For Immediate Release:
THE BIGGEST PUB CRAWL UNDER ONE ROOF!
MANCHESTER Beer & Cider Festival was an even bigger success than last year’s sell-out event with a whopping 38,876 pints of cask beer drunk over four days!
A total of 11,286 cask ale fans from as far as Canada attended the event held last week at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester eager to quench their thirst with the finest beers the UK has to offer.
After the inaugural event in 2014, when the bars were drunk dry on the Saturday afternoon, festival organisers from CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) ensured a plentiful supply of beers this year, as well as traditional ciders and perries.
A total of 437 beers were available to festival-goers at 19 different bars from cask conditioned craft ales including traditional British bitters, stouts, porters, milds and old ales and the very best of Manchester’s brewers, such as Marble, Brightside, Blackjack and Wilson Potter, to imported beers from around the world in the Bière Sans Frontières bar.
The first beer to sell out was Pied Bull Black Bull Porter until a new supply of this champion beer arrived.
The best selling beer was Hawkshead Windemere Pale, selling 500 pints, closely followed by the Marble/Hawkshead collaboration Beer Matts’ just 30 pints behind.
Meanwhile, cider bar manager, Mike Robinson, reported the highest sales of cider and perry than at any previous event with scrumpy drinkers supping 3,815 pints of cider at the two cider and perry bars which featured the likes of Manchester’s Moss Cider Project, Bolton’s Red Bank Cider Company and Dunham Massey Press.
The fastest selling cider was Biddendens Strong Kent Cider 8% abv with Sheppys Sweet Cider 6% abv coming a close second. The fastest selling perry was Gwynt Y Ddraig Two Trees Perry 4.5% abv. which was also the fastest seller overall.
The festival organisers also recorded the best ever sales at the festival with consumption up 20% on last year.
Of the 11,286 people who came through the door, 2,649 were CAMRA members and there was an army of 320 CAMRA volunteers helping out at the event. Plus CAMRA recruited 104 new members at the event.
Customer Beer of the Festival was awarded to:
1. Stockport Brewing Co. Stockporter
2. Marble/Hawkshead (a collaboration beer) Beer Matts
3. Bridgehouse Cherry Chocolate Stout
Customer Cider of the Festival was awarded to:
1. Manx Jimmie Kickstart Cider
2. Marcher Marcher Man Cider
Perry
Joint 1st: Gywnt Y Draig Two Trees Perry and Troggi Perry
Festival organiser Graham Donning said:
“The event went better than expected with visitors from all over the UK and abroad enjoying the fare we presented to them. We had lots of positive views about the choice and selection of beers, so many thanks to John O’Donnell our beer orderer. Many enjoyed the fact that we had beers on both levels and many described the event as ‘the biggest pub crawl ever under one roof!’ Work now starts on the 2016 event!”
For further information contact:
Clare Barber
0151 600 5482
Jan 30th 2015
