Pellicle is an independently owned magazine and podcast devoted to exploring beer, wine, cider, food and travel, and the joy to be found within these cultures. Based in Manchester and Edinburgh, it was founded in 2019 by writer Matthew Curtis and brewer Jonathan Hamilton, who act as its editors-in-chief. In 2021 they recruited the incredibly talented Lily Waite and Katie Mather, who joined as associate editors, who complete the publication’s small team. 

 

The publication is dedicated towards covering the most interesting and exciting elements of beer, wine and cider, and pays all of its contributing writers, photographers and editors for their work. This is made possible thanks to sponsors, Loughran Brewers Select, and its growing number of Patreon subscribers. 

 

Pellicle is extremely excited to be hosting live podcasts at this year’s IMBC, one of the most excellent beer festivals in the country. This is especially so now that our co-founder Matthew has made Manchester his home city (he’s looking forward to getting the bus to the Baths this year). We’ll be hosting these discussions and interviews every day (excluding evening sessions) in the basement, below the Thornbridge room. Each talk will be free to attend, but you’ll need to sign up for a ticket as capacity is limited. We look forward to you joining us there! 

 

Tickets for the following will be made available the week before the festival, alongside our tastings:

 

THURSDAY 1PM — HOW DOES THE BEER INDUSTRY NAVIGATE A COST OF LIVING CRISIS?

 

Beer is often framed as a “drink of the people” — an affordable, accessible product that’s easy to be enjoyed by many. The reality is that with the increasing cost of beer, often driven by the cost of raw materials, equipment, staffing costs, and not to mention some of the highest tax rates in the world, beer in the UK is getting less accessible. How egalitarian is beer, really, when those who make and sell it can afford to enjoy the latest, and most exciting beer releases for themselves?

 

In this session, hosted by Pellicle co-founder Jonathan Hamilton, we will look to explore the drivers behind the increasing cost of beer, and how this is potentially creating a barrier in terms of accessibility. How do we ensure that price doesn’t become an obstacle in the way of making beer more open and inclusive, as the industry collectively tries to figure out how to ensure that beer is there for all of those who wish to enjoy it?

 

FRIDAY 1PM — AN OPEN DISCUSSION ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN BEER

 

How sustainable is making beer, really? We’re often presented with marketing and press releases that tell us how good for the planet certain beers are. They could be brewed with leftover bread, or the brewery could be offsetting their carbon footprint by planting trees. Some breweries are even accredited by organisations such as B Corp, or the Soil Association, reinforcing their green credentials. Surely, beer, and the production of, doesn’t have that much of an impact on the planet?

 

It’s time to have an honest conversation about sustainability in beer. As a product reliant on industrially farmed products such as wheat, barley and hops — some of which are shipped thousands of miles before they’re used in brewing — beer has a long way to go before it can truly be considered sustainable. In this discussion we’ll discuss what beer, and its drinkers, can do to be more environmentally responsible. We’ll also look at some key future trends that could impact this, such as regenerative agriculture, and bottle/can deposit return schemes.

 

SATURDAY 1PM — INTERVIEW AND Q&A WITH DAVID JESUDASON, AUTHOR OF DESI PUBS

 

Released to critical acclaim in May 2023, Desi Pubs is a guide to the British-Indian pubs that have sprung up throughout the UK since the 1960s. It’s author, David Jesudason, spent months travelling the length and breadth of the country, not only to visit as many of these pubs as possible, but to also unpack the idea of the British pub as an institution, and how Desi Pubs have built on this, as various communities have sought to create safe, inclusive spaces for themselves.

 

At this session David will join Pellicle co-founder Matthew Curtis for an in depth chat about the book, as well as some deeper topics, from inclusivity and accessibility in beer and pub culture, plus some lighter ones, such as where to find the best mixed grills! David will be available for a Q&A after the interview, and will be selling and signing books too. 

 

 

SUNDAY 1PM — THE GREAT CRAFT BEER DEBATE 2023

 

An IMBC staple returns, this time helmed by Pellice Magazine’s co-founder, and author of Modern British Beer and the forthcoming guide Manchester’s Best Beer, Pubs & Bars, Matthew Curtis. A decade ago, ‘craft beer’ was the most exciting thing since sparkled pints. Inspired by a brewing revolution that occurred in the United States, it fundamentally changed brewing in the UK, with thousands of new entrants eager to take part in this exciting category.

 

Or did it? What if the very idea of craft was, in fact, rooted in what long time beer enthusiasts have known all along: that good beer is exciting, delicious, and a thing to be cherished. In this years IMBC Great Craft Beer Debate we’ll ask if it’s finally time to drop the C-word forever, and instead focus on the fact that all beer, weather its made by a brewery that’s 200 years, or 2 months old, deserves to be cherished and celebrated for what it is: the delicious, social glue, that binds so much of British communities and culture together.

 

https://www.pelliclemag.com/

If you want to get involved on the day of the festival, we’d love to hear from you. In exchange for working one session at the festival, we’ll give you:

£25 Nell’s voucher upon completion of your shift,
A free session at IMBC, with 10 free tokens,
Other goodies.

Our volunteers will be responsible for working the bar, but there is some flexibility, and we’ll always do our best to match up your skills with a role suited to them: however, we’re unable to guarantee any particular role. In advance of the festival, we’ll throw a briefing session where we’ll feed you (probably Nell’s Pizza), and get you a pint while we go over what helping out at the festival may be like. Apply to be a volunteer here.

What’s a festival without some fringe events, eh? Every IMBC, we have events around the festival run completely independently of us, but encapsulating the same vibe -mainly so you can carry on the party after you’ve been booted out of the baths, or warm up for it before you’re let in.

These are places, bars, and breweries with a connection to Indy Man, and if you fall within those brackets and are holding any related event over the course of IMBC this year, fill out this form and we’ll make sure your details are sent to our mailing lists, announced on our socials, and included on our app. Cheers!

Click here

As you’re likely well aware, IMBC tickets are on sale NOW, available at the links below.

Indy Man Beer Con takes place 5th – 8th October at Victoria Baths.

Please note: if you would like to purchase a token bundle this must be done at the same time as your tickets. Token bundles are priced at £25 for 10, and are frozen at last year’s prices when you pre-purchase: you won’t be able to get them cheaper anywhere else.

Got IMBC questions? We answer them here.

Tickets (live from 9am)

Thursday Evening (5th October, 5.30pm – 10.30pm) £14.50 CLICK HERE *TICKETS RUNNING LOW*
Friday Morning (6th October, 11am – 4pm) £14.50 CLICK HERE
Friday Evening (6th October, 5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19 CLICK HERE *TICKETS RUNNING LOW*
Saturday Morning (7th October, 11am – 4pm) £19 CLICK HERE *SOLD OUT*
Saturday Evening (7th October, 5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19 CLICK HERE *SOLD OUT*
Sunday (8th October, 1pm – 6pm) £14.50 CLICK HERE
Full Fat (all sessions) £75 CLICK HERE

With tickets going on sale this week, what better time to let you know the rough shape of what this year’s festival is going to be like:

BREWERIES & BEERS

As in previous years, we’ll only be able to confirm the breweries who’ll be at IMBC, and the beers they’ll be pouring, closer to the festival itself. Some of these breweries will be with us for the entire weekend, and others will only be with us for either the first half of the festival (Thursday/Friday) or the second half (Saturday/Sunday), with the changeover happening in advance of the opening session on Saturday. We do this both to give the many people who attend multiple sessions some variety, and also to allow as broad of a range of breweries pour as possible.

We are as committed as ever to ensuring that the festival remains sustainable in every sense of the word – in that light, we’re working with a handful of international breweries to have their beers transported to the festival in a way that uses the most carbon efficient modes of freight. This will be a similar number to the amount we had in 2022. These will supplement the best independent breweries currently operating across the UK as selected by our beer team, of whose beers the festival was set up to celebrate and advance. 

We are still in the process of finalising the line-up for the festival, and hope to be in a position to reveal the vast majority of those who will be attending in July – in line with the dates we announced our line-ups in 2019 and prior.

There are always breweries that we’d like to have with us, but who are unable to attend due to various circumstances: if your favourite brewer isn’t on the list when we do announce, we can only apologise. If you are a brewer and have questions for our beer team, you can find them on [email protected] – or if you’d like to attend our trade session, read on below.

FOOD, NON-BEER, & TASTINGS

We will have drinks that are alcoholic but not beer, as well as soft drinks, available at the festival, as well as our food village and tastings operating at every session. We will announce all details regarding these as soon as possible, and well in advance of the festival.

 

TICKET PRICES & REFUNDS

Despite a rise in associated costs due to – well, the world – we’ve frozen our ticket prices for IMBC 2023. We’re also doing the same for tokens for those who purchase them before the 17th June. Tickets will be priced at:

Thursday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £14.50
Friday Morning (11am – 4pm) £14.50
Friday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19
Saturday Morning (11am – 4pm) £19
Saturday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19
Sunday (1pm – 6pm) £14.50
Full Fat (all sessions) £75

Your ticket gains you admission to the festival, as well as a commemorative glass to keep (or to leave, if you’d rather not take it). To be clear: drinks tokens, ticketed tasting sessions, and food are not included with your ticket

We appreciate that there is a lot that can happen between now and October, which is why we have tried to be as generous as possible with our refund policy. Refunds on both tickets and pre-ordered tokens will be available up until 11:59pm on Wednesday 20th September 2023 – after this point, we will be unable to provide any refunds under any circumstances as all of our team will be on site, preparing for the festival.

 

TOKENS

For the first time ever you’ll be able to pre-order bundles of tokens alongside your ticket, at a discounted rate that won’t be available anywhere else – £25 for 10. We’re not able to say definitively what the token price will be at the festival due to inflationary pressures, but our price for tokens on the door will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

Pre-order can only be done at the point of the ticket being purchased, as your pre-order will be linked to your tickets – we’ll be handing them out as you enter the festival. This ability will also only be available for the first month of tickets being on sale, as a thanks to those who purchase early.

Tokens will function in the same way as they did in 2022: namely, that it’ll be one token for one third of a beer across all four days*.

Following your feedback and changes with our payment system, we will also be reinstating the ability to sell back unused tokens to the festival at the end of each session.

It’s been a long old while since we last changed tokens, so we’ll have a completely new token for IMBC 2023. We do this periodically for a number of reasons – firstly, as we need a certain amount to be able to run the festival and we lose a couple from year to year; secondly, to limit the ability to counterfeit them (which has happened in the past: we know, we know, life is wild). For that reason, we won’t be able to accept tokens from previous years.

*If there are any beers that we get in that have to break this pricing structure, we’ll make this clear and obvious well ahead of the festival – but this would, in any case, only be a handful of kegs across the entire festival.

ADMISSIONS

One of the recurring themes in feedback given after last year’s festival was dissatisfaction with the speed of admittance, especially at the start of each session. With that in mind, we are reviewing our processes around this in order to make sure you’re in Victoria Baths for as early as possible: we’ll communicate these closer to the festival – but rest assured that it is something we are actively working on.

As with previous editions of the festival, for security reasons we’re unable to allow re-admittance to the festival once you have left your session, and tickets are not transferable between sessions under any circumstances.

 

VOLUNTEERING

If you want to get involved on the day of the festival, we’d love to hear from you. In exchange for working one session at the festival, we’ll give you:

£25 Nell’s voucher upon completion of your shift,
A free session at IMBC, with 10 free tokens,
Other goodies.

Our volunteers will be responsible for working the bar, but there is some flexibility, and we’ll always do our best to match up your skills with a role suited to them: however, we’re unable to guarantee any particular role. In advance of the festival, we’ll throw a briefing session where we’ll feed you (probably Nell’s Pizza), and get you a pint while we go over what helping out at the festival may be like. Apply to be a volunteer here.

 

TRADE SESSION

Following some hiccoughs with the issuing of tickets for our trade session last year, we’re opening applications for our trade session as of RIGHT NOW, and will be closing at midnight on the July 31st. Email [email protected] and our team will get back to you.

Our trade session will be starting at 2pm on Thursday 5th October and rolling through to that day’s evening session. It open to those who work in the industry, as well as hospitality at large. Numbers are limited and this year we will be asking for a £5 donation to be made for every ticket, which will go towards supporting the excellent work that Mind Manchester do.

Please note that an application for a ticket does not guarantee that you will be allocated a ticket for this session, with the decision of our team being final.

In addition, for the first time ever we will be running a series of industry only events around the festival. Details on these will be announced closer to the festival, and these will be open to all in the industry, regardless of whether you are attending the trade session.

 

INDY MAN BEER CITY (IMBC FRINGE)

One of the best parts of getting all of these great brewers in the city together is that they all want to have a party somewhere – which is why Indy Man Beer City, our fringe event program – is such a big part of the festival. These can range from Meet The Brewer events, through to tap takeovers and – in some cases – just full on, all night parties (reportedly)

As ever, we’ll be publicising all of the fringe events going on across Manchester (and further afield) on our website, to our mailing list, and through our app – if you’re a bar throwing your own fringe event and would like us to tell people about it, get in touch with us on [email protected]. If you’re a bar that would be interested in hosting an event with a brewery, you can get in touch using the same form, and we’ll send your details out to all those attending the event for them to reach out and organise an event.

ACCESSIBILITY

We’ve been working to ensure that our event is accessible to all those attending and have measures in place to make sure everyone is able to enjoy their time with us. Victoria Baths itself is a Grade II* listed building, which presents various barriers to creating an accessible event for all. So we’ll be continuing to make sure we put everything we can in place to allow anyone who wishes to attend to do so comfortably and safely. We’ll be continuing with our previous measures, like lifts into the pools and queue assistance, but we’ll be expanding on these to help you enjoy your time with us in the best way possible. We’ll be sharing our plans with you as we head towards October, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact Festival Coordinator and Inclusion Lead, Becca, at [email protected].

CHILDREN / DOGS

Sorry to group them together but people always ask at the same time! Children are very welcome to attend IMBC, but our licence means it can only be before 7pm on any given session, and they must always be accompanied by a guardian. Dog-wise, guide dogs are welcome but the rest of our canine friends have to stay at home. Victoria Baths is an old building with lots of nooks and crannies, and we advise that IMBC is a busy, noisy environment.

 

INCLUSIVITY & SAFETY AT IMBC

IMBC does not tolerate any type of harassment, bullying or assault based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, body size and physical appearance. The festival was created to bring like minded people together to celebrate what we all love in an environment that is as safe as possible and we continue to uphold this. 

Whenever safe, practical and possible, we will be led by the needs and wishes of the person who has been targeted when we are planning and determining the consequences for inappropriate behavior or abuse at our event.

We will not serve products with branding that we perceive to be sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or promoting or inciting any other form of discrimination. Our decision on these matters is final.

As ever, the team will be working together to continue to keep this year’s event safe and welcoming for everyone, and we’ll once again share with you all how we’ll be doing this. We’ll be ensuring that our staff team, breweries, traders, security and volunteers are all clued up on our processes and what to do in the event of an incident, and we’ll have members of the core team trained to support anyone that may experience anything that stops them from having a good time. We can prepare for all of this, but the overall aim is to prevent anything from happening in the first place. This is where you come in. So make sure your crew act responsibly, call out any problematic behaviour and tell us if you have any concerns. Don’t let your actions or anyone else’s ruin the experience for someone else. 

If you have any questions or concerns about any of this, please contact our Festival Coordinator and Inclusion Lead, Becca, at [email protected]

Our return last year was so good we thought: eh, why not, let’s do it all again. Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th October 2023 at – where else – the salubrious surrounds of Victoria Baths.

Tickets will be on general sale on this website from 9am, Thursday 18th May, and they’re expected to sell fast, as ever.

We’ll also be running exclusive pre-sale events at Port Street Beer House and The Beagle from 6pm on Wednesday 17th May, meaning you can guarantee your slot in the baths before anyone else. There will be tickets reserved to go on general sale for each session, to ensure those who are unable to attend the pre-sale still have an opportunity to get tickets.

A phone, laptop, or tablet will be required to gain access to purchase tickets: please note there will be no physical ticket sales at the events themselves.

Need to be reminded that tickets are going on sale? Sign up to our mailing list below to get an alert at 9am with a link straight through to buy tickets.
Our sessions this year will be as follows:
Thursday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) 
Friday Morning (11am – 4pm)
Friday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm)
Saturday Morning (11am – 4pm)
Saturday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm)
Sunday (1pm – 6pm)

Tickets gain you access to the festival, as well as a commemorative glass to take home, cherish, and enjoy: tokens, food, etc need to be purchased separately.

Before tickets go on sale we’ll be confirming token details, as well as outlining the vision for this year’s festival and giving details of our trade session, plus information on how to get involved with the IMBC Beer City Fringe.

Breweries, beers, tastings, food vendors, entertainment, and all that other exciting stuff will be confirmed and announced a little further down the line.

IMBC Mailing List

To receive up-to-date information about IMBC developments, including the latest ticket info, subscribe to our mailing list for occasional email updates!

We’ll be back in the baths again this year, Thursday 5th – Sunday 8th October.

Ticket news and everything else to follow, keep up with us on socials for the latest.