craft - Indy Man Beer Con

Wylam Q&A | IMBC 18

We recently caught up with Dave Stone of Wylam ahead of their steering the good ship Room 3 at IMBC 18 as official room sponsor. Wylam have been all guns blazing for quite the while and big players on the IMBC scene for years now. This year will see them toting more beers than ever at the festival and you will find Wylam pouring beers at ALL sessions in the pool in Room 3. Here’s what Dave has to say about it…

Ahoy Dave. We are excited to welcome Wylam to IMBC 18 as the sponsors of Room 3 AKA the party room. Can you let us in on any plans for the space?

Well we like to party… everybody does ;) So we are looking to make sure that the party room is well served with new brews and classics a bit like a liquid 6music I suppose.

Wylam are no strangers to beer festivals – either attending or putting on your own great spread in the shape of Craft Beer Calling. What makes a good beer festival?

A beer festival is made by the people who buy tickets and attend the festival. Without them it’s just a room full of foisty beer nerds comparing yeast strains. The reason we dived in to take over the pool this year is that we love the crowd at IMBC and we wanted to be able to pour as many great beers as possible for them.

The Palace of Arts! What a place! Can you tell us a little about the history of the building, how you came to inhabit it and what you guys offer there to visitors?

The Palace was built in 1928 as part of the Great Exhibition of the North which was a World Trade fair designed to stimulate trade during the depression. It lay barren for many years prior to us taking it over and transforming it. We often wonder what the folk who attended the original exhibition would think if they saw how the building has been repurposed. It’s an incredible Grade II listed building in a beautiful park in the City Centre and we are honoured to be custodians of this amazing space.

By The River! We’ve heard rave reports but have yet to dip our beak. What’s going on over there? Sounds wild!

By The River Brew Co is a project that has been developed by two of our Directors. It’s a separate entity to Wylam. It is indeed wild with a 15 barrel brewhouse, tap room, open flame restaurant, custom build bike shop which serves coffee and brunch plus an amazing street food market that opens at weekends. The idea is to brew beers mainly for site so we can ensure they are served fresh and in their best condition. You can find out more HERE.

Wylam have been producing some fantastic beers recently and have been at the forefront of the UK’s quality pale output. What beers are you particularly proud of from the past 12 months?

To be honest there isn’t one particular beer or beers we would say we are prouder of than others. It took us a little time to dial the new kit however once we did we were super proud of all our output.

Collaborations – you have been very busy lately. Your Northern Powerhouse series went down a storm – are there plans for this to become a regular thing? What are some of the biggest positives of collaborating with peers?

The Northern Powerhouse series was a really exciting project to lead out on. It was such a pleasure to bring some of the finest brewers in the region to our home and collaborate with them in this celebration of all thing ‘northern’. Whether it will happen again is still to be decided. The biggest positives from collabs are knowledge sharing, breaking bread together and of course going on the lash after the brew.

Can you tease us with any special beers you’ve got up your sleeve for IMBC 18?

We would love to… but we haven’t designed some of them yet :) There will be a good mix of exclusives, classics and collabs. along with some stuff we keep locked away in Ben our Head Brewers dungeon. If he asks you to go down there by the way just say no ;)

What’s next for Wylam?

What’s next is what is past and present. Continue to make beers the best we can and to get them out to inquisitive pallets. It’s the best time in history for beer… so let’s party.

Lastly, any advice to visitors to the festival on where to head in Manchester before/after their session?

To be honest when we attend IMBC we tend to stay within the festival but there is an abundance of great beer bars in the city so free your mind and your ass will follow.

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Cheers Dave!

Follow Wylam online wherever you can. They have a website! They have a twitter! They have an instagram! Go visit Wylam in Newcastle and come drink their beer in October in Victoria Baths!

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IMBC 18 / 4th-7th October 2018. Victoria Baths, Manchester
Tickets for Thursday 4th, Friday 5th day session, and Sunday 7th October are available HERE.

Posted on 14th September 2018

IMBC 17 Photos

IMBC 17 is a goner! Luckily we had Jody Hartley down to photograph it. Here are some choice visuals! Enjoy!

: Photograph by Jody Hartley

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: Trois Dames Warehouse Tasting

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: Other Half Warehouse tasting

: Other Half Warehouse tasting

: Cloudwater hosting a "Cold vs Old" tasting in the Cellar. Photograph by David Bailey

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: Denis from Buxton hosting a tasting in the Cellar. Photograph by David Bailey

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: Thirsty Games 2017 winners BURNING SOUL!

Posted on 4th October 2017

Meet Fourpure / IMBC 17

MEET FOURPURE
IMBC 17

We’re sure you’ve already met many many times but allow us to introduce you to Fourpure as Adrian Lugg shines a light on what Fourpure are up to and what to expect from them at Victoria Baths for IMBC 17. Last week we travelled to Fourpure to brew a collaboration beer that will be available nationwide mid to late August 2017. Look out for Bath Bomb in the very near future.

Fourpure are the sponsors of Room 1 at IMBC 17. You’ll find Fourpure at every session of IMBC 17. We asked Adrian a few questions…

You’ve just brewed an IMBC collaboration beer at Fourpure – thank you kindly – can you tell us a little about Bath Bomb?

It’s a tropical pale ale, it’s going to taste amazing. We hope. No pressure.

Sneaky peek of the Bath Bomb can artwork by Steve Hockett

Tell us a bit about your recent Juicebox 500 tour

It was a super good time. Logistically it was a lot of hard work but it definitely paid off. We hit 11 cities in 11 days and met some brilliant people from all over the country. There’s something about the craft beer crowd, both those that own and work in venues and the humble beer drinker who just wants to turn up and have a chat. There was such a good vibe at every new city we went to and it was a great opportunity for our team to get out and about and meet some really cool people.

Fourpure are the guardians, as it were, of Room 1 at Victoria Baths for IMBC 17. What can we expect from Fourpure?

Sophie (much-loved Fourpure events manager) has been pulling together some really fun ideas, there’s going to be lots of lights, some interactive stuff and we’re talking to a local arts school so it should be a pretty good show.

James IMBC touches things at Fourpure

Deucebox was one of the hits at last year’s IMBC. Will you be unearthing more gems at this year’s festival?

We hope so. We’ve got some absolute belters coming through now and more in time for the festival. We’re looking to have a decent size bar with a few taps so you’ll see a range, there’ll be some Fourpure favourites like Juicebox, Deucebox and Shape Shifter, I believe we’ll also be pouring Bath Bomb so that’s exciting. Truth be told we started planning our Indy Man beer list towards the end of last year so we’re also bringing a range of small batch and one-offs that we’re hoping go down well.

Who are you looking forward to sharing the stage with at IMBC 17?

Dave Grohl? Is he going to be there? It’s not that we’re huge Foo Fighter fans but apparently he’s a nice guy. It’s probably not fair to single out any one brewery as everyone brings their A Game to IMBC, it’s such a great event with a unique vibe and good people. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves around this event, there’s just so many great breweries with exciting beers.

What are your tips for the ultimate IMBC experience?

Visit as many breweries and try as many beers as you possibly can. Drink lots of water. Stay hydrated. Don’t take any preconceptions in with you, your new favourite beer might be something you’d never think to try, your new favourite brewery might not have previously been on your radar. Don’t take it too seriously, it’s beer, have fun.

Photographs by Fourpure

How do you feel about the current London brewing scene?

It’s really hard to keep up with what’s happening in London right now, the momentum just keeps building and it’s incredible to see the support across the city for (relatively) well-established breweries and new comers alike. The focus on craft in London is really exciting, it’s the beers we like to drink and there’s plenty of opportunities to share ideas and collaborate.

What’s next for Fourpure? What should we look out for?

We’re pretty close to installing our new brew house, there’s an abundance of new tanks and new toys in production and some stuff is en-route as we write this. The increased capacity is going to free up a lot of time to focus on innovation, and our entire team, brewing and beyond are chomping at the bit to get some fun recipes in tank. We’re also pretty close to getting some of our barrel aged projects in keg, there’s always something new and different happening at Fourpure but sometimes we like stop and appreciate an old favourite. We’re going to be brewing Beartooth again in Autumn, it’s a seasonal American Brown that we’ve brewed before and it’s one of our favourite beers for any occasion.

Thanks Fourpure, I like you

Tickets for IMBC 17 / Thursday 28th September – Sunday 1st October 2017 are available HERE.

Posted on 2nd August 2017

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!

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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

Posted on 16th March 2017

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

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

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

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 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.

Posted on 22nd September 2016