Joseph Holt is a brewery in Manchester, England founded in 1849. Holt's claims to be the only brewery still selling beer in hogsheads - 54 gallon barrels.
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Joseph Holt, the son of a weaver,[1] was born in 1813 in Unsworth, a textile village north of Manchester. He began work in Manchester as a carter in Harrison's Strangeways Brewery. In 1849 he married Catherine Parry, who helped him finance a small brewery behind a pub on Oak Street, Manchester.[1]
In 1860, he purchased the current brewery site on Empire Street, Cheetham.[1] His reputation in Manchester endures; in 2007, readers of the Manchester Evening News voted him "People's Champion" in the "Greatest ever Business Leaders" awards.[2] In 1882, Joseph passed control of the breweries to his son Edward, by which time he had established a chain of 20 public houses; he became Sir Edward Holt and Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1908. Edward died in 1928 and the company was passed to his son, Edward; it is still in the hands of the same family.[1] For more than thirty years, Peter Kershaw, a former rackets and real tennis champion and a notoriously frugal man, was chairman of the brewery.[3] His son, Richard Kershaw, the great grandson of the original founder,[1] joined him on the board in 1980 and, since the death of his father in 2000,[3] is the Chief Executive.
There are 127 Holt's pubs in Greater Manchester.[1]
Holt's public houses offer a selection of Holt's draught, bottled and canned alcoholic beverages.
Holt's is one of only a few remaining UK breweries able to supply their beers in Hogsheads[4], the largest barrel size, carrying 432 pints (54 gallons) and weighing roughly 660 lbs when full.