Wild Beer | IMBC 18 collaboration

Yesterday we took a trip to Shepton Mallet, home of Wild Beer Co, to plot a special IMBC 18 collaboration with the Wild Beer team.


Wild are returning this year at Indy Man to plant roots once more in the Food Village as sponsors of one of our two outdoor rooms. We briefly chatted over their plans for the space in October and we are tres excite – basically more beer, more barrels, more cheese. Tick tick tick. Last year the Wild space was something of a party destination, expect similarly heightened scenes this time around.


Wild Beer’s brewery is pretty incredible. You know it’s going to be good when you approach a building signposted “The Barrel Library”. The team is passionate, as you’d expect, about looking after and experimenting with beer. There is a lot going on here and so much beer, of all different states. Barrels are numbered, piled high and catalogued. To an outsider there’s no rhyme or reason to the barrel formation, just a sea of but it’s all there on paper and in the Wild Beer team’s heads.

Brett from Wild Beer guided us through samples extracted from their barrel library of different base beer options for the collaboration. Samples are taken by removing a stainless steel nail from the barrels and filling up a glass from the pinhole stream. Bang the nail back in and the barrels are all good and back on the ageing trail.





For our IMBC 18 collaboration we picked out a foeder aged saison, Schnoodlepip, blended with a lower ABV saison in the wood. This was then put alongside two of our other favourites from the sample options – a couple of aged Pogo expressions, Wild’s tropical pale ale.



The beer will be a blend of these three beers as a base and then left to age running up to the festival on a colossal amount of fresh morello cherries in the barrel. Expect something wholly Kriek-some. This is Wild’s first Kriek-forward endeavour and they are excited to bring it to IMBC 18. As are we. Here are a few photographs from our trip, with a little commentary.


More barrels in the mainland brewery.


Fresh from the barrel.


Wild Beer hot sauce. Modus barrel aged hot sauce with homegrown jalapeños and habaneros. Not sure if this one is commercially available but sounds good, huh!


Just in case you were wondering how Wild keep tabs on what barrel sample is what…they write the corresponding barrel number on the base of the glass.



Wild’s new canning line cans up to six-thousand cans an hour. Not bad!


Cheers Brett and the entirety of the Wild Beer team for having us and we can’t wait for the outcome!

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.

wildbeerwww

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.

btownwww
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.

cloudwasss

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!

nmbcowww

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.

fourpurewwwww
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.

sirenwww

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!

redchurchwww
Thirsty yet? See you down the deep end…