IMBC 17 SPONSORS

Howdy. Each year we assemble a dream team of breweries and beer-related folk that kindly sponsor Indy Man Beer Con. Some of the below, where listed, are room sponsors of Indy Man Beer Con 2017 at Victoria Baths. Encouraged to make their pitch their own, you’ll find all of the below at EVERY session across IMBC 17. Colour us excited…

IMBC 17 SPONSORS

BEAVERTOWN BREWERY
@ Pineapple Room

Them fabulous Beavers from London town surely need no introduction. Beavertown have brought the party consistently to IMBC over the past however many instalments. Last year they rocked Room One with their inflatable saucers, life-size spacemen cut-outs, OH and the most phenomenal range of rare Beavertown beers and stone cold classic cuts. This time Beavertown take the Pineapple Room at Victoria Baths by storm. Clear the way, spaceship incoming…

BUXTON BREWERY
@ Green Room


Hot damn on a cold-stored tin roof are we excited to welcome Buxton Brewery to IMBC 17 as the official room sponsor of the Green Room (answer: yes). This our first time welcoming the terrific Buxton onboard to Indy Man Beer Con as a room sponsor and we cannae wait to see how they deck out the place. Consistent hit makers and ice cream innovators (alongside their brother from another mother, Omnipollo), Buxton will be bringing out the big guns for IMBC 17.

CLOUDWATER BREW CO
@ Room Two

Cloudwater join us at IMBC for their THIRD appearance since their inception in 2015. To say the Manchester brewery have gone from strength to strength would be an understatement. Constantly moving things forward, learning and releasing great beers (often in waves), Cloudwater return to marshal Room Two for the second year running. Last year Cloudwater spilled a river of previously unreleased barrel aged beauties, and never-seen uber drinkable drops, this year we daresay to expect the unexpected once more. Cloudwater will be joined by brewery friends from the US, more on that soon…

FOURPURE
@ Room OneThe purest fourest, Fourpure, a force for the pure, return to Indy Man Beer Con for their second year as room sponsor. London’s Fourpure, a family brewery founded in 2013, have been knocking out the hits for fun over the last few years. Juicebox has become a staple, Fourpure’s core range much adored and their rarer releases highly sought after – luckily you’ll find all facets of the Fourpure oeuvre at Indy Man once more this year. Room One just got interesting!

LERVIG
@ Turkish Baths

Highly excited to welcome Lervig to IMBC 17, hosting their very own room in the Turkish Baths. Coming all the way to Manchester from Stavanger, Norway, Lervig are the creators of everything from easy drinking pales and barrel aged barley wines to exquisite sours. Over the last few years Lervig have touted some of the world’s best stouts and porters, their Hoppin’ Frog collab Sippin’ Into Darkness was gone in no time at IMBC 16 and their 3 Bean Stout Way collaboration is out of this world. Don’t miss the gems that Lervig will be unearthing in the Turkish Baths, flanked by their buddies Beer Merchants – more on that below.

NORTHERN MONK
@ Food VillageLeeds royalty Northern Monk traverse the pennines to bring you their grade A selection at IMBC 17. Hot off the back of their excellently curated Hop City, Northern Monk will be showcasing their ever broadening range of rarities, joyous collaborations, and their crowd pleasing standards. Last year they made two thrones out of cans, who knows what the brethren will emerge with this year. Cash them ousside (in the food village), how bow dah. Enter the Northern Monk tent for all your eternal needs.

SIREN CRAFT BREW
@ Room 3

Champs of Finchampstead, Berkshire’s best Siren Craft Brew are returning to IMBC once more – this time overseeing Room 3 as lords of the realm. Siren’s core range is a constant inspiration, as is their bountiful barrel ageing programme, their seasonal specials and their verve and innovation in collaboration with their peers in the beer world. At IMBC 16 Siren regularly dropped bombshell after bombshell with lesser seen, and in some cases NEVER seen specials, as well as touting the only cask of the festival. This year we already know it’s going to be a special Siren year as they are bringing THE RAINBOW PROJECT in full effect to IMBC 17. That means you’ll find all seven 2017 Rainbow Project beers pouring in room 3 at IMBC 17: Magic Rock x Casita Cerveceria, Partizan x New Belgium, Beavertown x Jester King, Hawkshead x Modern Times, SIREN x Sante Adairius, Wild Beer x Side Project, and Burning Sky x 3 Floyds. Wow.

WILD BEER CO
@ Food Village

Shepton Mallet’s Wild Beer Co, they of the magical blend, the house of a hundred (and then some) barrels, they of the sprawling styles and vigorous experimentation, return to IMBC for the second year running to pitch a tent in our outside arena. Inside the tent, nay cave of wonders, you’ll find a mile long (pretty much) Wild Beer bar pouring all you could ever fawn over. Last year they brought the biggest block of cheese you ever did see. This year we daresay Wild Beer will bring the house down once more. Find them out the back with neighbouring tent dwellers, Northern Monk.

Thems the breweries, now let us focus a lil attention on our non-brewery partners for IMBC 17.

BEER MERCHANTS

Beer Merchants are our glass sponsor for IMBC 17. It won’t be the first, nor last time, you’ll drink an exquisite beer aided by Beer Merchants. Beer Merchants stock the world’s best craft beer, an online cavalcade of the hottest drops from the modern beer scene. They will be operating a physical shop in Room 3 alongside their bezzies Lervig for all your takeout needs at IMBC 17. Visit them you must.

KEGSTAR

Kegstar is a keg and cask rental business and innovative tech company. Their aim is simple; to help free up valuable time and money spent maintaining, tracking and collecting kegs and casks. Using app enabled technology (free to download from your app store) each of Kegstars steel containers are scanned with a smart device, allowing them to be tracked through the supply chain to the venue. All the producer needs to do is fill, deliver, scan and repeat. When the time comes for empty kegs and casks to be collected, venue staff simply scan for a pick-up or alternatively phone or email us and we’ll collect as quickly as possible.

SIMPLY HOPS

Simply Hops are purveyors of wholesale hops and hop pellets for the UK and Europe. Buy your hops, pellets, PHA, anti foam, and more from Simply Hops. Passionate about the business of hops and champing at the bit to provide the very best for all your brewing needs.

LALLEMAND

Lallemand kindly sponsor The Thirsty Games, our yearly showcasing of the best new small breweries in the UK. Lallemand is a global leader in the development, production and marketing of yeast, bacteria and specialty ingredients. What Lallemand don’t know about yeast *probably* isn’t worth knowing.

And thus concludes the list of our illustrious partners. Fancy partying with them? Join us 28th September – 1st October for Indy Man Beer Con 2017. Friday and Saturday sessions are SOLD OUT but you can pick up tickets for the opening Thursday 28th September session and closing Sunday 1st October party. Tickets available HERE

Tickets for IMBC 17 now on sale

Yes yes y’all!

Pick yours up HERE!

IMBC 17
28th September – 1st October 2017
Victoria Baths, Manchester

Thursday 28th September session / 5.30pm-11.30pm @ £8.50
Friday 29th September day session / 11.30am-4.30pm @ £8.50
Friday 29th September evening session / 5.30pm-11.30pm @ £13.50
Saturday 30th September day session / 11.30am-4.30pm @ £13.50 SOLD OUT
Saturday 30th September evening session / 5.30pm-11.30pm @ £13.50 SOLD OUT
Sunday 1st October session / 1pm-7pm @ £8.50
Full Fat Ticket / entrance to ALL sessions @ £50

IMBC 17 ticket launch events


To celebrate the launch of IMBC 17 tickets (general release Wednesday 24th May @ 9pm via HERE) we are holding TWO launch events at Port Street Beer House AND The Beagle on Wednesday 24th May from 6pm. If you can make it in person to either pub you will have the chance to pick up limited advance tickets from 6pm, limited to four tickets per person per session, ahead of the general website ticket release at 9pm.

See posters below for what’s happening. There will be free tacos galore from IMBC food vendors Al Pastor Paul at both pubs PLUS very special tastings from Buxton, Hawkshead, and Cloudwater at Port Street Beer House. Meanwhile, The Beagle will be pouring out free halves of Beavertown Neck Oil until the keg runs dry. Alongside this fervour there will also be a host of IMBC picks pouring across each bar.

Last but not leastly, we recently revealed the artwork for IMBC 17. Made by the fair hand, as ever, by Steve Hockett of Wonder Room Studio. 


IMBC 17 Tickets

Tickets for IMBC 17 (Thursday 28th September – Sunday 1st October 2017 at Victoria Baths) will go on sale on Wednesday 24th May 2017 from 9pm on this very website. I know, I could hardly believe it either.

See you here!

Catching up with Fiveclouds

At IMBC 16 we debuted a new bar called The Thirsty Games. The bar showcased three small breweries: Maregade, Wilde Child, and Fiveclouds. The three were chosen by an IMBC panel following an open call seeking out the best UK small breweries. Beers from the three were poured throughout the festival and you, the public, voted on your favourite Thirsty Games brewery via ballot. Fiveclouds came out on top after four days of intensive tasting and took home the very first Thirsty Games trophy.

Fiveclouds Shibui and Al-Ki pouring at Fiveclouds Tap

Team IMBC took a trip to Fiveclouds Tap in Macclesfield to catch up with our Thirsty Games 2016 winners, Fiveclouds. We spoke to Tom and Josh in the excellent surrounds of Fiveclouds Tap’s cellar…

Who is Fiveclouds? Tell us a little about your brewing setup

Fiveclouds is a small gypsy brewery based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. We focus on brewing seasonal, progressive and modern beer.  We started as a small 1BBL brewery brewing out of Torrside. We used their pilot kit for 10 months before moving up to their full size kit as demand increased. We’re massively grateful to those guys for helping us get our beer out! We started brewing at Wincle to allow us to brew 2 10BBL batches a month – the slight difference in kits suits us as we can experiment more with process and most of all learn from both of them!

The Thirsty Games trophy, created by current Cloudwater artist Mariel Osborn, taking pride above the Thirsty Games Tap bar

 

The Thirsty Games bar at IMBC 16

How was your experience of being at IMBC 16?

Absolutely awesome yet pretty overwhelming! We had such an amazing time pouring next to some of our favourite breweries and friends alike. To be pouring at IMBC in our first year of trading was a massive deal to us, slightly surreal after going for the past few years as drinkers and we were totally surprised at the amount of interest and feedback from other brewers and the public alike. It opened a huge amount of doors for us as a brewery and gave us some much needed confidence.

When we tweeted the results of the competition our tweet had got over 6000 interactions that night. We had about 30 bars from around the country asking for beer over twitter, etc. It was pretty crazy!

Down in the Fiveclouds Tap cellar

How has your life changed since winning the inaugural Thirsty Games?

Since IMBC ’16 we’ve started to brew monthly at two separate breweries – Torrside Brewery and Wincle Brewery – producing around 20BBL of beer a month. That’s around 5 or 6 times more beer per month than we were brewing, however it was much needed as we got to a point where we were selling out before I’d got a chance to post availability out.

Ground floor of the Fiveclouds Tap, Macclesfield

What’s next for Fiveclouds?

We’re spending this year on building up the brewery, focusing on creating continually evolving beers that we want to brew while focusing on quality, consistency and experimentation in our practices and techniques. We’re currently working on getting a take-home product out on the market that we’re happy with, and getting this to the end customer directly in the best possible condition – this is hugely important to us as a small brewery as allows people to experience our product how it’s intended while making it sustainable for us to brew the beers we like by selling direct.

As winner of The Thirsty Games you won the privilege of being the first brewery on the team sheet for IMBC 17. What can people expect? 

We’ve got a rough idea of what we’d like to bring to IMBC ’17 and we’re lining up a few special collabs for it! Either way, expect some fresh and juicy hop forward pales/IPAs along with a possible return of last years Double Sunset and a few more specials we have planned!
Where can we find your beer?

Our beers our slowly getting around the north west. Port Street, Common, The Beagle, Brink, Heaton Hops have all taken beer recently. Our cans will soon be available on Eebria to buy, as well as around some bottles shops.

THANKS FIVECLOUDS! SEE YOU AT IMBC 17!


Should you find yourselves Macclesfield-way, we implore you to make a visit to the Fiveclouds Tap & Bottle. It’s a great setup with a really nice underground bunker of a cellar. There’s 4 kegs and a cask line, a fine bottle selection, and it’s open 7 days a week. Taste Fiveclouds wherever you can, they’re coming out with some great beer at the moment and we can’t wait to see what they do at IMBC 17.

THE THIRSTY GAMES will be returning to IMBC 17 with a host of new breweries. Look out for details on that and how to enter very shortly indeed!

Follow Fiveclouds online at…
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
and check them out at,
www.fivecloudbrew.co

IMBC 17 Dates

Ahoy!

The dates for 2017’s Independent Manchester Beer Convention are…

Thursday 28th September – Sunday 1st October 2017.

The venue, as ever, will be Victoria Baths.

Tickets for IMBC 17 will go on sale mid-2017. Details to follow on an exact date when we have it. Brewery list and full line-up details will follow.

Independent Manchester Beer Convention 2017
28th September – 1st October 2017
Victoria Baths, Manchester
#IMBC17 #IMBC17 #IMBC17

IMBC 16 Fringe

So many happenings a-happening around IMBC extended weekend Thursday 6th – Sunday 9th October. Here’s the events that we’ve got a hand in/give a thumbs up too…
barsnacks

BEAVERTOWN TAKEOVER COMMON
Thursday 6th October – Sunday 9th October 2016

Beavertown commandeer the taps, hearts, minds, and ass of our dearest Common. Expect Beavertown galore, a pop-up exhibition by Beavertown illustrator Nick Dwyer, Beavertown cocktails, and Beavertown brunch specials.

Opening hours: Thursday 11am-late / Friday 11am-2am / Saturday 10am-2am / Sunday 10am-late. Brunch is served from 11am weekdays / 10am weekends until 3pm. Food is served until 9.30pm. 

BUXTON TAKEOVER PORT STREET
Thursday 6th October – Sunday 9th October 2016

Buxton, oh Buxton. Buxton come to Port Street. Fawn over their brilliant beers with a smattering of rare as hen’s teeth BUXTON CASK (you don’t find it anywhere outside of the Buxton tap these days) plus keg-o-rama galore. Rumours of soft serve Omnipollo beer collabs abound PLUS Yellow Belly Sundae cask…ummmmmmmm, YAH.

Port Street Buxton Tap is open until 1am Friday / 2am Saturday / Midnight Sunday. 

HAWKSHEAD TAKEOVER THE BEAGLE
Thursday 6th October – Sunday 9th October 2016

Those lords of the lakes, Hawkshead, make their way to The Beagle in darling Chorlton with their emphatic haul of SEMINAL cask and OUTSTANDING keg. Check it the hell out. The Beagle is firing out “Beer Food” specials during IMBC, food with beer in? SOLD!

The Beagle is serving up brunch for all your IMBC needs 10am-2pm Saturday and Sunday / Food service runs until 10pm every day / Hawkshead rule / The Beagle is open until 1am Friday and Saturday night. 

LOST AND GROUNDED AT THE PILCROW
Friday 7th October 2016

Meet the UK’s newest brewery when Bristol’s Lost and Grounded come to Manchester’s newest pub, The Pilcrow. Drink Lost and Grounded’s beers and meet your new buds behind the suds.

KERNEL AT BREWDOG MANCHESTER
Thursday 6th October – Sunday 9th October 2016

Those fresh to death EXPERTS, Kernel from London town, make themselves at home at Brewdog Manchester while they’re up visiting for IMBC. Don’t miss this tap takeover.

Cider at IMBC 16

As always we like to flex our cider arm at IMBC. For IMBC 16 we’ve got a big apple line-up as ever. Cider drinkers take heed, here are the cider makers you’ll find at every session at IMBC.

HOGAN’S CIDER

honascider
Inviting curious folk to taste proper cider. Fresh pressed traditional and experimental ciders from Alcester. Hogan’s have been barrel ageing, hopping, keeving and all sorts in recent times, turning out some fine off-kilter ciders on keg and cask. Excited to learn what they’re bringing to IMBC 16. Watch this space.

THE REAL CIDER COMPANY / PULP CRAFT CIDER

pulpcider

The Real Cider Company, they of excellent cider curation, return to IMBC with a strong arm of cider brands as ever. This time however they are boasting their very own Pulp Craft Cider imprint. New out of the gates this year with an emphasis on fresh and real ciders, Pulp cite that it is true craft cider because their ciders are made from crushed whole apples with real fruit added. There is no apple concentrate involved nor are they using fruit flavours. As a result you can really taste the difference. It is as they say ‘all pulp and no fiction!’.

THISTLY CROSS

thistlycrosswww
Born out of a passion for making cider in the best possible way, combined with belief in the quality of Scottish produce, and asking ‘why not?’, came Thistly Cross Cider, Scotland’s award winning farmhouse ciders. Established as a collaboration between farmer, Ian Rennie, and artist-turned-cidermaker, Peter Stuart, in 2008, Thistly Cross has gained a reputation for making ciders that people rave about. We are pleased as cider punch to welcome them back to IMBC.

MOSS CIDER

THE MOSS CIDER PROJECT, MANCHESTER. FOUNDER DAN HASLER, 32, AND DIRECTOR JOE WEEKS, 40 , AT THE OLD SHIPPING CONTAINER IN MOSS SIDE WHERE THEY PRESS THE APPLES. PHOTO BY CLARE KENDALL.

The most excellently named Moss Cider, of Moss Side, Manchester, return to IMBC with all the cider and apple juice you’ll ever need. Moss Cider run an excellent community project where you give them apples and they turn said apples into cider. Like a West Country Jesus. Basically for free too! Highly endorsed, check them out at IMBC 16.