of rising energy costs, we’ve still got plenty left – not least relative newcomer Sureshot, a quirky Manchester brewery with some of the funniest beer names in the city.
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Brewed ‘from the belly of Manchester’, this fairly young brewery is all about not taking itself too seriously. If you were in any doubt, all you need to do is scan its beer list which is chock full of silly names like Have Thee Nowt Moist, Jabroni, Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew,Underwhelming Kazoo Party, and (my personal favourite) Eighteen Free Personalised Fridge Magnets.
Some reference TV shows, like the Arrested Development-inspired IPA They’re Not Tricks They’re Illusions, or the Mr. Blobby-inspired Dunblobbin, promoted by the team at last year’s Indy Man Beer Con by one of their team strolling around in a life-size pink, white and yellow costume.
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Others are reflective of in-jokes shared by the small brewing team, who manage to churn out tens of thousands of pints a week according to head brewer James Campbell.
With decades of experience under his belt, James is as knowledgeable about beer as his wit is dry. The result is that in just three years Sureshot has cemented itself firmly in the ranks with some of the city’s most exciting breweries.
Having co-founded Cloudwater Brew Co in 2014 after thirteen years spent heading up the brewing operation at Marble Beers, James has spent decades living and breathing all things beer, not to mention shaping the direction of some of Manchester’s most popular breweries on the way.
But whilst the beer inside Sureshot’s cans is made of serious stuff, everything else about this young, fun brewery is decidedly unserious – and that’s the whole joy of it.
Sitting down with James, he outlines his background a little and it soon becomes clear that this is a man who knows his stuff. As he puts it, he’s been brewing “since God knows when, I think 96, a long time, yeah.”
A serial head brewer at some of the city’s most respected breweries, today he runs Sureshot with his business partner Michael.
“I was at Marble for thirteen years as the head brewer there, and then I did a year of consultancy, I was involved in Brewsmith and Runaway and Barcelona Beer Cat.
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“Whilst I was doing that, I was involved in setting up Cloudwater,” he adds, revealing he wrote the first five hundred recipes for Cloudwater before moving on in 2018 with a plan to start his own brewery.
“This is it,” he deadpans, as if I didn’t know we were sitting in it.
In the time it took to set Sureshot up, he also worked as a project lead on the DEYA and Verdant brewery plant builds – but maintains that, whilst they were great jobs, there is no better feeling than having his own place.
“So myself and Mike had a lot of chat about it and a lot of thought about it. Our original beer was with Vocation, that was during the middle of lockdown, they offered us the opportunity to do a beer with them.
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“Matt at Vocation I’ve known since Marble days, he’s a good lad and he’s a really good brewer so we said yeah, why the hell not, did a double IPA with them and it ended up in Tesco.”
“It was quite weird [for our first beer to go onto the supermarket shelves], but it was a very weird time. You know, it was the middle of lockdown, there were no pubs open and, it was like, well, ‘how are we going to do this'” he laughs.
“That all came together nicely. So, er, we were looking at ways of doing this and how to, how to skin a cat basically, which is unfortunate if you’re a cat.”
“Track had bought a new brewery, I mean we wanted to go for something a bit bigger than this originally but nobody knew what shape the world was going to be the other side of lockdown so, er it makes people risk averse and borrowing expensive so we spoke to Sam at Track and said ‘what are you doing with that brewery you no longer need?'”
After arriving at a figure and buying the brewery, Sureshot officially moved in on 25 January 2022 and stuck the first brew, called How Much Does Water Weigh, through that same day. Within a month, beer number one was out for sale in the world – and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Three years on from its inception, Sureshot’s name is up there with some of the most established brewers in the city.
At its taproom, the team hosts regular events – welcoming in pop-up supper clubs such as Our Place and The Little Sri Lankan, as well as working alongside its neighbouring breweries to host big block parties where beer fans can go from bar to bar, sampling different drinks as they go.
As well as brewing up a storm from its Sheffield Street location, you can also just pop in for a quiet pint with the taproom open from Wednesday to Sunday every week.
The next Block Party takes place this month, with Sureshot, Cloudwater, Track, and Balance Brewing all joining forces on 15 July for a big. boisterous summer edition celebrating the Piccadilly area’s established and growing craft beer scene.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Feature
Let’s all stop pretending Nickelback are anything but mint – their gig at Manchester’s AO Arena proved it
Danny Jones
Don’t ask us how, why or when, but once upon a time, long, long ago, half the world decided that they didn’t Nickelback and that’s just the way it’s been ever since.
In fact, they’re probably one of the most Marmite, not to mention most memed bands on the planet – they even have a new documentary called Hate to Love – but we’re here to put a stop to that today.
Who knows what it was that put a bee in the collective bonnet when it came to Nickelback all those years ago, all we know is that we’re bored of it and you shouldn’t waste a second more of your life pretending to hate them.
This isn’t even a guilty pleasure thing: we have absolutely no shame in ‘confessing’ that we think Nickelback are mint and their gig at the AO Arena in Manchester on Monday night proved it.
Exhibit A: it all started with an absolutely perfect choice of support act in The Lottery Winners. While you could argue their brand of indie rock doesn’t necessarily line up with what you’d expect most Nickelback fans to listen to, their pop sensibility and love of proper catchy hooks definitely do.
The local band from just down the road in Leigh continue to be one of our favourite Manchester bands at the minute not least because of their banter and energy up on the stage.
Yes, their tunes are great and we particularly loved the audience participation they got going for ‘Start Again’ (we would have really loved Frank Turner to suddenly appear for his bit), but it was Tom’s effortless Manc chat and jokey but sincere energy throughout the set that won over the crowd.
By the time they were about to leave the stage they managed to get the crowd jumping arguably just as much as they did when the headliners came out. Speaking of…
After a short little intro from a running VT of a getaway van leading a police chase that looked like a cutscene from some kind of late 2000s PS3 trailer (you just have to chuckle at the over-the-top Americana of it all), they erupted on stage to kick things into fifth gear.
They say Canadians are famously polite but there was nothing reserved about this entrance; they smashed the doors down to set the arena to full party mode with banger after banger and, honestly, we forgot just how many they had.
It’s not often you hear this phase unironically, but this was, as Chad put it, a good old fashioned ‘rock show’ and the roughly 20,000 fans were all ‘rocking out’ from start to finish.
The four-piece were very much enjoying a little bit of naughtiness from the Manchester crowd too, with the camera panning to a woman holding a sign that read ‘I like my pants around my feet’ – the first line from ‘Figured It Out’ – to which the frontman replied, “me too” before proceeding to play the song in full.
Plenty more shenanigans
Those little moments of funny nonsense didn’t stop there either – not even close.
From jokingly introing the song as ‘Look at this graaaph’ and confessing that they do have the internet, to getting a member of the crew on stage to serve shots as they got the crowd to chant his name, they were just having fun and throwing some very good tunes in between.
That slightly odd and nostalgic visualiser kept popping up in the background every now and again too but the icing on the cake had to be when they got a literal Chad Kroeger lookalike on stage to sing ‘Rockstar’ with them.
You’ve not quite lived until you’ve seen a somewhat tipsy Manc with the original long, blonde Nickelback hair in a black band tee tucked into blue jeans and a big shiny belt buckle genuinely make the actual bloke from Nickelback want to grow his back.
A shining moment
There were lots of highlights and particularly memorable moments to pick out amongst all the fun.
Be it rhythm guitarist Ryan Peake explaining how the QR code on the screen was to help raise funds for wells in the third world before they played ‘When We Stand Together’, or hearing everyone roll back the years as they raspily sang ‘How You Remind Me’, we were spoilt for choice.
Watching the AO Arena bouncing to ‘Burn It to The Ground’ was also up there with some of the standouts, but there was no more beautiful sight than seeing the band bring The Lottery Winners back out on stage to have an arena full of Mancs belting out ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
Chad said at the time, “Now we know you can sing”, and true to form we were in full voice from that moment on, singing every word, every line and every song from what suddenly felt like a greatest hits tour because the truth is, Nickelback are great and you’re just lying to yourself if you think otherwise.
We were slightly gutted we didn’t get to hear ‘This Means War’, ‘Never Gonna Be Alone’ and a fair few others, but that’s what happens when you take a band that has been around for nearly three decades, with a discography this rich, and try to cram everything into a couple of hours.
So we’re hoping that puts an end to his nonsense that the rock veterans are rubbish because they’re not, they’re mint. Come on, join us – the dark days are over and we’re saying it’s ok to admit you like them.
And just wait, we’re coming for you Coldplay haters next…
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Supplied (via AO Arena)
Feature
JB Shorts: an affordable night of comedy, politics and feels
Charlie Watkinson
Last night, we checked out the latest edition of JB Shorts at 53Two, featuring six super relevant and often hilarious short plays right here in Manchester city centre.
Covering everything from grief and UK politics to AI, each story had its own unique spin and definitely made you think.
Joyce Branagh’s Isobel Openshaw Saves the Day kicks off JB Shorts with a bang. This political comedy, directed by Alyx Tole, had a proper feel of old British sketches. Branagh, who also plays Isobel, nails it with her sharp, witty character who sees through political BS.
With Joanne Dakin as Jenny Legohead and Callum Sim in multiple roles, the cast’s comic timing is spot-on. The plot follows Isobel’s wild rise in politics, poking fun at British political antics and media hype. This had stellar performances all around and the lively humour made it a great opener.
We had the pleasure of reviewing JB Shorts 24 last week – and it didn’t disappoint. (Credit: 53two/The Manc Group)
Next up was Maz Hedgehog’s Aftercare, directed by Justina Aina, which shifted the mood with a more introspective tone. This piece is set outside a sex party and explores the emotional aftermath of an intense encounter relating to BDSM, in an attempted playful manner.
Meg Narongchai as Bree and Trayvaughn Robins as Tobi could potentially have done with polishing this a little more; we sometimes struggled to understand the purpose and meaning of the story as the delivery and performances weren’t quite up to scratch – all effort though.
It wasn’t until Macaulay Cooper burst onto the stage that we understood what they were going for a little more, bringing his infectious and playful energy to a story that certainly needs some work/tweaking. The play struggles to find its footing; the dialogue, though sassy and heartfelt at times, just didn’t quite land, leaving myself and the audience wanting more from this.
Food Fight, by Lindsay Williams and Cathy Crabb, directed by Miranda Parker, brings back the energy with a comedic yet touching look at food banks and poverty. Jenny Williams is great as the bossy Davina, who has her own biases about food distribution.
Jessica Ellis’ Amy challenges these ideas, adding real conflict. The supporting cast, including Chris Brett and Emily Ash, were a great addition who brought lots of camaraderie, I especially loved the line about the tins of beans. The ending felt slightly rushed however the play’s timely social critique and charming characters make this a solid piece.
Dave Simpson’s Life Is No Joke, directed by Robert Marsden, this one plucked those heartstrings – A heartfelt look at fatherhood and unfulfilled dreams. Darren Jeffries shines as Mike, an accountant dreaming of a comedy career, while Manc acting veteran John Henshaw is perfect as the old-school comedian father, Kenny.
I absolutely fell in love with all three of these characters and their sheer vulnerability. Amy Du Quesne narrates and plays Kathy (Mike’s love interest) so well, while Darren and Amy oozed chemistry, making the sad moments hit even harder. The play balanced laughs with touching moments, getting the audience involved from the start to create a strong connection and make this an emotional highlight.
James Quinn and Trevor Suthers’ This is Not a Play – directed by Quinn himself – tackles the complex and timely issue of AI and its impact on reality and creativity. John Tueart and Victoria Tunnah play siblings entangled in a narrative about deepfakes and career sabotage.
And a massive thank you to our sponsors @motorsolicitor and David Rutherford and Diana Hamilton Fairley. Steve Jones and Manchester City Council. We really appreciate your ongoing support at this difficult time for the arts.
With a standout performance from Tueart, particularly, the dialogue is sharp and thought-provoking, though it occasionally veers into verbosity. The play’s meta-theatrical twist adds a clever layer but also highlights the limitations of AI in creative storytelling, ultimately reassuring the audience that the human touch remains irreplaceable.
The night ends with Debbie Oates’ Mrs Proops, directed by Ellie Rose. Isabel Ford and Toby Hadoke lead this touching story about grief and inheritance, with Marc Parrett’s cat puppet, brought to life by Kery Elly, stealing the show.
The plot revolves around Gaz’s struggle with his sister’s death and the quirky terms of her will. Despite a slow pace, the play’s emotional depth and charming performances provide a thoughtful end to the evening, leaving the audience pondering themes of loss and family.
The reviews for the night as a whole have been pretty strong across the board.
All in all, this turned out to be a great way to spend a Friday night.
JB Shorts is a great platform for new writing, offering an affordable and diverse night of theatre. Even with some unevenness, the collection of plays brings humour, insight, and heartfelt moments, ensuring there’s something for everyone.
We’ve also got a lot of love for 53Two, which remains an important theatre space, cultural site and charity here in Manchester city centre.
Since taking over the reins from founding venue Joshua Brooks in 2016, this low-key theatrical event has gone on to become a real returning cult favourite year after year and one that’s well worth going along and giving a try.