Press Releases

Since the end of lockdown, the MBCF team have been exploring options to bring you a festival in February 2022.

Sadly, with ongoing uncertainties due to the ongoing high rates of infection nationally (and particularly in and around Manchester), we must announce that Manchester Beer & Cider Festival will not return in early 2022.

With the festival presenting a significant financial risk in difficult times and being entirely run by volunteers (many of whom have full time jobs), quite simply, we feel we have run out of time to be able to successfully deliver the festival we would want to put on.

We’d like to thank all the volunteers who had continued to work towards putting on a festival, the breweries who had already committed to attend, the staff at Manchester Central who have held the door open and all the customers who were looking forward to the event.

While there may not be an MBCF22 to attend, the pubs and brewery taps of Manchester will still be here offering a year long Manchester Beer & Cider Festival to visitors to the city – remember #PubsMatter.

Cloudwater, Wild Beer Co, Hawkshead and Thirst Class Ale will be supporting CAMRA’s Discovery Zone this year

The Manchester Beer and Cider Festival taking place from 23-25 January at Manchester Central will play host to CAMRA’s second annual Discovery Zone, aimed at empowering visitors to make more informed decisions at the bar.

Volunteers have organised daily beer and cider tastings led by exciting and innovative brewers and cider makers. They will also showcase high-quality brewing ingredients to help drinkers calibrate their senses.

Breweries involved this year include Cloudwater, Wild Beer Co., Hawkshead and Thirst Class Ale. 

A refreshed cider and perry offer from Manchester Beer and Cider Festival

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

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. A staggering 73 ciders and perrys picked from 40 different producers will be on offer during the three days of the event (click here to see the list). But that only tells part of the story.

Regular visitors will be able to spot firm festival favourites, but handpumps, a cooling system and bottled ciders and perries will debut on a revised layout. And an innovation – believed to be a national first for Manchester – will see six keg-conditioned ciders dispensed. The equivalent to real ales maturing in cask, live yeasts continue to react with sugars, further conditioning and stabilising the cider.

Cider and perry bar manager Dick Withecombe said: “The festival has a reputation for innovation in beer. But this year, we aim to match that modernisation with the impetus that the ReThink Cider initiative has given us. ReThink Cider is about improving the way cider is perceived. And in line with CAMRA’s priorities, we want to educate drinkers about the diverse styles of cider and perry. Many producers have the skills normally associated with winemakers. ReThink Cider aims to showcase that while harnessing the broad appeal of real ales.

Tickets on sale for Manchester Beer & Cider Festival

Manchester may have everything but a beach – but drinkers can anticipate sniffing sea air next January. They are invited to explore from coast to coast as tickets go on sale for the North’s biggest celebration of beer and cider.

Now in its seventh year, CAMRA’s Manchester Beer and Cider Festival features beers from the UK and further afield. For the return to Manchester Central from Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th January 2020, organisers will be shipping in beers from across the North. There’ll be no need for maps with the huge new Coast To Coast bar showcasing ales from Merseyside to Humberside via Lancashire, Manchester and Yorkshire.

The event attract visitors from all over the world to Manchester, pouring through the doors to sample some of the very best beers and ciders from the UK’s booming brewing and cider making industries. Fans of foreign beers will be well catered for with an excellent selection promised from Europe and North America.