indy man beer con

Enter The Thirsty Games 2020

THE THIRSTY GAMES 2020

The Thirsty Games is IMBC’s competition to find the best small and upcoming breweries operating in the UK today. This year will be the fifth year of The Thirsty Games.

From nationwide submissions we will pick the best three entrants to present as The Thirsty Games 2020 finalists. A public vote, alongside an industry panel, will decide the winner of The Thirsty Games 2020.

In previous years, The Thirsty Games bar has been a focal point of the physical festival at Victoria Baths. This year, with IMBC 2020 not happening in its usual guise due to COVID-19, public voting will assume a new normal form. In the next months we will look to provide you with options to sample The Thirsty Games finalists. Stay tuned for updates.

The winner of The Thirsty Games 2020 will receive prizes from Thirsty Games supporters Lallemand, Yakima Chief Hops, and Simpsons Malt. Basically all the ingredients you need to make great beer, from three of the greatest suppliers around. The winner will also become a featured brewery at IMBC 2021. A prize fund and further incentives will also be bestowed upon the crowned brewery.

Previous Thirsty Games winners are ÖL Brewery (now Ventile Brew Co, 2019), Liquid Light (2018), Burning Soul (2017), and Fivecloud Brew Co (2016). Thirsty Games alumni includes Donzoko, Yonder, Little Earth Project, Affinity Brew Co, Wilde Child,  Maregade,  Cellar Boys, and Vault City.

HOW TO ENTER THE THIRSTY GAMES 2020

Use this FORM if the below criteria applies. 

CRITERIA

The entrants should be 10bbl single brew length or under in size, or a brewery operating on a cuckoo basis in the UK.

The entrants should have been producing beer for less than 24 months.

The entrants should have their beer on general sale and be duty paid.

TO ENTER

We want to sample your A-game beers. Send us your most interesting and creative samples.

Send a minimum of two cans / bottles per beer entered. Please send no more than three different beers.

IF THE ABOVE APPLIES THEN FILL IN THIS FORM HERE, PLEASE. SORRY TO SHOUT BUT HERE IS WHERE YOU FILL IN THE FORM. CLICK CLICK. 

DEADLINES

All samples must reach Port Street Beer House, 39-41 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ by 1st September 2020.

The chosen three Thirsty Games finalists will be announced shortly afterwards.

Thank you and good luck!

 

Meet Burning Soul / Thirsty Games 2017 Winners

Ahoy! The second annual Thirsty Games competition was a smash this year. Thirsty Games finalists Affinity, Burning Soul, and Little Earth Project poured beers side by side on The Thirsty Games bar throughout IMBC 17. Burning Soul lifted the Thirsty Games trophy (made by Manchester artist Pascal Nichols) on Sunday evening after winning the public vote. We caught up with Burning Soul to congratulate them on their victory and to see what they’re up to now.

As part of The Thirsty Games prize, Burning Soul are the first name on the brewery team sheet for IMBC 18. You’ll find them in Victoria Baths at IMBC 18 at every session. Thirsty Games sponsors Lallemand have also gifted Burning Soul £500 prize money as well as kindly supporting The Thirsty Games and new breweries throughout 2017.Let’s see what Burning Soul are saying…

Firstly, congratulations on winning The Thirsty Games! How was your experience at IMBC 17?

Cheers man, yeah we had an absolute blast. Everyone has always told us how awesome Indy Man is, we always planned to go but always tried getting tickets too late. To go for the first time taking our beer along was epic and it did not disappoint! From the general vibe, to everyone is there to have a great time, the setting is such a great building, to the ridiculously high standard of beer made us feel very honoured to be pouring there.

Photograph by Jody Hartley


You lifted the Thirsty Games trophy at 5pm on Sunday – was there an immediate reaction once news spread?
It was a great moment with people at Indy Man who we’d met over the weekend and the social media went a bit crazy with people congratulating us, we were buzzing.

You guys brought three of your beers along – can you talk us through them? Was there a standout beer that punters reacted especially favourably towards?

So we brought along…

Belgian IPA which is a personal favourite of ours. It’s brewed with Summit, Chinook and Citra then fermented cool with a Belgian yeast. It just works really well with the citrus hops giving it a real depth of flavour.

Citra Amarillo Sour which is a new one we have been trying lately from our pilot kit and it finished fermenting just in time and was tasting great so we brought it along to see what people thought. It’s clean smooth sour with a hit of citrus from the dry hop. Really happy with how it went down at the fest and we have just started brewing up a batch on our full kit yesterday excited to see how it comes out.
And last but not least a lightly Barrel Aged Coconut Porter, this was the most stand out beer people were really enjoying, including Logan Plant who came over to check out the Thirsty Games. This is the first beer we have put in a barrel but it’s definitely not the last. Its only been in the barrel for 1 month. We were originally going to bring our normal version but after having a taste we knew we had to sneak a little out early just for Indy man and were glad we did. It’s a dark rich chocolatey porter enhanced with toasted coconut then the Jack Daniels Barrel added lush smooth vanilla notes.
How did you find feedback in general? Did it seem like there was a lot of interaction from festival goers with the Thirsty Games bar?

Yeah the interaction was great, lots of people would come up intrigued so we would tell them what its all about get them to taste all the beers and buy their favourite.

Photograph by Jody Hartley

You were up against stiff competition in the shape of Affinity and Little Earth Project – did you enjoy pouring alongside those two? The standard was excellent this year
These guys are the reason we had such a great time. We couldn’t have asked to spend 4 days with a more lovelier bunch of people and their beers were great. Even though we were technically in competition it never felt like it. We were just a group of people, who love beer, hanging out at Indy man, having a great time. All of us singing along to queen at the end of Friday is one great memory in particular.

What were you beer highlights from IMBC 17?
It has to be getting to meet Logan and getting to talk beer with him. He was telling us about when he started out and how he went about things. He was really digging the coconut porter and was generally interested asking about the process for getting the coconut flavour into the beer. We got his vote which made our day.

What kind of kit are you working with at your brewery?
We have a 4bbl brew house that’s completely self built (after a lot of auction hunting, some quick lessons in metal work and ordering a lot of piece’s of stainless steel off the internet).
When we got the keys to our premises it was particularly terrifying as we suddenly had overheads and nothing but a pile of parts and tanks (that was a long way from being able to brew beer) After 3 months hard work it actually worked which was the biggest sigh of relief. We have since had some upgrades in the form of 2 new shiny conditioning tanks. We also often have our 100l pilot kit running, testing out new recipes that we put on in our taproom to see what our customers make of them.

If anyone is on a Burning Soul pilgrimage, where should visitors to Birmingham head?
Our brewery tap is located by the Jewellery Quarter area of Birmingham City Centre, we’re based at 51 Mott St B19 3HE. You can actually get a tram from New Street Station to St. Paul’s for £1 which is 3 mins round the corner from us. We’re open Fridays 4-8 and Saturdays 1-8. We have 8 rotating taps plus take out bottles.

We sell our beer to many local pubs and bars including the Wolf, 1000 Trades, Wellington, Post Office Vaults, Clink, Cotteridge Wines, Wildcat Tap, Cherry Reds.

What’s next for Burning Soul?

We just want to keep perfecting our beers. Now that we’re starting to really understand our kit and how to get the best out of it, we can start scaling up a lot more of our small batch recipes and getting them outside of our taproom. We’re all about experimenting, that’s what makes brewing exciting so we hope to have a lot of new beers out in the next year.

Where can people pick your beers up?

At the moment mostly in bars in and around Birmingham. We have just started selling on Eebria trade so we should start getting kegs further afield . We have done some bottle runs  which can be found in local bottle shops such as Cotteridge Wines, Connellys Wines and Clink (although limited stock at the moment). We were chatting to the canning guys We Can at Indy Man so this is an option we’d definitely like to explore so watch this space!

Thanks Burning Soul!

Follow Burning Soul: twitter, instagram, facebook

Thirsty Games 2017 winners BURNING SOUL!

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