Press Releases

North Yorkshire’s Brass Castle brewery recorded an astonishing double success, with two of its brews topping the poll of visitors’ choices.

The brewery has been successful in attracting the popular vote before, but it it is the first time in #MBCF’s history that any brewery has had two beers in the top three.

It was perhaps even more remarkable as a new beer launched at the festival proved the customers’ favourite. Fruit Lupe, a 4.8% ABV single hop pale ale was available in both cask-conditioned and keg styles and drinkers clearly enjoyed the marriage of Mosaic hops with blueberry. Like all Brass Castle’s beers, Fruit Lupe is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Preview of Manchester Beer and Cider Festival opening to public on Thursday

January may not be the ideal month for a festival to celebrate the best of British drinks. Alongside the traditional slew of New Year resolutions can be added the guilt-laden prohibition, Dry January, which worries brewers and licensees alike. Add the uncertainties of current political machinations, a series of rail strikes affecting leisure travel and headlines warning of extreme weather. You’d be forgiven if you decided this really wasn’t time to put on the North’s biggest beer and cider festival.

But this is Manchester. And we do things differently here…

So the immense space at Manchester Central will again welcome an anticipated 15,000 people keen to sample some of the best and rarest traditional and modern beer and cider styles. Volunteer organisers from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) have planned this week’s event for the best part of twelve months, looking to improve the visitor experience by introducing new themed bars. But they are also keen to stress their main objective – to have fun.

Manchester Beer and Cider Festival reveals over 500 beers

Drinkers heading for the North’s biggest beer and cider celebration are also heading for a problem. The choice of beers – real ales & modern keg may overwhelm them…

The festival, now in its sixth year, has revealed the full list of beers and ciders which will feature at Manchester Central in just over a week’s time – a massive choice of 745 different drinks for drinkers participating in the national Tryanuary campaign to sample. The region’s largest celebration of beer and cider will feature 24 bars with a choice sure to appeal to lovers of traditional British ales, those seeking the cutting edge of modern brewing and fans of international beers. With ciders, perrys, fruit wines, mead and even a gin bar, there’s sure to be a drink for every taste.

Manchester set to welcome ales from across the Emerald Isle

You can always rely on beer to solve the most difficult problems. And if the Prime Minister needs a hand with sorting the Irish border question, organisers of Manchester’s Beer and Cider Festival may have the answer.

After the runaway success of a bar dedicated to beers from the other side of the IrishSea last year, the North’s biggest beer festival has paired up with leading Irish brewer The White Hag and its very own confidence and supply agreement. And an increased number of breweries are heading to Manchester later this month to delight drinkers.

Beers curated from North and South of the border include cask, keykeg and keg examples.  Northern Ireland’s Boundary, Bullhouse, Farmageddon, Knockout and Mourne Mountain are planned to join Republic of Ireland brewers DOT Brew, Kinnegar, Metalman, Porterhouse, Rascals, Trouble Brewing and The White Hag. They will be exhibited on a dedicated Irish bar, one of twenty bars at the festival.

New bar celebrates old craft

The wraps are off the newest bar at the North’s biggest beer festi val. And alongside the mass of modern breweries and beer styles, traditionalists will be delighted that a wall of wooden casks will greet drinkers at Manchester Central in January.

For fifty years or so, breweries have increasingly moved to racking beer into metal casks and these dominate distribution. But there has been a recent surge in interest to return to using wooden barrels. Most of these are made of oak, and many have previously been used to store wine or spirits. But chestnut is also used and is popular with some American breweries.

Organisers of the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival are working with the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood (SPBW) to bring the bar – simply named ‘Beers from the Wood’ – and a host of interesting beers from a wide variety of breweries both large & small are heading to the event – led by SPBW’s current Champion Beer From The Wood ‘Hickey The Rake’ from Newcastle based Wylam Brewery. (more…)