 Joseph Holt have their own borehole on the brewery site to abstract brewing liquor (water) and are one of only a handful of brewers in the UK still to rack into 36 gallon casks, as well as hogsheads, the largest barrel size, carrying 432 pints () and weighing roughly when full.Joseph Holt, the son of a weaver, was born in 1813 in Unsworth, a textile village near Bury.He worked as a carter at Harrison's Strangeways Brewery.