Monthly archives: January 2015

15^th January, 2015

For Immediate Release:

BEST OF BRITISH – AND THE REST OF THE WORLD!

Take your tastebuds on a trip around the world’s best beers and ciders!

As well as bringing you some of the finest British cask conditioned ales, the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival will feature some of the finest traditional beers from around the world and has expanded its global offering this year.

Once again, it is expected that the full range of German Oktoberfest beers will be on the bar, in itself a rare occurrence in the UK. However, the festival will also be featuring a range of beers from the growing craft beer movement around the world. These will include beers from Australia’s Stone & Wood, Denmark’s Amager & Spain’s Naparbier. The USA will be represented by Evil Twin, Two Roads & Greenflash amongst others.

The Bière Sans Frontières bar will feature fine beers imported from Germany and Belgium plus beers from the Czech Republic – Budvar and Bohemia Regent.

A second Bière Sans Frontières bar on the concourse level will offer craft beers from the rest of the world – including the USA, Italy and Spain.

Highlights include:

*Who needs hops?

Jopen   Koyt      8.5%     Old Ale DUTCH

Brewed using a medieval recipe that pre-dates the use of hops and ingredients including Bog Myrtle. Clear copper brown in colour with aroma’s of malt with notes of spice, herbs and dried fruit. Spicy and malty flavour with clear notes of caramel and hops. Sweetish aftertaste. Very interesting.

*For the allergy conscious

Bernard               Gluten Free Lager        4.70%   Gluten Free       Czech

This is the gluten free version of the Svetly Lezak premium. Little noticeable difference in taste between this and the “glutened” version.

*Feeling adventurous?

Amager Bryghus/Prairie Artisan Ales       Tulsa Twister      7.6%     Saison   DANISH

Pours clear golden with tall frothy white head. Floral aroma of wheat, herbs, honey and light citrus. Taste is lightly sour with honey sweet underneath, lightly bitter finish. Body is light, smooth with average carbonation.

*A world of contrasts

Evil Twin Yin Draught  10%   Imperial Stout   American

The first side of the soul! This is really good. Roasty and chocolate flavours. Fades a bit to quickly to be a 5* stout but still very pleasing.

Evil Twin  Yang  10%       Imperial/Double IPA       American

The other side of the soul! Golden colour, small head. Strong aroma of hops. Taste is very malty, with some astringent bitter hops. Really bitter aftertaste

FEELING FRUITY?

But if beer is not your thing, never fear, there’s bound to be something to take your fancy at the festival which also features a massive selection of traditional ciders and perries (pear cider).

In fact, The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival will have two separate cider and perry bars this year. The concourse level bar will have the emphasis on producers from the North West including Manchester’s Moss Cider Project, Nooks Yard from Northwich, Bolton’s Red Bank Cider Company, Dunham Massey Press and True North Cider Press from Holmfirth.

Meanwhile the floor bar will feature those from the traditional cider areas of Somerset & Herefordshire.

For those novice cider drinkers, Cider Bar Manager, Mike Robinson, explains how to choose. He said:

“All the ciders and perries are different, with their own unique flavour and style. They range from fairly sweet, to very very dry and may be naturally cloudy, or clear. But don’t worry if you are not sure what to have – our knowledgeable staff will be happy to help you decide what to have – and even to provide a couple of “tasters” to help you make up your mind.”

He warned: “Just remember – cider and perry are much stronger than most beers, and can be deceptively easy drinking – take care!”

If you enjoy cider and perry you can also attend the Greater Manchester Cider & Perry Festival held annually in June – see www.manchesterciderfestival.co.uk for details.

Notes to editors:
1) The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival is organised by the Greater Manchester Branches of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

2) The festival takes place in the National Cycling Centre’s Velodrome from 21st – 24th January 2015 and will feature more than 500 beers ciders & perries over two levels.

3) The 2014 festival attracted over 10,000 visitors who drank over 40,000 pints of beer and , cider & perry. The 2015 festival will have another 17,000 pints available.

For more details visit www.mancbeerfest.uk

For further information contact:
Clare Barber
0151 255 0152

12th January, 2015
For Immediate Release:

MANCHESTER BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL 2015
MORE NEW BREWERIES THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A MASH PADDLE AT!

Manchester is seeing an unprecedented growth in the number of new breweries starting up and MBCF will be bringing you beers from many of these fledgling enterprises.

At almost four months old by the festival comes around, Bury’s Silver Street Brewery will almost be the granddaddy of the group. They will have four beers at the festival including their Driftwood IPA and their robust Porter. The brewery takes it’s name from the address of the Clarence pub where head brewer Craig Adams has been brewing in the basement twice a week since the pub re-opened in October.

Two newcomers from Wigan, Martland Mill & Hophurst, have both got almost three months under their belts and will each have two beers on the bars. Martland Mill will feature Clogmaker, a rich golden full bodied ale with a fruity flavour and an inkling of cedar and honey alongside quaffable golden ale Spinners Gold. Hophurst will be presenting their Debonair rich stout and Twisted Vine golden ale.

Tweed Brewery, the first new brewery in Hyde for decades, launched in November with Anthony Lewis, formerly of Denton’s Hornbeam Brewery in the head brewer’s role. The festival will feature their debut beer Winter Tweed.

Two more of Stockport’s premier real ale pubs now both boast their own breweries with the Magnet’s Watts Brewing and the Crown’s Stockport Brewing Co both taking their beers from their respective pubs to the bars of the Velodrome. At Watt’s Brewing, brewster Sarah Bergin has brewed up two speciality brews just for the festival, one an wheat beer with orange peel and the other a Raspberry & rose hip pale ale.  Stockport Brewing’s flagship beer StockPorter will be one of their two beers. Not to be left out, Fool Hardy Ales from Stockport’s third and longest established brew pub The Hope will also be featured.

The real youngsters of the family are Stockport’s Thirst Class Ales and two breweries based in Ancoats, Track Brewing Company and Alphabet Brew Co

Track’s debut beer a pale ale called Ozark was only first seen in pubs in December but has been selling out wherever it has appeared. Alphabet, set up by the owners of Manchester’s Kosmonaught bar, & Thirst Class, headed up by award winning home brewer Richard Conway, are even newer with Alphabet debuting their first beer at Kosmonaught in the first week of the new year and Thirst Class expected to debut just one week before the festival.

Richard Conway first came to the attention of local beer afficianados in 2013 when he won an IPA home brewing competition organised by Manchester’s Beer Moth beer shop. His prize for that was to rebrew the winning beer, Elephant Hawk IPA on a commercial scale which he did in conjunction with Stockport’s Quantum brewing. After deciding to set up his own brewery in July last year, Richard has spent six months putting his kit together. When asked about having his beers selected for MBCF, he said : “I am really pleased and excited to be represented at the festival”.

For further information contact:
Clare Barber
0151 255 0152

Notes to editors:
1) The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival is organised by the Greater Manchester Branches of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
2) The festival takes place in the National Cycling Centre’s Velodrome from 21st – 24th January 2015 and will feature more than 500 beers ciders & perries over two levels.
3) The 2014 festival attracted over 10,000 visitors who drank over 40,000 pints of beer and , cider & perry. The 2015 festival will have another 17,000 pints available.

For Immediate Release:

Northern brewers join forces to create special festival ales…

Not content with lining up an incredible line up of some of beers from some of the best breweries around, Manchester Beer & Cider Festival 2015 (MBCF) will feature a number of collaboration brews with top brewers coming together specially to brew new beers for the festival.

MBCF teamed up with Real Radio XS to produce a special festival ale on Wednesday, January 7 with BlackEdge brewery in Horwich.

In commemoration of 100 years since the great war, brewers Shaun and Wayne produced a golden session ale combining hops from Britain and Germany. The station’s Steve Berry headed to the recently expanded brewery to help out with the brew while listeners of the classic rock station on 106.1 FM will have the opportunity to name the beer by entering a competition.

The first in an incredible line up of collaboration brews saw the hand of friendship extended in the War Of The Roses with Yorkshire’s Ilkley Brewery coming over to Manchester in December to brew with brewer Rich Andrews at Blackjack Beers.

Their beer, Betting Cap, is described as a very hoppy amber ale made with the Belgian yeast which is becoming a signature of Rich’s Blackjack brews and Galaxy, Chinook, Belma and Columbus hops.

This week, more collaborative brews got underway in East Yorkshire on Monday when one of the most exciting new names of Scottish brewing, Edinburgh’s Elixir Brewing Company, joined up with Hull’s Atom Beers which has grown massively after only launching just over one year ago.

The resultant beer named Devil’s Bilge Water is a bit of a beast, weighing in at 7% ABV. A smokey porter style beer, a special secret mix of spices has been added to give a unique flavour. Despite the heritage of the beer, it will make its debut on the right side of the Pennines and Hadrian’s Wall at the festival.

Tuesday, January 6 was a big day for special brews with no fewer than three being completed in one day. The day began when one of the festival’s bar managers, Caroline O’Donnell, headed to Rochdale’s Pictish Brewery for a 5am ‘mash in’ with owner and brewer, Paul Wesley.

The beer they came up with is the appropriately named ‘Tandem,’ a 4.2% pale and hoppy brew featuring two malts and two hops – Pacific Gem from New Zealand and Cascade from the USA.

As Paul and Caroline mashed in, Matt Clarke, head brewer of the multi-award winning Hawkshead Brewery was setting off from his Lake District home heading to Manchester to meet up with his counterpart, Matthew Howgate, at Marble Beers, for what is set to be one of the most highly anticipated beers brewed in Manchester for some time.

The brewers were being tight lipped about exactly what they were brewing up, but Hawkshead’s twitter feed let slip, tweeting “Think a mash up of Lagonda IPA and Cumbrian Five Hop…. lots of hops!” Given that Lagonda has a string of awards to its name and Cumbrian Five Hop was voted ‘Champion Beer Of The North West’ last year, beer fans are in for a treat.

The third brew of the day took place in Bury when Amanda Seddon from Middleton’s Wilson Potter Brewery joined up with Alex Lord of Outstanding Beers to brew up the intriguingly named ‘Honey Badger.’ Fresh honey will be added to the brew during fermentation to produce a beer which the brewers describe as “Pale amber coloured with aromatic malt, light hops and sweet honey.”

The final ale of the week was brewed on Thursday, January 8 when brewster Michelle Kelsall from Crewe-based Offbeat Brewery teamed up with Dan Tasker from Hebden Bridge’s Bridestones Brewing Company to create a dark and fruity beer called Sprocket Wort Orange which is 4.6% featuring chocolate, orange, juniper and sorachi ace hops.

Another collaboration is planned this Saturday, 10^th January at 10am when Rik Garner, owner / brewer of First Chop Brewery will join forces with Andrew Rodbourne – festival hospitality manager and CAMRA Regional director and Mark Reeves – Trafford & Hulme Branch committee member and keen home brewer to produce their own take on the classic “Manchester Bitter”.

Photographers are invited to First Chop Brewery to take photos of this special bitter being brewed. For mroe information.

For further information and images contact:

Clare Barber
0151 255 0152

Notes to editors:
1) The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival is organised by the Greater Manchester Branches of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

2) The festival takes place in the National Cycling Centre’s Velodrome from 21st – 24th January 2015 and will feature more than 500 beers ciders & perries over two levels.

3) The 2014 festival attracted over 10,000 visitors who drank over 40,000 pints of beer and , cider & perry. The 2015 festival will have another 17,000 pints available.

4) For more information about the festival visit www.mancbeerfest.uk
Information on Breweries

*Pictish Brewery was one of the pioneers of the microbrewery revolution in Manchester whose unashamed hop forward beers provided inspiration to brewers such as James Campbell (ex Marble, now Cloudwater) and Colin Strong (Buxton).

*This will be the second time Hawkshead Brewery and Marble Beers have collaborated, the previous occasion being in 2012 when Matt Clarke and Marble’s then head-brewer, James Cambell ,produced Little Evelyn, a 7% American IPA named after Matt’s daughter.

Contact details:

Pictish Brewery 01706 522 227

Home

Blackjack Beers 0161 819 2767
http://www.blackjack-beers.com/

Ilkley Brewery 01943 604604
http://www.ilkleybrewery.co.uk

Offbeat Brewery 07502 096438
http://offbeatbrewery.wordpress.com

Bridestones Brewery 01422 847104 / 07921 211870
http://www.bridestonesbrewing.co.uk

Marble Beers 0161 8192694

Home

Hawkshead Brewery 01539 822644
http://www.hawksheadbrewery.co.uk

Outstanding Beers 0161 764 7723
http://www.outstandingbeers.co.uk

Wilson Potter Brewery 0161 654 6446
http://www.wilsonpotterbrewery.co.uk