Meet Beer Adventures / IMBC 17

We caught up with Jonny Quirk of Beer Adventures to find out what’s happening in the exciting world of Beer Adventures, our beer mat sponsor for IMBC 17. Feast on this…

Hello Jonny! Can you tell us a little about what Beer Adventures is?

Beer Adventures is a brand new iOS and Android app which lets you take ‘app guided’ beer tours in loads of cities around the world. You can use one phone to get around town with a friend/partner or use multiple phones at the same time to compete with friends to be the best local beer expert on the day.

We spend loads of time curating tours all over the globe, researching the very best bars and brewtaps and aim to highlight places that are not the most obvious and easy to find. For instance you could use Beer Adventures in Singapore right now and be sipping some damn fine craft beer in a matter of minutes, before being lead to a number of great brewpubs and bars that are off the radar.

We’ve launched in 25 cities and will be adding new countries, cities and routes every week – including pairing beer with food, culture and sightseeing so that you get a genuine experience of the city you’re hanging out in. We design the tours to pass as many landmarks as possible so as you get to see the city too. You could be walking from bar to brewtap and may just pass by the Empire State Building or Rome Colosseum en route!

Our app also tests your beer and local city knowledge through pop-up questions, has great info on each venue you’re taken to so you know how it fits into the city and it’s history, plus we also offer a number of discounts and special offers in some of the bars we use.

Overall we’ve deliberately created something that is easy to use, is available whenever you need it and makes discovering and exploring a new city beer scene as fun as possible.


Why should people be interested in the Beer Adventures app?

The global beer industry is so exciting right now and like food, it’s the perfect thing to travel for. We’ve all been on organised walking tours that are expensive and take a big chunk out of your day, whereas our app pretty much provides you with the same service and you can use it whenever and wherever you want.

We’re something to be used close to home when wanting to take a day out somewhere new (for instance travelling from Manchester to Liverpool or Leeds for a day trip) or when travelling the world and needing to tap into the authentic beer scene wherever you are.

Once you’ve signed up to our app, you can choose any city in the world for free on us so as you can give it a spin and see what it’s like, then further cities cost less than the price of a decent pint. Once you own a city it’s yours, plus any new tours we create for that city will be yours for free then too.

We’re also running a special competition to the end of Indy Man weekend with everyone who downloads and signs up to our app (plus likes our Beer Adventures App Facebook page) given the chance to win a £100 voucher from our friends at Hoptimism so here’s hoping there’s some good signal at Victoria Baths this year! (Ed: There is. Telcom done boosted our wifi!)

Who will you be making a beeline for at IMBC 17?

After still riding the high of BeaverX I’ll be found no doubt with either a sour or stout in hand. If the truth be known I try not to go with too many expectations of ‘must-drinks’ to beer festivals anymore. I just really want to enjoy a bit of everything that’s new and discover something a bit different whilst catching up with friends. Saying that there is definitely a chance I’ll be seen near Lervig, Burning Sky, Dugges, Buxton and Cloudwater’s beer! I’m also looking forward to some of Nasi Lemak’s Malaysian street food, which should go pretty well with some darker ales.

What else have Beer Adventures got in the pipeline this year?

Well we have some really exciting city launches happening in October and November with Scandinavia and South America coming online, plus new behind the scenes partner tours with famous breweries in various cities across the UK and Europe.

We’re also going to be working with a lot of UK beer weeks next year to put on some special events so we’re hard at work planning these already.

Overall we want to live up to our name and not just create average, well known city routes for people. We’ll be putting in the deep research to build tours like our new ‘Epic NYC’ one where you hit 10 beer places in one day and need to whizz around the city however you want (plane, train, automobile???) – we’ll keep shining a light on the underground and offbeat places that beer fans need to get to!

Lastly, have you got any recommendations of where visitors to Manchester should head pre-IMBC and post-IMBC?

I’m a massive fan of casual places that require minimal effort to head to at the moment. So GRUB by Piccadilly is great as there’s awesome beer and food every weekend. Cloudwater Barrel store is also high on my go-to list and Bundobust and COMMON are always solid for beer and food.

If anyone has a bit of extra time when visiting the city (or takes a wrong turn out of Victoria Baths…) then I’d always recommend hitting the suburbs for a few. Heaton Chapel train station has Heaton Hops and Bottle within about 10 minutes walk of each other and they’re always a good choice with some of the best beers in Greater Manchester on-tap.

If you are looking for inspiration around Indy Man then we have 3 tours on the Manchester section of our Beer Adventures app all ready to go for free – there’s also an IMBC festival special tour that’ll take you to 6 great places in town so I welcome everyone to give it a spin and see what you think – you can download it HERE.

Thanks Jonny!

Check out Beer Adventures’ IMBC 17 tour on Facebook HERE and follow them via the following mediums…

Beer Adventures Instagram
Beer Adventures Twitter

Beer Adventures Facebook 

IMBC 17 / 28th September – 1st October 2017 / Victoria Baths, Manchester
Tickets still available for Thursday and Sunday sessions!

Meet Buxton / IMBC 17

We stole a few precious moments with Denis Johnstone, Brewery Manager at Buxton, to chat IMBC 17 and Buxton’s exciting plans. Buxton Brewery are the sponsors of the Green Room at IMBC this year and you can expect a ravishing haul across all sessions.

Hi Denis, we are really excited to have Buxton bossing their own room at IMBC this year. Can you tell us a little about what you folks have lined up for the Green Room?

Hi Dave! Yeah we’re super excited to be hosting the Green Room this year! We’re bringing a really wide range of our beers and re-brewed some classics especially for IMBC including Wyoming Sheep Ranch DIPA and Battle Horse Black DIPA – both will be kegged a day or two before the festival! We’re also bringing two slushie machines and a heap of the Buxton x Omnipollo Original Ice Cream Beers and are planning to do some fun toppings.



I heard rumblings that there are exciting plans afoot at your brewery for the beer punter. Tours? Taproom? Can you elaborate or are you sworn to secrecy?

Yes totally sworn to secrecy haha! Yes our “Speakeasy Tasting Room” at the brewery is almost ready and we should have it opened very soon.


Buxton Tap House is a real destination for any beer aficionado. I’d imagine your soft serve machines get quite the reaction from the uninitiated at the Tap House. Do the ice cream beers blow a lot of minds on a daily basis?

They certainly do! But a few minds also regularly get blown by Axe Edge! The soft serve machines are a fantastic talking point and really get people excited about our Ice Cream beers. Apart from us and Omnipollo’s Hatt (Stockholm) there aren’t many bars that offer the ice cream beers with soft serve on an almost permanent basis!

What are your top Manchester tips for visitors to the city over IMBC weekend?

The Smithfield is always awesome but I’m pretty sure history will repeat itself and I’ll end up at Port Street most nights again this year! Especially with the Burning Sky takeover! For food has to be Bundobust.

Finally. What’s your desert island Buxton beer of choice? Cold stored, naturally.

Myrcia

Thanks Denis! 

IMBC 17 Breweries

Here we go. Here is the brewery line-up in full for IMBC 17. The brewery line-up differs from Thursday/Friday to Saturday/Sunday. To see the line-up for individual days see HERE

Tickets are still available for Thursday 28th September and Sunday 1st October. Buy tickets HERE

IMBC 17 BREWERIES

IMBC 17 ROOM SPONSORS:::

BEAVERTOWN BREWERY (London, UK)Pineapple RoomBUXTON BREWERY (Buxton, UK) / Green RoomCLOUDWATER (Manchester, UK) w/ FOREST & MAIN (Pennsylvania, USA)Room 2
FOURPURE (London, UK)Room 1LERVIG (Stavanger, Norway) w/ BEER MERCHANTS (Manchester / Kent, UK) / Turkish Baths
NORTHERN MONK (Leeds, UK) / Food Village

SIREN CRAFT BREW (Wokingham, UK)  w/ RAINBOW PROJECT / Room 3

WILD BEER CO (Shepton Mallet, UK) / Food Village
+++

ALMASTY (Newcastle, UK)
ATOM (Hull, UK)
THE BEAK (Leeds / London, UK)
BLACKJACK (Manchester, UK)
BLACK IRIS (Nottingham)
BOUNDARY (Belfast, UK)
BRASSERIE TROIS DAMES (Sainte-Croix, Switzerland)
BREW BY NUMBERS (London, UK)
BREWSKI (Helsingborg, Sweden)
BRIGHTON BIER (Brighton, UK)
BRODIE’S (London, UK)
BROUFOX French Brewery Showcase (France)
BRUSSELS BEER PROJECT (Brussels, Belgium)
BURNING SKY (Firle, UK)
CHORLTON BREWING COMPANY (Manchester, UK)
DEYA (Cheltenham, UK)
DRY & BITTER (Gørløse, Denmark)
DUGGES (Landvetter, Sweden)
ELUSIVE (Finchampstead, UK)
FIERCE (Aberdeen, UK)
FIRST CHOP (Salford, UK)
FIVECLOUDS (Macclesfield, UK)
FIVE POINTS (London, UK)
GARAGE (Barcelona, Spain)
GUEUZERIE TILQUIN (Bierghes, Belgium)
HAWKSHEAD (Staveley, UK)
HOGAN’S CIDER (Alcester, UK)
THE KERNEL (London, UK)
LEFT HANDED GIANT (Bristol, UK)
LINES (Caerphilly, UK)
MAD HATTER (Liverpool, UK)
MARBLE (Manchester, UK)
NORTH BREWING CO (Leeds, UK)
ODYSSEY (Whitbourne, UK)
OTHER HALF (New York City, USA)
PARTIZAN (London, UK)
REDCHURCH (London, UK)
RED WILLOW (Macclesfield, UK)
RIDGESIDE (Leeds, UK)
RUNAWAY (Manchester, UK)
SIX DEGREES NORTH (Aberdeen, UK)
SQUAWK (Manchester, UK)
THIRST CLASS (Stockport, UK)
THORNBRIDGE (Bakewell, UK)
TORRSIDE (New Mills, UK)
TRACK (Manchester, UK)
VERDANT (Falmouth, UK)
WIPER AND TRUE (Bristol, UK)
WEIRD BEARD (London, UK)
WHITE HAG (Ballymote, Ireland)
WYLAM (Newcastle, UK)
ZAPATO (Leeds, UK)

THIRSTY GAMES 2017 FINALISTS:::

AFFINITY BREW CO (London, UK)
BURNING SOUL (Birmingham, UK)
LITTLE EARTH PROJECT (Sudbury, UK)

 

IMBC 17 SUPPORTERS
Official Glass Sponsor: BEER MERCHANTS


Official Brewer Mother & T-Shirt Supporter: SIMPLY HOPS

Official Keg Partner: KEGSTAR
Thirsty Games Supporter: LALLEMAND


Beer Mat Supporter: YEAST BERLIN

App and Wifi Supporter: TELCOM

 

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!

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