IMBC 17 Fringe

IMBC 17 FRINGE
Thursday 28th September – Sunday 1st October 2017

At IMBC time each year we like to lay on a few outer Victoria Baths experiences to get you in the beery mood. This year we are exciting to announce that we have the following events happening at our bars. As ever we wanna throw the net wider and get some great beer happenings going on city-wide that you can enjoy before and after IMBC – if you’re a pub / bottle shop / other and you want us to include your event in our programming, get in touch!

Meanwhile, here’s what we’ve got going on so far…

BURNING SKY TAKEOVER PORT STREET BEER HOUSE
Rarities, classics and new classics wall to wall across cask and keg from master brewers and blenders, Burning Sky.

MAGIC ROCK TAKEOVER COMMON
Huddersfield honchos Magic Rock bring a bag of tricks to Common for back to back Magic cask and keg. Expect tastings, new releases, rare batches, artwork, food specials and the unexpected.

WEIRD BEARD TAKEOVER THE PILCROW
Weird Beard bring the immaculate haul to The Pilcrow for a four day showcase of all things Weird. Newbies, golden oldies, pop-up tastings, specials galore.

THORNBRIDGE TAKEOVER THE BEAGLE
Bakewell’s always excellent Thornbridge make tracks to The Beagle in Chorlton for the long weekend to provide the ultimate offering of essential cask and keg. All the stone cold classics will be there alongside rarities, Thornbridge food specials, pop-ups and much more.

Artwork by David Bailey

Got your ticket to the big dog yet? IMBC 17 wants YOU (to attend). Thursday 28th September and Sunday 1st October are the only dates that remain. Pick up your tickets HERE!

Posted on 2nd August 2017

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!

Posted on 25th April 2017

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

Posted on 16th March 2017

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.

maregadewww
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.

wildechildwww
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.

fivecloudwwwSee you at The Thirsty Games bar!

 

Posted on 1st September 2016

Aficionado at IMBC 16 / Sunday

We ain’t just beer at IMBC. Each year we look to provide some immaculate pairings to your immaculate tilting. This year we are delighted to welcome back Aficionado to steer the good ship Sunday 9th October with a delectable showcase. Here’s what they have lined up for you at IMBC 16. Hone in on the links to have a listen to what’s forthcoming…

Aficionado Recording’s Moonboots and Boardman once again host the legendary Sunday Session at IMBC this year and they follow up their previously memorable sessions with another specially curated line up.

 
James Holroyd requires no introduction for his long and distinguished career as a DJ, holding down a residency at Back to Basics for over 25 years and being the go to guy for support services for the esteemed Chemical Brothers.
 
He’s also been carefully honing his own production skills releasing a bevy of beautiful singles under his Begin moniker.
 
Popping his live cherry with a much loved Begin live performance at the Love International Sunrise Sessions in Tisno Croatia earlier this year we’ve managed to coerce him into a further performance exclusively for IMBC in support of his forthcoming album.     
 
Melbourne production wiz and friend of Nado Len Leise touches down in Manchester for his inaugural visit to the city, those familiar with his Landscape language single for Aficionado Recordings and his LP Lingua Franca for International Feel will enjoy a rare opportunity to get lost in his tribal ambience, joining him will be Disko Bizarro DJ partner Salvador. The pair are briefly in the EU to launch their new label-not-label General Purpose with fresh records due out on the imprint from each of them in the coming months.

Tickets for the Sunday 9th October 2016 (1pm-7pm) session are available HERE. 

Posted on 25th August 2016

IMBC 16 Volunteers

VOLUNTEER APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR IMBC 16

We are now looking for our amazing volunteer team to help deliver IMBC this year. There’s only one way to get free beer…..get involved!

From beer pourers to event support, a whole range of volunteer roles are available.

You’ll work in the friendly, dynamic environment of IMBC and be valued as a core part of our event.

In return for your time, you will get:

1x ticket to a session of your choice

15x beer tokens

1x IMBC t-shirt

1x free meal at your volunteer session

A ruddy good time!

We ask that you:

Volunteer for at least 1x session.

Bring a positive, friendly attitude and be willing to muck in and help.

Leave the drinking for your free session.

We are also really interested in volunteers who would like to volunteer for more than one session. You will get a free session for each session that you volunteer, and a fistful more beer tokens. Please let us know if this is of interest.

If you would like to apply, please download and read the volunteer-application-information then submit the Volunteer Application Form.

Before you apply, please make sure you will be available to attend a volunteer briefing on the evening of either Sunday 25th September or Monday 26th September. If this is an issue, please make a note on your application form.


 imbc16volsposterwww

 

 

Posted on 24th August 2016

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…

Posted on 14th July 2016