12th January, 2015
For Immediate Release:
MANCHESTER BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL 2015
MORE NEW BREWERIES THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A MASH PADDLE AT!
Manchester is seeing an unprecedented growth in the number of new breweries starting up and MBCF will be bringing you beers from many of these fledgling enterprises.
At almost four months old by the festival comes around, Bury’s Silver Street Brewery will almost be the granddaddy of the group. They will have four beers at the festival including their Driftwood IPA and their robust Porter. The brewery takes it’s name from the address of the Clarence pub where head brewer Craig Adams has been brewing in the basement twice a week since the pub re-opened in October.
Two newcomers from Wigan, Martland Mill & Hophurst, have both got almost three months under their belts and will each have two beers on the bars. Martland Mill will feature Clogmaker, a rich golden full bodied ale with a fruity flavour and an inkling of cedar and honey alongside quaffable golden ale Spinners Gold. Hophurst will be presenting their Debonair rich stout and Twisted Vine golden ale.
Tweed Brewery, the first new brewery in Hyde for decades, launched in November with Anthony Lewis, formerly of Denton’s Hornbeam Brewery in the head brewer’s role. The festival will feature their debut beer Winter Tweed.
Two more of Stockport’s premier real ale pubs now both boast their own breweries with the Magnet’s Watts Brewing and the Crown’s Stockport Brewing Co both taking their beers from their respective pubs to the bars of the Velodrome. At Watt’s Brewing, brewster Sarah Bergin has brewed up two speciality brews just for the festival, one an wheat beer with orange peel and the other a Raspberry & rose hip pale ale. Stockport Brewing’s flagship beer StockPorter will be one of their two beers. Not to be left out, Fool Hardy Ales from Stockport’s third and longest established brew pub The Hope will also be featured.
The real youngsters of the family are Stockport’s Thirst Class Ales and two breweries based in Ancoats, Track Brewing Company and Alphabet Brew Co
Track’s debut beer a pale ale called Ozark was only first seen in pubs in December but has been selling out wherever it has appeared. Alphabet, set up by the owners of Manchester’s Kosmonaught bar, & Thirst Class, headed up by award winning home brewer Richard Conway, are even newer with Alphabet debuting their first beer at Kosmonaught in the first week of the new year and Thirst Class expected to debut just one week before the festival.
Richard Conway first came to the attention of local beer afficianados in 2013 when he won an IPA home brewing competition organised by Manchester’s Beer Moth beer shop. His prize for that was to rebrew the winning beer, Elephant Hawk IPA on a commercial scale which he did in conjunction with Stockport’s Quantum brewing. After deciding to set up his own brewery in July last year, Richard has spent six months putting his kit together. When asked about having his beers selected for MBCF, he said : “I am really pleased and excited to be represented at the festival”.
For further information contact:
Clare Barber
0151 255 0152
Notes to editors:
1) The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival is organised by the Greater Manchester Branches of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
2) The festival takes place in the National Cycling Centre’s Velodrome from 21st – 24th January 2015 and will feature more than 500 beers ciders & perries over two levels.
3) The 2014 festival attracted over 10,000 visitors who drank over 40,000 pints of beer and , cider & perry. The 2015 festival will have another 17,000 pints available.