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Barcelona brewers head to #MBCF18

 in Festival News

Following a successful collaboration in 2016, MBCF is renewing its partnership with Barcelona Beer Festival and welcoming five of Spain’s best breweries to the Barcelona Beer Festival bar at the 2018 festival.

Visitors to MBCF can get a small taste of the incredible craft beer scene in and around Barcelona with five of BBF’s favourite brewers from Catalonia and the Basque region attending MBCF, each bringing two draft beers. The beers will rotate throughout the festival and brewers from all five breweries will be on hand along with Barcelona’ Beer Festival director Juan Fiol.

In return, visitors to BBF will be able to enjoy beers from our own Blackjack, Marble, RedWillow, Runaway & Track when Barcelona Beer Festival opens the doors to it’s 7th Edition on 16th March 2018. The Festival is one of southern Europe’s largest events with 30,000 people attending.

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Cider Outlook is Rosy

 in Festival News / Press Releases

Fans of cider and perry are in for a treat this month as the North’s biggest beer and cider festival opens in Manchester.

A staggering 77 ciders and 26 perrys picked from 63 different producers are set to pip last year’s record-breaking choice. Organisers of the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival have a reputation for showcasing the best from traditional cider and perry producing regions alongside the developing northern scene. And for this year they travelled to the far south west to curate a selection of Cornish ciders from small producers.

The fermented fruit drinks have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in recent years. Real cider and perry are traditional products made naturally from selected varieties of apples and pears; a world away from the industrially-produced cheap namesakes.

The natural yeasts from freshly-pressed apples or pears ferments the juices, producing alcohol and CO2 and are matured in barrels before being released to enjoy. Real cider and perry are never carbonated or pasteurised, a status they share with real ale.

Cider manager Mike Robinson 719Cider and perry bar manager Mike Robinson said: “Devon, Somerset and Herefordshire are usually regarded as the core area for production, but Cornwall has a thriving scene. This year we are offering half a dozen from the county – topping the list is the Cornish Supreme Champion Cider, Touchwood Medium Cider from Mithian near St Agnes. I believe this is the first time these six have been on sale in the North.

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Trio to teach tasty treats

 in Festival News / Press Releases

Leading beer experts to conduct tutored tastings in Manchester

Real ale lovers enjoy the taste of their favourite drink, but do they know why? Now help is at hand as the North’s biggest beer festival is set to show next month just how diverse and complex beer is.

Building on last year’s sell-out tasting sessions, Manchester Beer and Cider Festival will give drinkers the chance to hear from three of the country’s leading beer experts. They will be running tutored tastings, suitably accompanied by generous samples of some of the 600+ ales on offer.

Christine Cryne DSC_0067 1Christine Cryne, John Clarke and Sally Lavender will be talking about some of their favourite beer styles, showcasing the breadth of taste and history of real ale in the UK and further afield. All three have gathered reputations as entertaining writers and presenters and their combined expertise will be available to selected audiences on each of the three days the festival opens to the public. Their subjects will range from the dark arts of milds, porters and stouts, the mystique of Belgian Abbey and Trappist beers and how beer can best be matched with cheese. (more…)

Manchester stakes claim as cask capital of Britain

 in Press Releases
Manchester Beer Week       

Manchester has emerged as the cask beer capital of Britain, following a major new study into the beer sold in the city’s pubs and bars.

The Manchester Beer Audit 2017 found 411 different cask ales on sale in venues throughout the Manchester City Council area, beating nearest rival Sheffield, which boasted 385 beers in its last survey, as well as Nottingham (334), York (281), Norwich (254), Derby (213), and Leeds (211).

The survey also confirmed that Manchester is leading other cities in kegged “craft” beers too, with 234 different beers on sale throughout the city, an increase in variety that has been sparked by the recent boom in craft brewing.

More than 80 independent breweries now operate across Greater Manchester and these breweries account for 38 per cent of all cask beers on sale and 36 per cent of craft keg beers.

“The figures confirm what Mancunians already know – this is one of the best beer cities in Britain and possibly the best place in the world to enjoy great cask beer,” said Connor Murphy, organiser of Manchester Beer Week. (more…)