– Odyssey vs. Almasty Tap Takeover 08/11/19
ODYSSEY vs. ALMASTY TAP TAKEOVER
Friday 8th November | Midday – Midnight
Port Street Beer House
Free entry
Let’s dance! Odyssey Brew Co (Whitbourne) and Almasty Brewing Co (Newcastle) join us at Port Street for a double headed tap takeover. Let the beer flow through the streets, for both of these producers are at the top of their game. It is a delectable double bubble and we hope you can join us to sample some fresh beer from both of these big hitters.
Full line-up coming soon.
Let’s get readdyyyy to ruuuummbleeee!
– IMBC 17 Review by Cameron Steward
IMBC 17 Review
by Cameron Steward
It’s never fun queuing in the rain, but taking “pineapple selfies” whilst awaiting entrance into the North’s (perhaps even the UK’s) most revered beer festival certainly helped pass the time. To those who weren’t social media savvy our group must’ve looked like idiots, but when Beavertown take to the airwaves to plead for certain tropical plants you gotta step up, especially when there’s a mysterious prize involved… turns out that mysterious prize(s) were a can of Lupuloid IPA (6.7%), some Beavertown Extravaganza pins and a poncho. Now that’s a post-Brexit exchange rate I can get behind.
I realise the following sentence may get me blacklisted from all of Manchester’s finest bars and speakeasies, but I’ve definitely got hop haze fatigue. I’m all murked out, y’all! Thankfully, plenty of breweries have many other strings to their bows and served up slices of chop-smacking sours to satisfy my tarty tastes. Fierce Beer’s Very Berry (4.5%) and Brew By Numbers’ Cuvee 2017 (6.2%) were fantastic examples of wild ales at their biting best.
I usually keep my distance from Room 3 – it’s dark and the music is a bit rave-y. It reminds me of Laser Quest birthday parties; being gunned down by the local teenagers who would corner me until I was “back in play”, then shoot me down all over again – live, die, repeat. This year I decided to put my 90s-based traumas aside – plus my brother thought one of the DJs was very attractive… Turned out to be a great decision as Redchurch were delivering some of the best sours of the festival – Dry Hop Sour (5.4%) was ace but On Skins: Cherry (6.5%) was a face-contorting highlight. Suddenly I thought I heard a dance track I knew, and then remembered I’m old and boring so moved on to a different room.
Buxton brought along their soft serve machine, which although a bit gimmick-y, totally elevated their already great Original Blueberry Slab Cake (7%) to an astral plane. I even went a bit crazy and got soft serve Trolltunga (6.3%), their gooseberry sour IPA. Sacrilege, I hear you cry! Judge not, that ye be not judged… Or something to that affect, I would reply.
Making a lunch decision is always the hardest part of IMBC, and a last minute choice to get a Dirty Burger from Patty Smith’s turned out to be an excellent one, especially when paired with Wild Beer’s Wild Goose Chase (4.5%). Boom! Dessert was a Pecan Slab from the ever-amazing In Truffles We Trust, washed down with the frankly insane BA Imperial Chocolate Stout, Speyside Cacao (12.5%) by Dugges and Stillwater Artisanal.
Other beers were drank but haven’t been listed because they weren’t as good as the aforementioned (plus you’d get a bit bored reading about them) but the hit rate, as ever, was ridiculously high. And that also makes Indy Man a 6 for 6. Yep, 6 mother-flipping years and consistently the best thing that happens in my otherwise meaningless existence. Roll on 2018!!
Follow Cameron Steward on twitter
– IMBC 16 review by Cameron Steward
The night before Independent Manchester Beer (and Stuff) Convention (better known to you and I as Indy Man Beer Con, or IMBC for maximum abbreviation) is always one of skittish anxiety and this year was no different. What would be my first beer? Should we get a table first or tokens? What happens if Cloudwater run out of DIPA V8?
My anxieties aren’t helped by turning up to the Saturday Day session at 11:30 on a hilariously tropical October morning only to join the snaking queue some 500 people deep. I’m convinced everyone will be ordering that DIPA first and my strategic master plan will be thrown into disarray.
Upon arrival the Cloudwater team assure me there’s enough V8 to last the whole weekend, allowing my nerves to cease their shredding. Now I am a man with the world at my feet and it’s high time I drank that world, so I start with IMBC virgins Jester King and their smoked malt, juniper-infused and sweet gale Saison, Gotlandstricka (6.6%). It’s as totally mad as that sounds and perhaps defines my whole approach to Indy Man. Y’see, I haven’t attended this festival every year since its inception (5 years) to taste beers I can sample any-bloody-where. I’ve come here to exercise my weird and wacky taste buds, to let my freak flag fly, and as I walk around the festival plenty of beers that fit that description catch my eye and beckon me in.
As always the bar staff are super-helpful, friendly and always up for a chat. Stockport’s Thirst Class have cleverly put a bee in my bonnet and enticed me to their stand with a funky little pun of a title. I exchange some They Might Be Giants witticisms with Brewer and Proprietor Richard Conway as he pours me a thick ‘n fruity third of Farmhouse In Your Soul (5.3%). Later I also regale an unsuspecting bartender that I’m ordering Jester King’s Le Petit Prince (2.9%), as just last week I read the Antoine de Saint-Exupery novella of the same name. She doesn’t even look like she’s humouring me. I’m definitely in my element here…
The food is always outstanding at Indy Man and the tacos from Al Pastor Paul pair stupidly well with the aforementioned table beer. The mole with avocado, chocolate chilli spiked sauce and cheese variety particularly blew my tiny mind!
Other beers of note include Brodie’s Mocha Milk Stout (9%), To Øl’s Roses Are Brett (6%), Wild Beer and Indy Man‘s BA strawberry sour Strawblender (5.5%) and of course Cloudwater’s best in the series so far DIPA V8 (9%). Even better than all of those however may have been when Buxton Brewery decided to out-raspberry themselves with the limited edition Double Raspberry Rye (5.2%) with a soft serve topping. Picture it if you will; the Mediterranean sun causing your delicious raspberry ice cream to melt before your very eyes, your only chance of cooling down, nay, survival, is to whip off your trunks and go skinny-dipping in sweet raspberry coulis. Yes, it was that good…
This year also marked the first time I got to experience a talk – I’m usually too slow or drunk, or both. My fellow blogging chum Matthew Curtis of Total Ales was doing a live tasting of Fourpure and Cloudwater’s Optare (a 6.6% Black Belgian IPA) and of course whilst wanting to see and support Matt, I also really wanted to participate in something as completely nerdy as live beer blogging! The crowd took a while to warm up to both the concept and the beer but I assisted in contributing a few adjectives including “a palate like Victorian wallpaper”, which a gentleman took to so kindly he found me after the talk and shook my hand, still chucking… Fourpure’s Rob Davies even liked my Mo Farah analogy so much he rewarded me with a delicious slice of Shape Shifter IPA (6.4%). Top lad!
And therein lies the key to Indy Man’s continued success; that friendly, free-spirited, open armed, big fun environment, which keeps me (and many, many others) coming back year after year. So, I’ll see you all in 2017 then.
—
Words and photographs by Cameron Steward of All You Need Is Beer.
– IMBC U SOON
IMBC U SOON: 22 days to go party
Wednesday 14th September 2016 / 6pm-late
Port Street Beer House / free entry
Join us for the comprehensive unveiling party ahead of Indy Man Beer Con 2016 (6th-9th October, Victoria Baths) at Port Street Beer House. The IMBC 16 brewery list will be released in full featuring over 50 of the most progressive and forward-thinking national and international breweries. Find out first the food vendors, talks and tastings, live music and events that will make up your IMBC 16 experience.
Expect a Port Street bar teaming with keg and cask from IMBC 16 sponsors, Cloudwater, Beavertown, Redchurch, Fourpure, Northern Monk, Siren Craft Brew, and Wild Beer Co. Alongside this rich haul we’ll have pop-up tastings on the night from some very special breweries including debut pours from Bristol’s newest brewery, Lost and Grounded.
Food will be provided on the night from Epicerie Ludo, get down early to scoop free limited bumper cheese platters from Chorlton’s finest. Deli edibles will be provided gratis to the first fifty through the gates.
Wild Beer Co will be on hand to provide some very special pop-up tastings on the evening.
Join us and raise a glass to the forthcoming festivities. 22 days to go!
—
IMBC 16 tickets for Thursday 6th October (5.30pm-11.30pm) and Sunday 9th October (1pm-7pm) are still available at http://
Trade tickets for Friday 7th October (11.30am-4.30pm) are available. Please email trade@indymanbeercon.co.uk
We seek VOLUNTEERS for IMBC 16. More here: http://www.indymanbeercon.co.uk/2016/08/imbc-16-volunteers/
Can’t make it to Port Street on the evening of the 14th September? Don’t despair! We’ll be unveiling all the info for IMBC 16 online right here too.
