With the greatest of pleasures we are proud to unleash the IMBC 2014 beer list upon the public. Each programme contains the daily beer list (over six room brimming to the edges), event info, food traders, a handy map and much much more! GO WILD
* pleaser note all beer lists are subject to change!
Here’s your handy guide to all our collaborations for this year’s IMBC, organised by days:
Thursday
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Cedar, 5%, hoppy amber ale, with Thornbridge, CASK
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Kiwi Saision, 5%, Saison, with Kiwi purée added in the FV, with The Grove and with Northern Monk Brew Co., KEG
Indy Girl, 9.7%, Double IPA with Lemon and Lime zest, with Arbor Ales, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Gose, 3.4%, classic West Country attempt of the German style, with Wiper and True, KEG
Friday Day
Tintern Abbey Berliner Weisse, 4.5% with wild yeast from Tintern Abbey, with Celt Experience, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Cedar, 5%, hoppy amber ale, with Thornbridge, CASK
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Indy Girl, 9.7%, Double IPA with Lemon and Lime zest, with Arbor Ales, KEG
Kiwi Saision, 5%, Saison, with Kiwi purée added in the FV, with The Grove and with Northern Monk Brew Co., KEG
Gose, 3.4%, classic West Country attempt of the German style, with Wiper and True, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Friday Evening
Tintern Abbey Berliner Weisse, 4.5% with wild yeast from Tintern Abbey, with Celt Experience, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Cedar, 5%, hoppy amber ale, with Thornbridge, CASK
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Indy Girl, 9.7%, Double IPA with Lemon and Lime zest, with Arbor Ales, KEG
Kiwi Saision, 5%, Saison, with Kiwi purée added in the FV, with The Grove and with Northern Monk Brew Co., KEG
Gose, 3.4%, classic West Country attempt of the German style, with Wiper and True, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Saturday Evening
S&F, 2.8% dark small beer with figs, with First Chop, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA, with Summerwine Brewery, Bramble edition, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA, with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Cedar, 5%, hoppy amber ale, with Thornbridge, CASK
Super Duper Export Porter, 9%, imperial porter, with Redchurch, KEG
Berliner Schwarz, 2.5%, Berliner Weisse, with Quantum, KEG
Manchester Tart, 3.8.%, Sour with Raspberry and Coconuts, with Mad Hatter, KEG
Hacienda, 6.9%, imperial black saison with orange zest, with Weird Beard, KEG
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Saturday Evening
S&F, 2.8% dark small beer with figs, with First Chop, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, Bramble edition, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Super Duper Export Porter, 9%, imperial porter, with Redchurch, KEG
Berliner Schwarz, 2.5%, Berliner Weisse, with Quantum, KEG
Manchester Tart, 3.8.%, Sour with Raspberry and Coconuts, with Mad Hatter, KEG
Hacienda, 6.9%, imperial black saison with orange zest, with Weird Beard, KEG
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Barrel Aged Barrel Wine, TBC, barley wine aged in Jim Beam casks, with Harbour, KEG
Sunday
S&F, 2.8% dark small beer with figs, with First Chop, CASK
Twiggy IPA, 6%, all English hops IPA with Summerwine Brewery, KEG
Cedar, 5%, hoppy amber ale, with Thornbridge, CASK
Super Duper Export Porter, 9%, imperial porter, with Redchurch, KEG
Berliner Schwarz, 2.5%, Berliner Weisse, with Quantum, KEG
Manchester Tart, 3.8.%, Sour with Raspberry and Coconuts, with Mad Hatter, KEG
Hacienda, 6.9%, imperial black saison with orange zest, with Weird Beard, KEG
Earl Phantom, 3.6%, Lemon Iced tea sour, with Beavertown, KEG
Delta Red Disorder, 8.6%, super hopped imperial red ale, with Toccalmatto, KEG
Barrel Aged Barrel Wine, TBC, barley wine aged in Jim Beam casks, with Harbour, KEG
It was time to leave Manchester behind again, to travel to our great friends at Thornbridge. Last year’s Otter’s Tears was a massive hit on the bar, and we’re hoping that this year’s effort, Cedar, will be similarly well received. With the help of Jon from our bros at The Beagle and Pete, the enthusiastic Hall brewer, we brewed a hoppy amber ale, stuffing the copper with lots of last minute Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, and Ahtanum. Further Centennial in the dry hop should make this beer reminiscent of the redwoods of California, hence the name, Cedar. We enjoyed Dom’s little tour around the Riverside facility, where six more fermenters are now on order and then it was time to say farewell again.
One more quick trip to that London saw us stuff Redchurch’s mash tun full to the brim — more than 300 kilos of grain to brew one beast of a Porter. The mash smelled and looked incredible. Gary reports there may or may not be some last minute fruit addition in the FV… we simply had to have a huge London Porter represented! We had a blast, and enjoyed a lovely drink or two at the new and improved Redchurch brewery tap, a wonderful space featuring a turntable and darts. What could possibly go wrong?
Back in sunny Stockport, we returned to where many of our collabs in the past have started: at Quantum. This year, Jay’s been experimenting with Brett and making sour beers so naturally, we had to make a Berliner Schwarz! Lots of wheat malt, and chocolate and black malt on the sparge for colour, and the Berliner Schwarz was born. Sour and dark, it ought to be a lovely palate cleanser at a nice low ABV to keep you going.
Cheers to all the breweries who have hosted us this year, can’t wait to try the beers!
We’ve been a little bit slow to post our collaboration progress here, mainly because the last few weeks have been very busy indeed. So, to recap, we went to Liverpool, to visit our friends at Mad Hatter Brewing Co in late August. We brewed a beer that we’re calling Manchester Tart, a slightly sour beer with fruit additions of raspberry and coconut, and dry hopped with Sorachi Ace — a beery homage to the lovely and delicious dessert. Should be a treat!
August also saw us visit Leeds and our beery brothers at Northern Monk. We teamed up with Tom Bolland and Hali Santamas from the superb Grove Inn in Huddersfield, as well as our wonderful IndyMan volunteers Amanda and Peter Gaunt. The result of the brew day is a Kiwi Saison, aged in white wine barrels Woody and Buzz! We had a sneaky little non-barrel aged preview at Leeds International Beer Festival — very subtle kiwi flavour that complimented the spicy saison yeast.
Continuing our tour of Yorkshire, we also brewed at Summer Wine Brewery in Holmfirth. Twiggy, an all English-hopped IPA was born and by all accounts the Burton yeast is giving the beer a hugely jammy character. It’ll be dry hopped with East Kent Goldings to give that extra little homegrown kick.
We returned to Manchester, more precisely Salford, to team up with Rik Garner at First Chop. We’ve brewed a small, dark beer with figs and molasses — a nice little palate cleanser. It’s been a full couple of weeks, and now there’s less than four weeks till the main event!
Here are a few snaps from the brew days…
What a beery week in the nation’s capital: GBBF, London Beer City and London Craft Beer Festival. Naturally, we had to go south to see lots of friendly faces, brew another collaboration for IndyMan, and take in some of the special beer events. It was a tough mission, but someone had to do it!
First, we stopped at Olympia and GBBF, next we visited Beavertown’s new, shiny brewery in Tottenham. The goal: to make an Iced Tea beer! To achieve this, we mashed in with pale, wheat, and oats, and produced a wort that was then soured in the kettle for three days. We then did some trials with Lemon Phantom and Earl Grey Tea… to determine how much tea would be added in the secondary. Can’t wait to try this little refreshing number! It was a busy day at Beavertown, with brewers from Brazil and Jamil Zainasheff from Heretic in California stopping by. After the brew day, it was time to unwind at The Kernel’s open brewery event, and round out the evening with a visit to Mother Kelly’s in Hackney (apologies for the lack of photos, too busy chatting and tasting beers). A lovely beery place indeed.
After a little bit of a tour around central London’s public houses, we stopped to visit Redchurch, during the busy workday as well as for the chill session in the evening. Well worth visiting on a Thursday evening, and keep an eye out for expanded opening times! Furthermore, we met up with Steve and Mark from Beer ‘O’ Clock Show — the podcast of our chat will be online in the near future, watch the respective Twitter feeds. Finally, it was time to visit the Oval Space, and London Craft Beer Festival, which was back for its second outing. More friendly faces, more excellent beer, and then it was time to leave that there London and head back North.
A huge thank you to Beavertown for hosting us and brewing a special for IMBC, and a further massive thanks to all the beery friends, old and new! We hope to see all of you in Manchester in October. Cheers!
No rest for the wicked, but all in the name of great beer! The pleasure of visiting Toccalmatto in Fidenza was all mine, as Bruno Carilli is one of the happiest, warmest, and friendliest guy in the brewing scene. And really excited about collaborations! In fact, he’s so excited about them, he’s doing four in the space of a month… and we kicked things off on Wednesday, 30th July. Plans are in motion for the brewery to move to a bigger site close by, with a bigger brewhouse and thus increase the output — especially to keep up with orders for the ever popular Zona Cesarini. There will also be more room for barrels, but Bruno is not in a rush to resume the aging programme, most importantly, the team will focus on settling in to working with the new brewhouse and bottling line.
This transitional period is therefore a great opportunity to work with other brewers, including home brewers. Bruno loves collaborations because, “I always learn something new, of course I enjoy visiting other brewers and breweries, and then coming up with a new beer, playing with flavours, aroma. There are so many great brewers out there and together, we can make something really special.” Truer words were never spoken.
With that philosophy in mind, we brewed an Imperial Red Ale, with six different hops, and the wonderful guys at Toccalmatto will continue to dry hop this beautiful liquid, and then it will be unveiled at IMBC! Opening the FV ever so briefly the next morning, the aromas were fruity, hoppy, resinous. So much promise and potential!
What a privilege to taste amazing beers like Bedda Matri (barley wine aged in Marsala barrels for two years) and so many other treasures that Bruno and his close-knit team have been patiently waiting on to develop in the barrel cellar. For the love of hops and all good beer, Toccalmatto exemplify what is exciting about the brewing scene today! Thanks to Bruno, head brewer Matteo, assistant brewers Marco and Davide, resident food pairing expert Massimo, brewery assistant Antonio, and administrative captain, Fabiana, for their hospitality and generosity!
It’s a new month and thus time for IMBC to get back into the collaborative swing of things. Collaborations 3, 4, and 5 took us to Bristol and to Cornwall, to brew with Wiper and True, Arbor, and Harbour. It was a brew de force, with three brew days in a row!
Our first stop was with Wiper and True in Bristol. We convinced Michael and Will that it would be a great idea to brew a Gose… kindly, the gents obliged and started a sour mash that was ready and smelling pretty potent by the time the brew day rolled around. To keep things German, Polaris went into the mash, and Magnum and Polaris were added to the kettle. Look out for this sour little number to cleanse and refresh your palate!
Day 2 in Bristol and it was time to visit Arbor. Jon mashed in a massive 750 kilos of pale malt to enable a double brew day, with the first runnings for a Lemon and Lime Double IPA. Fruit was purchased and zesting was the name of the game for much of the sunny afternoon. We’re quite sure we don’t want to see anymore citrus in the near future… Plenty of hops was also added into the mix, with the heavy hitters Citra, Simcoe, Galaxy, and Cascade the lupulin carriers of choice. It should be a mouth puckering affair.
After we said our goodbyes, we cruised on down to Cornwall, to visit Eddie Lofthouse and Rhys Powell at Harbour. A huge barley wine was on the cards there, a first for Harbour. Summit and Centennial were the hops, and a bit of Amber malt to add a bit of colour. After primary fermentation, the barley wine will get to soak up the woody and whiskey flavours of Jim Beam casks… This one will be huge. Quite possibly, a most excellent night cap.
Thanks to the gents at Wiper and True, Arbor, and Harbour for their superb hospitality and for making these exciting brews happen! We can’t wait to try them in October. And if you think that this is the end of the collaborations road, then you’d be mistaken… Lots more to come!
Cheers!
We’ve been quite busy here at IMBC towers. Not only have we got a slew of new breweries lined up for your delectation in October, we also got our collaborations for this year under way.
To kick off our collaborations this year, we traveled to Caerphilly a few weeks back, to brew a very special Berliner Weisse with Tom Newman at Celt Experience. Tom loves to experiment, so he set up a yeast collection station at Tintern Abbey. After leaving it exposed to the elements for a while, Tom sent off the specimens to a lab, where the yeast was isolated from bacteria and other organisms, and then grown up for the collaboration! So, in addition to the traditional Berliner Weisse yeast strain, the wild yeast has come into play. It’s still souring away now… the results are definitely going to be unique. There may also be a fruited version in addition to the straight Berliner Weisse…
The next day, it was time to brew with the guys at Weird Beard Brew Co. Conditioning in the tank now is a Dark Saison, hopped with Magnum, Aurora, Target, and Columbus, as well as orange zest. The result should be a beer that may look dark and heavy, but is light and fruity… Thanks to both Celt and Weird Beard for letting us come down and making beer for IMBC!
More collaboration news soon…
Words by Claudia Asch