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!
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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
IMBC 16 The Thirsty Games breweries
A few months back we made a call out to nano/cuckoo brewers (operating professionally on a sub 2bbl capacity) to submit their beers for a new initiative at IMBC 16, The Thirsty Games. The idea being to feature smaller breweries and represent their beers at IMBC alongside the modern greats in the brewing world. A good thing for the brewers and hopefully a good thing for you, the IMBC goer, in terms of sampling fresh beer from fresh breweries.
Of the entrants, of which there were many (and of a very good standard), we whittled down the breweries to a top three. The following three breweries will make up the first Thirsty Games at IMBC 16. We are asking the chosen Thirsty Games breweries to bring what they think are their best beers to IMBC.
At the festival you are encouraged to sample the Thirsty Games range and vote, via twitter or traditional ballot box, for your favourite brewery from The Thirsty Games bar. We’ll also be getting a little input from brewers at IMBC. The chosen one will be announced winner of The Thirsty Games 2016.
Here are your Thirsty Games breweries, find them pouring every session at IMBC on The Thirsty Games bar…
MAREGADE
Brewing out of Mare Street in the basement of The Old Cock, London.
WILDE CHILD BREWING CO
Leeds based micro brewery specialising in the production of big, bold and hard hitting bottled and kegged beers that make you think about what you drink.
FIVECLOUD BREW CO
A small 1BBL cuckoo brewery based in Leek, Staffordshire but brewing out of Torrside Brewing. Fivecloud focus on brewing seasonal, forward thinking beers in keg and cask.
See you at The Thirsty Games bar!
IMBC 16 Sponsors Announced
Hear ye! Hear ye! Tickets are a-flying for this year’s Indy Man Beer Con. At record speeds no less! The Thursday and Sunday sessions are the only tickets still available. The most fabulous of bookend sessions – be there at the beginning, be there at the end. We’ve yet to announce the brewery list (asides our beautiful sponsors below) for IMBC 16 but the line-up will be significantly different on the Thursday and the Sunday. Snap up those remaining golden tickets HERE.
We are delighted to announce the room sponsors for this year’s festival. The following breweries will be the key holders and feature breweries of their respective spaces. The good news is that all of the following will be at IMBC for the duration, catch them at ALL of the sessions.
the Food Village / WILD BEER CO.
Commandeering our outside vista will be Somerset’s beacon of excellence, Wild Beer Co. Find them amidst the sights and (great) smells of our bustling Food Village. We recently blended a beer with Wild Beer for IMBC 16 and we can’t wait for you to try it. Always forward thinking, always wild.
Room One / BEAVERTOWN BREWERY
Well, it wouldn’t be a party without Beavertown would it? As highlighted by Beavertown’s emphatic takeover of Room Three at last year’s IMBC. They gripped it and indeed ripped it making the space their own. We can’t wait to see what London’s Beavertown will be bringing up to Manchester for you.
Room Two / CLOUDWATER BREW CO.
Shaking up a storm from Manchester and reverberating far beyond, Cloudwater will be the feature brewery of Room Two at IMBC 16 and we couldn’t be more excited. Last year was their first appearance at IMBC and, unbelievably, their first year on the UK craft beer scene. If their debut was anything to go by then expect rarities galore and that infectious Cloudwater verve for freshness, seasonality, and above all – great beers.
Room Three / NORTHERN MONK BREW CO.
Legends of the Leeds table, Northern Monk, will be the centrepiece of Room Three at this year’s festival. We can’t wait to see what Northern Monk come up with – it’ll take something to top their atmospheric and monk-tastic enclave of IMBC 15. Northern Monk know how to work a space, as highlighted by their excellent Refectory – a must visit when you find yourself Leeds-way. Here’s to the North!
the Green Room / FOURPURE BREWING CO.
London’s absolutely capital Fourpure join us at IMBC for the very first time, taking control of the Green Room. Fourpure have been putting out some excellent beers of late and are making great shakes on the UK scene. Taste their sprawling range at IMBC 16 and lay back in the Fourpure curated confines of the Green Room.
the Pineapple Room / SIREN CRAFT BREW
Huzzah! Delirious to announce that the fantabulous Siren Craft Brew, the blinding light of Berkshire, will be the guardians of the Pineapple Room at IMBC 16. Not only that but Siren will be close at hand for every IMBC goer as Siren are our glass sponsor for this year’s festival. We can’t wait for the Siren Craft Brew to start flowing…may it never stop.
the Turkish Baths / REDCHURCH BREWERY
Enamoured to enunciate that the wonderful Redchurch Brewery, they of London fame, will be the custodians of the Turkish Baths at IMBC 16. Be it their core range or experimental arm, Redchurch consistently delight. We can’t wait to see what they do with the place at IMBC this year. Roll out the Redchurch carpet!
Thirsty yet? See you down the deep end…
IMBC 16
The dates have been counted and verified and the verdict is in…We are coming back!
IMBC 16
6th-9th October 2016
Victoria Baths, Manchester
Details soon…
IMBC 15 THANKS
Wowee! What a whirlwind of an extended weekend as per at IMBC. By all accounts, you all enjoyed your time at Victoria Baths. We, the organisers, certainly enjoyed the festivities. We might say this every year, but we are fairly certain that this year’s Indy Man Beer Con was the best one yet. We hope you agree! Let the thankings begin…
Firstly, we’d like to thank YOU – the avid beer drinker and intrepid taste bud explorer for coming to IMBC and getting fully involved. You all helped to contribute to the fantastic atmosphere and we hope to see all of your faces again.
A big thank you to all of our sponsors. Cloudwater, Vertical, Beavertown, Hawkshead, Camden Town, Brewdog, and Northern Monk. Each of the aforementioned made their spaces their own and each bar was certainly a destination at the festival. Big thanks also to our sponsors Simply Hops, enablers of many a hop forward beer at IMBC, and Uber, who got many of you home in one piece.
Thanks eternal to all the breweries that joined us over Indy Man Beer Con from far and wide. The beers (and ciders!) you brought made each session a smorgasbord of delights. We knew what was coming in most cases but there were some great surprises on offer and the pop-up tastings, as well as scheduled events, went down a treat.
Photograph by David Bailey
Photograph by David Bailey
Photograph by David Bailey
So many thank you’s to our food and snack vendors this year. Outside was truly a masterclass in handheld eating offerings: Bundobust, Almost Famous, Fish &, Great North Pie, Diamond Dogs, and Honest Crust all made each session’s sustenance selection the happiest of headaches. Not to be outdone, our indoor snack vendors laid on the greatest beer pairings we’ve seen yet. These included delights from Karkli, We Eat, and Epicerie Ludo – as well as sweet treats from the formidable Idle Hands.
Photograph by David Bailey
Photograph by David Bailey
Speaking of which, we must thank Idle Hands for keeping us caffeinated throughout Indy Man Beer Con, serving up some of the best coffee that Manchester has seen and gladly offering up a change of gear at IMBC. Likewise, we rain gratitude down upon London’s award winning soft drink makers, Square Root Soda, for their superb seasonal softs and cocktail wizardry at this year’s festival.
A thousand thank you’s to our volunteers, as usual your kindly efforts made the festival possible and ensured that everything ran smoothly. Thank you for your hard work during the setup at Victoria Baths, your endeavours throughout, and the pack down after the lights had faded. We couldn’t have done it without you!
The wonderful We Can performed canning heroics throughout IMBC. Enabling, for the first time at a beer festival, you the punter to take any beer home in a CAN. They were amazing and the machine canned beers in about five seconds. It was a great success for all involved and we hope to have We Can on the case next time around!
Photograph by Jody Hartley
On the visual side of things, we must throw our arms up in the air and thank the design gods for Steve Hockett. Steve has been our man since day dot of IMBC and this year was no exception. We love his snorkelling Indy Man and we were as pumped as we’ve ever been with this year’s IMBC glass, truly a design classic in the making.
Thanks infernal also to our website builders, Oh Digital, for enabling our first foray into the world of digital beer lists.Massive thanks to Noisebox, MSL, and Hollowsphere for making the baths look and sound incredible. On an aural note, we are forever thankful to all our DJs that played over the course of IMBC. Special thanks also to the live acts that threw down on Sunday. There was never a dull moment in Room 3.
Photograph by David Bailey
Lastly, Indy Man Beer Con wouldn’t be Indy Man Beer Con without the superb surroundings of Victoria Baths. We thank the building, the history, and the hard work of the Victoria Baths staff for housing us once more. The setting is definitely a major part of what makes this festival special, having such inspirational surroundings fuels IMBC & makes each session a real event. Thank you Martin, Chris, and the team for continuing to house us, we miss you already.
See you next year!
Team IMBC