Over the last 250 years or so, Manchester and Salford have had a thriving brewing industry, and their history is often overlooked compared with the brewing giants located in Burton-on-Trent and London. Here, we begin the story in 1776 with the arrival of Caister and Fray, who went on to become Boddingtons, probably the most well-known local brewer, and which became affectionately labelled The Cream of Manchester during the 1990s, but succumbed to the brewery takeovers that were a feature of the industry for over a century. We look at the changes from the time when publicans brewed their own beer to the rise of the large breweries. We also look at other key local brewers, such as Wilsons, Chesters, Joseph Holt, and Hyde’s Anvil in Manchester; and Groves & Whitehall at the Regent Road brewery and Thelfalls, both in Salford. We follow the story through to the decline of the brewing industry in the region during the twentieth century, including the much-publicised takeover of Boddingtons and the closure of Strangeways brewery. The twenty-first century is seeing a revival of small-scale micro-breweries that are bringing localism back to the industry, and the former decline has recently been offset by this revival, where small brewers are utilising redundant spaces such as railway arches in a very productive way.