Festival News

Manchester Beer & Cider Festival is pleased to be able to offer a range of Gluten Free beers for those with Coeliac’s disease or other forms of Gluten intolerance.

The Gluten Free beers planned for #MBCF2015 are:

All our range of traditional ciders & perries are also gluten free.

For more information about Coeliac’s disease see https://www.coeliac.org.uk

The name of the Real Radio XS Manchester Beer & Cider Festival Ale for 2015 has been revealed.

The name Motley Brew was suggested by Real Radio XS listener Gareth Brazendale who has won a VIP entry package to the festival.

Brewed by BlackEgde brewery in Horwich, the recipe for the 4% golden session ale was inspired by the recent commemoration of 100 years since the great war. The ale combines hops from Britain & Germany giving a pleasant lemon citrus flavour with a hint of blackcurrant & spice.

The beer will be available from Bar 1 at the festival.

Not content with lining up an incredible line up of some of beers from some of the best breweries around, the festival is set to feature a number of collaboration brews with top brewers coming together specially to brew new beers for the festival.

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

Pictish Brewery were 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).

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

As Paul & 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 at Marble Beers – Matthew Howgate – for what is set to be one of the most highly anticipated beers brewed in Manchester for some time.

This will be the second time these two breweries have collaborated, the previous occasion being in 2012 when Matt Clarke & Marble’s then head brewer James Cambell produced Little Evelyn, a 7% American IPA named after Matt’s daughter.

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 it’s 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 & sweet honey”.

The week of collaborative brews got underway in East Yorkshire on Monday when on of the most exciting new names of Scottish brewing, Edinburgh’s Elixir Brewing Company joined up with Hull’s Atom Beers who have 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 it’s debut on the right side of the Pennines and Hadrian’s Wall at Manchester Beer & Cider Festival.

After the big brew day on Tuesday, on Wednesday the focus turned to Horwich for another important brew day. The festival has again teamed up with Real Radio XS to produce a special festival ale which this year has been brewed by BlackEdge brewery in Horwich. In commemoration of 100 years since the great war, brewers Shaun & Wayne have planned a golden session ale combining hops from Britain & Germany. The station’s Steve Berry headed to the recently expanded brewery to discuss the brew while listeners to the classic rock station on 106.1 FM have the opportunity to name the beer by entering a competition.

On Thursday 8th, Dan Tasker from Hebden Bridge’s Bridestones Brewing Company hosted brewster Michelle Kelsall of Crewe based Offbeat Brewery. They cooked up Sprocket Wort Orange, a dark and fruity beer with chocolate, orange & juniper with sorachi ace hops added for good measure.

Finally, on Saturday 10th January, CAMRA’s Regional Director and festival hospitality manager Andrew Rodbourne joined fellow festival volunteer Mark Reeves at Salford’s First Chop Brewery to mash in on the final collaboration of the week with head brewer Rik Garner.

Last (or first on the timeline), in this 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.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2nd Manchester Beer & Cider Festival. The festival returns to the Manchester Velodrome from 21st – 24th January with an incredible line up of beers, ciders & perries planned.

There will be 19 bars spread across the Velodrome’s concourse and floor including 10 top breweries bringing their own bars to the event. These will be led by Manchester’s own Marble Beers with their enduringly popular beers including Pint, Dobber & Marble Ginger. Also returning to the festival for a second year will be Cumbria’s Hawkshead Brewery who last year walked away with the award for Champion Beer Of The North West for their Cumbrian Five Hop. Yorkshire brewer Ilkley Brewery and Cheshire’s Bollington Brewery will also return and will be joined by six brewers setting up bar for the first time.

Brewster Michelle Kelsall will bring her Offbeat beers to the event including the award-winning Way Out Wheat & Dotty Double IPA. Fellow brewsters Amanda Seddon & Kathryn Harrisson of Wilson Potter brewery will also have their bar at the event. It has been quite a year for Wilson Potter having made habit of picking up awards, winning Beer Of The Festival at Stockport, Chorlton and Didsbury Beer Festivals. The award-winning beers should all be on the bar.

Bury will have two representatives in the brewery bar line up with Outstanding Beers, one of the most established and respected micro-brewers in the region, lining up alongside the up and coming Brightside Beers who have made great strides since setting up in the back of the family bakery just three years ago. From Hebden Bridge, Bridestones Brewery have been making a name for themselves in their local heartland for past couple of years but are only just starting to regular appear in Manchester – this will change after they bring their bar to the festival.

Last but by no means least in the brewery bar line up will be Marble protégée Rob Hamilton & his Blackjack Beers. The regular Brew Tap open weekends at the Manchester based brewer have become a mecca for beer fans over the past year and now they will be bringing their diverse range of beers to Manchester Beer & Cider Festival. The Blackjack Brew Tap will be located on the concourse level.

Of course there won’t just be beers at the event. The new Cider bar on the concourse level will focus on the growing number of cider producers in the North of England. While the traditional cider producing areas of Somerset & Herefordshire continue to dominate the industry, recent years have seen a growing number of producers in the North and Manchester Beer & Cider Festival will be featuring some of the very best of these including Manchester’s own Moss Cider Project, Bolton’s Red Bank Cider Company, Dunham Massey Press and True North Cider Press from Holmfirth.

The festival is also expanding it’s range of beers from across the world. Once again, 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. Other countries represented will include France, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Netherlands & Italy.

To keep up to date as brewers & beers are confirmed follow the festival on twitter at @MancBeerFest or on Facebook.com/ManchesterBeerFestival