2014 was pretty good for us, but don’t just take our word for it, here are some lovely reviews from those in attendance, thanks for your support.

“At Indy Man Beer Con the stars of UK and international craft brewing (some idolised like rock gods) man their own bars and treat their followers to various one-off, experimental and rare examples of their work.” Tony Naylor, The Guardian (Read more here)

“IndyManBeerCon – by common consent, the best of Britain’s new wave beer festivals… a must for drinkers of all stripes.” Will Hawkes, The Independent (Read more here)

“A dizzying array of real ales and craft brews plus talks, music and beer-matched meals” Paul Ogden, Manchester Evening News (Read more here)

“Just as the punk rockers of the late 70’s brought something brash and new to the tide of prog that dominated the British rock scene at the time, IndyMan brings the antithesis to the British festival scene… It was bloody brilliant and I’d go again in a heartbeat” Matthew Curtis, Total Ales (Read more here)

“Visit IMBC [where] the new craft brewers are pushing the boundaries, experimenting with all beer types.” Neil, Sowerby, Taste Of Manchester (Read more here)

“Indy Man is an astonishing beer festival. It brings together some utterly amazing beers in probably one of the most gorgeous venues I been drunk in.” Suzy Aldridge, Pub Geek (Read more here)

“A rush of artisinal ale affection in an amazing atmospheric arena” Cameron Steward, All You Need Is Beer (Read more here)

“The venue is tremendous. Magnificent in fact and the perfect backdrop to the event itself… IMBC is a great event.” Peter Alexander, Tandleman’s Beer Blog (Read more here)

“IndyManBeerCon… anybody with a Twitter account and a beer G-spot was attending. You stopped asking people IF they were going and simply asked WHEN.” Mark Johnson, Beer Compurgation (Read more here)

“It remains one of the most openly enjoyable, fun events on the beer calendar” Connor Murphy, Beer Battered (Read more here)

“In my 28 year drinking ‘career’, Indy Man Beer Con is easily the best beer festival I’ve attended” Scott Rhodes, Bacon on the beech (Read more here)

“Easily the best beer event we’d ever attended in the UK” Crema’s Beer Odyssey (Read more here)

“Have you ever been to the land of beer? Sadly this land is fictional, however IMBC acts as an embassy” James Jackman, Mancunion (Read more here)

Well that was fun wasn’t it! We’ve just about recovered from six beery sessions in four days and are very much looking forward to next year. We’d like to thank every single one of you who bought a ticket for this year’s event. We welcomed over 4000 people through the doors of the gorgeous Edwardian beauty of Victoria Baths, we really hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.

We are always looking to develop our ideas and your feedback so far has given a great insight in to how we can make next year’s festival even better (mainly more loos and water!). We did have a couple of tiny issues, we are only human, but if you have any suggestions on what we can do to make your next IMBC experience even better please email [email protected] with your comments.

Some of you may have noticed that we have a donation scheme to help Victoria Baths with their ongoing regeneration project. You can send any unwanted tokens to : Victoria Baths Donation Scheme, Port Street Beer House, Manchester M1 2EQ, OR drop them in person to Port Street Beer House.

We’d like to thank this year’s partners, Thornbridge, Summer Wine Brewery, Magic Rock, Beavertown, BrewDog, Glassworks and CityLife, the amazing volunteers and supervisors from Common, PSBH and The Beagle who helped us set up and run the sessions themselves, the brewers that came from near and far to serve their beer, the brilliant Victoria Baths staff and volunteers that let us use their wondrous building, Hey! Manchester and Aficionado for curating the music and of course thank the musicians themselves, as well as the food traders and Jackie Kearney for helping soak up that wondrous beverage, food pairing or not. But most of all we would like to thank you for reading this and supporting us in this thing we do that we call IndyManBeerCon.

See you all soon – TEAM IMBC

Photos from across the weekend by Gary Brown and Jody Hartley

Plenty more photos can be viewed on our facebook page

Here is the line up in pretty much in it’s FULL glory, we have our events, pop up tasting sessions, beer lists and a few surprises to announce, but for now this is looking pretty BIG!

There are the last remaining tickets left for Thursday (Day), Friday (Day) and Sunday, but act quickly as there are about half the tickets left for each session.

Breweries : Against The Grain, Alechemy Brewing Co., Arbor, Beavertown, BlackJack Brewery, Brew By Numbers, BrewFist, Burning Sky, Buxton Brewery, Celt Experience, Cromarty Brewing Co., Evil Twin Brewing, First Chop, Hanging Bat Brewing Co, Harbour Brewing Co, Hawkshead, Hopcraft Brewing, Loverbeer, Mad Hatter Brewing Company, Magic Rock, Moor Beer Company, Northern Monk Brew Co., Quantum Brewing Co., Real Cider Co & Thistly Cross, Red Willow, Redchurch Brewery, Rooie Dop, Siren Craft Brew, Squawk Brewing Co, Stillwater Artisanal, Summer Wine Brewery, The Kernel, Thornbridge, Tiny Rebel, To Øl, Toccalmatto, Weird Beard Brew Co., Wildbeer Co., Wiper and True. Day by day breakdown is HERE

Food : Beer Matched Meal with Jackie Kearney (Hungry Gecko) MORE INFO HERE – there are just a few tickets left for the Thursday meal, you can purchase tickets HERE

Street food (every day) : Almost Famous, Diamond Dogs, Chaat Cart, Margo and Rita, Great North Pie Co., Honest Crust – MORE INFO HERE

Music : Thursday – Saturday curated by Hey! Manchester – The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club, Walk, Haiku Salut, Thugs On Wolves, Brown Brogues, PLANK! ///// Sunday curated by Aficionado – J-Walk, Horsebeach, Nev Cottee, DJs Moonboots and Jason Boardman – MORE INFO HERE

There is more to life than beer?!? Shock, horror some may say! We are quite proud at IMBC to have an extensive family of food lovers, music buffs, top notch DJs and generally lovely people.

With pleasure we have announced the following food traders for this year’s festival : Almost Famous, Chaat Cart, Diamond Dogs, Margo and Rita, Great North Pie Co and Honest Crust you can read LOADS more here.

To accompany all the lovely food and drink you will be needing the perfect soundtrack, fear not, for we have teamed up with two Manchester stalwarts to help us curate the music. Thursday to Saturday will be orchestrated by Hey! Manchester, playing for them will be The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club, Haiku Salut, Thugs On Wolves, Brown Brogues and PLANK!

Sunday music selections are supplied by Aficionado, we are over the moon to have these guys on board for a bit of a live shindig across the sabbath. On stage will be J-Walk, Horsebeach and Nev Cottee, of course they will be accompanied by DJs Moonboots and Jason Boardman.

Read more about all the music happenings HERE.

We are proud to announce a special 4 course meal* with matched beers hosted by Jackie Kearney (Hungry Gecko)

Places are limited to 30 per sitting, the meal will take place in the Victoria Baths cafe :

Thursday 9th October / 7pm

Friday 10th October / 7pm and 8.30pm

Saturday 11th October / 7pm (SOLD OUT) and 8.30pm (SOLD OUT)

Tickets are £37.50 they include four courses with matched beers + entrance to the festival – purchase HERE

* Meal will last one hour

Jackie Kearney was a top 4 finalist in BBC One’s MasterChef 2011. She has been developing her experience and reputation through pop-up dining events, a vegetarian fine dining club and pursing her Asian street food venture in her iconic trailer, Barbarella. Her food passion lies with Asian street food and vegetarian dining, inspired by her extensive travels across Asia with her husband and twin children. You can read more about Jackie’s adventures with her family on her blog.

Jackie’s ambition is to raise the bar in vegetarian and street food dining. She aims to create food that is exciting, delicious and thought provoking

thehungrygecko.com/

Hello!

Dates for this year will be 9th – 12th October, tickets are now on sale HERE

IMBC 2014 Session times:

Thursday 9th October / 5.30pm – 11.30pm

Friday 10th October / 5.30pm – 11.30pm

Saturday 11th October / 11.00am – 4:30pm and 5.30pm – 11.30pm

Sunday 12th October / 1pm – 7pm

Ticket includes entry to the festival, commemorative glass, programme, all booking and credit card fees.

2013 was pretty good for us, but don’t take our word for it, here are some kind reviews from those in attendance, thanks for your support.

Tickets for the 2014 festival will on sale on Tuesday 1st April, see you all in the baths.

“Independent Manchester Beer Convention seems to have rewritten the rules on what a British beer festival looks like” – Will Hawkes, Financial Times (Read more here)

“One of the most forward thinking beer festival seen in the UK. More akin to Copenhagen Beer Celebrations than your normal CAMRA get-together, the festival combined the most exciting beers from the UK, served by the brewers themselves, in an amazing venue.” – Josh Smith, Evening Brews (Read more here)

“A shout out to beer lovers over the peaks and a nudge to Sheffield beery folksters – the Independent Manchester Beer (& Stuff) Convention is well worth a visit.” Jules Gray, Exposed Magazine (Read more here)

“If you love beer and/or historic architecture be sure to go at least once – if not every year.” Sophie Atherton, Beer Sommelier (Read more here)

“Held in the striking setting of the grade II listed Victoria Baths, the IMBC team managed to bring an element of alternative class, turning the Edwardian-era converted swimming pool into a bustling maze of interest” Leah Jade Connolly, Quays News (Read more here)

“The festival that has stepped forward from all the others, and drawn a line behind it.” The Beer Cast (Read more here)

“There was more beer, better beer than last year. More seating, erm, better seating than last year. Disabled access was better. I think you’re getting the picture. In summary, if you weren’t there, you missed a treat” Tysons Beer Blog (Read more here)

“Another terrifically organised event… Celebrations of beer are rarely this good, but, as far as I’m concerned, always should be.” Beer Compurgation (Read more here)

“It seemed unthinkable that Indy Man Beer Con would surpass the success of its inaugural outing but, somehow, it did exactly that. There can no longer be any ambiguity. It is simply the most significant event in the British beer calendar” Beer Battered (Read more here)

“IndyMan is the dream of craft beer made flesh… IndyMan has a special place in my heart. It is everything that is great about Britain rolled into one.” The Beer Boy (Read more here)

“The annual Indy Man Beer Con is a must for any beer enthusiasts.” Amy Brewster, Viva Lifestyle Magazine (Read more here)

“The Independent Manchester Beer Convention returned in 2013, taking what was already an outstanding festival to new heights when they really had very little room for improvement.” Graphed Beer (Read more here)