Craft lager brewery launches £80k crowdfunding campaign for canning drive

Manchester Union Brewery is launching a crowdfunding campaign to kickstart its transition from keg to can.

The craft lager business, which has been brewing its signature Manchester Union Lager for just over a year, is launching its crowdfunder, Together We CAN, at mid-day on Tuesday May 12, and hopes to raise £80,000 to move its business into commercial retail in June 2020.

Born from a love of lager, the brewery combines traditional central European lager-brewing techniques with a distinctly modern local twist and Lake District Water to create its unique legacy beer.

The result is a bold, silky mouth-feel with a hint of caramel sweetness that quickly develops into a refreshingly dry and bitter finish.

After a successful first year of trade, supplying more than 30 bars and restaurants around Manchester with kegs of its unique beer, the forced closure of all bars and restaurants as a result of the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the brewery’s existing trade overnight.

To continue trade, Manchester Union Brewery is turning to crowdfunding to raise the necessary funds to move its brewing venture away from kegs and into cans, to launch commercial retail.

The brewery hopes to raise £40,000 in its first round of crowdfunding to cover the cost of bulk orders for the necessary production materials to kickstart its new venture into commercial cans.

The business then hopes to raise an additional £40,000 to purchase its own canning machine.

Manchester Union is offering a range of rewards to those who pledge money to its crowdfunder campaign, including the chance to receive a lifetime’s supply of lager.

Supporters will also receive a lifetime 10% discount on its lager, alongside a range of additional benefits from free beer and ‘Thank You’ prints to a lifetime’s supply of lager.

The crowdfunder can be found at: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/togetherweCAN

Director Jamie Scahill said: “Being able to offer a lifetime’s supply of lager in exchange for investment is an unorthodox way to raise funds, but the investment will allow us to move Manchester Union Lager into cans.

“Ramping up our retail sales while pubs and bars are shut is going to make a big difference.

“The effects of COVID-19 have had a huge impact on our start-up business, forcing us to accelerate our plans to begin canning our lager in order to continue putting our unique Mancunian beer in the mouths of customers.

“It took just over three years to go from ideation to brewing our first lager.

“We recently celebrated our first birthday, and having reached full brewing capacity for the first time earlier this year, the UK lockdown announcement on 20 March unfortunately turned our world upside down, as it did so many other businesses.

“With all UK pubs and restaurants forced to shut we’ve been faced with a choice to either wait the lockdown out and hope the business survives, or take matters into our hands and fast-track our plans to can our lager.

“In the face of adversity we’re really excited to be starting this new chapter of our business.

“We are hugely grateful to all those who are able to contribute to our fundraising targets and help us continue to do what we love and get our unique taste of Manchester into the UK’s homes.”

Manchester Union Brewery said it crafts its signature lager at Manchester’s first, and only, dedicated craft lager brewery, located in Ardwick.