Hulloo,
I had to make a choice this year, between Indy Man Beer Con and Sheffield Beer Fest. Having only missed one Sheffield fest since I was old enough to attend, have sacrificed my local CAMRA fest for the remarkable wonders of Indy Man. That isn't reflection of the Sheffield CAMRA fest, which is excellent, its more a representation of my dire finances.
I did it cheaply mind. I bought only ten tokens (which may have been the minimum, but am not sure), and caught the coach both ways, walked to the fest and back into Manchester and only stopped to purchase a couple of thirds after. This meant leaving the house at 07.00 and getting back at 21.30! It was, as ever, absolutely worth the effort.
I had seen Dave Pickersgill on the coach but he wasn't getting there til later so I walked up on my own and then wandered around once I had my tickets to hopefully see folks that I knew. I started on a Burning Sky Arise, a session IPA from a range of theirs including BA imperial stout and about 5 different saisons. From here on in, as I was having two thirds an hour, it was DIPAs and imperial stouts all the way.
Having secured a seat in the Turkish baths part next to Verdant I headed for Cloudwater. who had been very pleased to announce a direct serve cold store for their beers directly behind the taps. I must say their DIPA was very refreshing and frighteningly easy to drink, alas all I know is it was their latest DIPA as when I asked what hops were in it as I couldn't read the label the barman said "I don't work for the brewery mate, am just pouring beer". Um....thats correct. The pump clip is right in front of you however!
I went for a wander to Loka Polly next and had a DIPA of theirs which may have been DDH Citra and Mosaic, and also bumped into Jules. It was her that told me about Indy Man back in 2013 so am always grateful for that, and pleased to see her. Her and her friends headed off to another brewery stall and I went into the third room where I found Jay, Chris B, Heather, Dave Unpro,, KateDave and later Dave P, along with Sue the brew. Here I enjoyed a Whiplash DIPA which had a name and a Circle of Snakes DIPA from Black Iris. This, as Jay confirmed, was one of the most green beers I have ever had hops wise! Such a good advert for fresh beer.
If you are wondering why I can't find details of all the beer names precisely, its because my app downloadable phone has bust so I only have a 2006 Nokia, and there were no paper lists out and about when I arrived. There is therefore some guessmories involved......
The next beer I tried was Wylam Mental State, or similar, and a third of their colab with Whiplash, before I headed back to sit in the baths room with a couple who were from earth, and to have a third of Verdant Don't Tell the Ferryman Barrel Aged imperial stout at 11.0%. Suffice to say this was an excellent dark ale, perhaps the first such style I have tried from one of my favourite breweries.
I also sampled a Hawkshead beer, am guessing it was a DIPA, although am not sure they do one, and also an Almasty beer - the same descriptors apply. We went for a wander round the food village and I bumped into John Clarke who very kindly gave me a taste of his massala chips - absolutely lovely! I also had a Lervig Supersonic DIPA, which was wonderfully easy drinking, in keeping with the unnoficial theme.
My last beer, to the best of my knowledge, was a Cloudwater System Failure colab DIPA with Bragby, or similar sounding brewery. This was very well balanced and tasty, and fresh as a dasiy.
Leaving at 16.15 I met up with Dave P outside and we walked back into town in the pissing rain til we gave up and we got a bus, before undertaking a rather lengthy wander to Tarrif Street and the Northern Monk refrectory Manchester. A couple of beers each were sampled in here before we made our way to the coach station and headed on the way home.
Once more I went to Indy Man and every beer I had was excellent and outstanding and the listed Victoria Baths remain one of the best places to have a beer festival anywhere. Well done to Indy Man Beer Con and their staff and the brewers for one again putting on an impeccable show!
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Victoria Baths Manchester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victoria Baths Manchester. Show all posts
Sunday, 7 October 2018
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Indy Man Beer Con 2015
Hello,
this year I was once again offered the chance to attend the Independent Manchester Beer Convention (or Conference?) in, surprisingly, Manchester. Here are some memories of what I, and Tash, found.
Firstly, lets make this clear - I bumped into, on the train, two gents from the Australian state of Lougabarougah, or Loughborough in Leicestershire, as its more commonly known. I'd seen one take a bottle of porter out of his bag for a pre festival snaffle, and asked if they were going to Indy Man. They were, Rob and Justin one of whom runs the Hoptimism beer shop. So I offered to let them share a taxi with me and Tash since I had been before. It would, I said, cost about £6.50. Arriving at Chorlton Baths, it transpired I should have asked for Victoria baths. In Chorlton on Medlock. On Hathersage Road. A quick trip through Moss Side later with taxi driver Daniel, and we were 40 minutes and £15.00 down. Sorry Rob, Justin, Tash, and myself.
Once in things improved. I took Tash into the main room to buy some tickets - £1.00 each and in my experience between £1.50 and £2.00 a third. This meant that most, indeed almost all, of the beer, was expensive. However, most, indeed almost all, was keg, strong, and unique.
We started at the Quantum brewery stand. Our first two beers were their Gose for Tash and a beer for me called Gin and Juice, a 6.5% sour orange peel and I think elderflower gin flavoured wheat beer. These two thirds came to £3.50. The tone was set. Mainly, if not exclusively, because both beers were excellent. We enjoyed them outside amonsgt the tents and food stalls in warm sunshine.
Inside next we tried an IMBC collab with Northern Monk called Quinceessential. This was a quince IPA at 6.0% and was very easy drinking. So far, I had tasted two beers at 6.0% or more. This, I was to learn, was far from unusual at IMBC.
A trip into the far bar followed including a taste of and a third of the Tilquin Draft Gueze. It was here that we bumped into Rob and Justin and their friend, still talking to us, and supping a third of the bottled Grande Gueze at an eye watering £5.00 a third. I also tried or rather supped a third of Hawkshead Sundown red ale at a "meager" 4.5% and some Chorlton Farmhouse IPA at 7.0%. We sat down with a photographer and a guy from Lancashire called Mike who was really enthusiastic about the styles on offer. Tash also went to try a third of the strong Thistly Cross dry cider, and talked to the who ran the firm.
From this pint on, its probably best if I try and remember enough of the beers I tried to list them. So, with that in mind, other beers tried included:
Zapato and the Beak - Little Leeds Pale, and Raspberry sour
A Bilberry saison which isn't obviously on the list
Cloudwater IPA
Almasty Imperial Stout (10%)
Tuatar NUI (BIG) IPA
Whilst supping and wandering we saw a few Sheffielders - the guy with the name and his friend from the Bath hotel, Sean Clarke from Beer Central, the lass form Mashtun and meow who might be called Chloe (but probably isn't!), Stuart from Magic Rock Brewing (who is at least a Sheffielder by association, and the manager of the Sheffield Tap. We also met up with Jules and Will from Hop Hideout, who were my friendly and supportive hosts last year.
We also went for a sit down on a green-bag in the dark end room and listened to a DJ set whilst snaffling our pork pies and sarnies, and supping amazing LSD (Little Sour Delight, a young sour at 6.8% from Lervig in Norway, along with their Lucky Jack IPA. This was a lovely space and a great opportunity to wind down from the pressure of trying to sample as many beers as we could before 16.30.
At a point after that, things became a little less good. With two tokens left I discovered the bars weren't serving and so I headed to the ticket booth to get my money back, and was told they couldn't do that. I have never come across that at a beer festival before. When I protested I was advised to go and get a canned beer to take out - they, admirably, canned draught beer for supping that day but it was 4 tokens. I was going to give my tokens, which I had paid for, to the guy from Zapato but someone mentioned I could use them next year - so still have them. I don't, however, understand why I couldn't exchange them for cash.
That was the main downside if am honest, along with a lack of cask beers. A guy behind the cask bar said that not enough was sold the year before so they had to give it away. Whilst I understand this is not a viable sales pitch, its still a shame to see so few (10 I think) cask beers on sale from such an extensive list - the link to which is here.
Despite the above this was another excellent showcase of a wide range of UK and International beers - whether you define them as Craft or otherwise. The beer is expensive, but pushes the boundaries of taste and your expectations in a wonderful and excellent quality way - we didn't try a bad one. The venue, as mentioned last time, is outstanding, and the atmosphere was great.
A thoroughly enjoyable festival!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
this year I was once again offered the chance to attend the Independent Manchester Beer Convention (or Conference?) in, surprisingly, Manchester. Here are some memories of what I, and Tash, found.
Firstly, lets make this clear - I bumped into, on the train, two gents from the Australian state of Lougabarougah, or Loughborough in Leicestershire, as its more commonly known. I'd seen one take a bottle of porter out of his bag for a pre festival snaffle, and asked if they were going to Indy Man. They were, Rob and Justin one of whom runs the Hoptimism beer shop. So I offered to let them share a taxi with me and Tash since I had been before. It would, I said, cost about £6.50. Arriving at Chorlton Baths, it transpired I should have asked for Victoria baths. In Chorlton on Medlock. On Hathersage Road. A quick trip through Moss Side later with taxi driver Daniel, and we were 40 minutes and £15.00 down. Sorry Rob, Justin, Tash, and myself.
Once in things improved. I took Tash into the main room to buy some tickets - £1.00 each and in my experience between £1.50 and £2.00 a third. This meant that most, indeed almost all, of the beer, was expensive. However, most, indeed almost all, was keg, strong, and unique.
We started at the Quantum brewery stand. Our first two beers were their Gose for Tash and a beer for me called Gin and Juice, a 6.5% sour orange peel and I think elderflower gin flavoured wheat beer. These two thirds came to £3.50. The tone was set. Mainly, if not exclusively, because both beers were excellent. We enjoyed them outside amonsgt the tents and food stalls in warm sunshine.
Inside next we tried an IMBC collab with Northern Monk called Quinceessential. This was a quince IPA at 6.0% and was very easy drinking. So far, I had tasted two beers at 6.0% or more. This, I was to learn, was far from unusual at IMBC.
A trip into the far bar followed including a taste of and a third of the Tilquin Draft Gueze. It was here that we bumped into Rob and Justin and their friend, still talking to us, and supping a third of the bottled Grande Gueze at an eye watering £5.00 a third. I also tried or rather supped a third of Hawkshead Sundown red ale at a "meager" 4.5% and some Chorlton Farmhouse IPA at 7.0%. We sat down with a photographer and a guy from Lancashire called Mike who was really enthusiastic about the styles on offer. Tash also went to try a third of the strong Thistly Cross dry cider, and talked to the who ran the firm.
From this pint on, its probably best if I try and remember enough of the beers I tried to list them. So, with that in mind, other beers tried included:
Zapato and the Beak - Little Leeds Pale, and Raspberry sour
A Bilberry saison which isn't obviously on the list
Cloudwater IPA
Almasty Imperial Stout (10%)
Tuatar NUI (BIG) IPA
Whilst supping and wandering we saw a few Sheffielders - the guy with the name and his friend from the Bath hotel, Sean Clarke from Beer Central, the lass form Mashtun and meow who might be called Chloe (but probably isn't!), Stuart from Magic Rock Brewing (who is at least a Sheffielder by association, and the manager of the Sheffield Tap. We also met up with Jules and Will from Hop Hideout, who were my friendly and supportive hosts last year.
We also went for a sit down on a green-bag in the dark end room and listened to a DJ set whilst snaffling our pork pies and sarnies, and supping amazing LSD (Little Sour Delight, a young sour at 6.8% from Lervig in Norway, along with their Lucky Jack IPA. This was a lovely space and a great opportunity to wind down from the pressure of trying to sample as many beers as we could before 16.30.
At a point after that, things became a little less good. With two tokens left I discovered the bars weren't serving and so I headed to the ticket booth to get my money back, and was told they couldn't do that. I have never come across that at a beer festival before. When I protested I was advised to go and get a canned beer to take out - they, admirably, canned draught beer for supping that day but it was 4 tokens. I was going to give my tokens, which I had paid for, to the guy from Zapato but someone mentioned I could use them next year - so still have them. I don't, however, understand why I couldn't exchange them for cash.
That was the main downside if am honest, along with a lack of cask beers. A guy behind the cask bar said that not enough was sold the year before so they had to give it away. Whilst I understand this is not a viable sales pitch, its still a shame to see so few (10 I think) cask beers on sale from such an extensive list - the link to which is here.
Despite the above this was another excellent showcase of a wide range of UK and International beers - whether you define them as Craft or otherwise. The beer is expensive, but pushes the boundaries of taste and your expectations in a wonderful and excellent quality way - we didn't try a bad one. The venue, as mentioned last time, is outstanding, and the atmosphere was great.
A thoroughly enjoyable festival!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
Saturday, 18 October 2014
Independent Manchester Beer Covention 2014
Hello,
last week I was very chuffed to be invited to the Indy Man Beer Con as a member of the press. I know! Me? I just write a blog now and again. However, these uncertainties did not prevent me from accepting the tickets....
Having never been before I made sure I got there as quickly as I could and stayed as late as I could on my ticket. Here is what I found.
The festival is held in a stunning location, the Victoria Baths on Hathersage Road in Chorlton On Medlock. You may have seen this venue on the Restoration programme on that there telly a while ago. Sufice to say, as a lover of ornate architecture and tiling, I was as excited about seeing the venue as tasting the beer!
A short taxi ride deposited me outside and straight away there were tiles. Many, many, many tiles. There was also a room with beers and food and people in it. This made me feel surprisingly thirsty all of a sudden and I had the Burning Sky Saison L'autumne on keg, using my white beer tokens, marking the beer off on the programme with my Camden pencil. Assumedly they aren't copyright claiming that....
I sat down briefly to assess the beers on offer and concluded that there must be other rooms. There was. I headed next to the Green Room, awash with fabulous green tile work and two bars, one selling overseas beers at a higher cost, and one with two handumps and keg fonts from the Port Street Beer House. I had the Indy Man Brewhouse Pale and a half on cask and it was bloody excellent. I was, now, officially a very happy punter.
Off next to the Turkish Baths which is where Beavertown were hanging out. Here I had their Qyelle, a dry hopped saison on keg. This was an interesting and very enjoyable beer, but I wanted a good ole fashioned cask ale next so headed through more magnificent tiling and stairways to room 1, where I had a Squawk Bean Brothers coffee porter at 7.0%, which in line with all the beer so fat, and indeed thereafter, was excellent.
I moved onto the other rooms for a while, went outside to look at the Brewdog bar, and up above room 3 where there were old doors awaiting fixing and brilliant sunlight through the glass roof. I then got sat in room 2 with an American Couple and tried some beers with them, including Against The Grain Citra Ass Down, a 6.7% keg beer, Hawkshead Green Juniper and hemp double IPA at 7% and Wiper and True Triptych Pale ale on cask at 4.9%. I also chatted with the brewer for a while, which to be fair, everyone else seemed to be doing.
I soon met up with Jules and Will from Hop Hideout off license in Sheffield and we started making our way round and through some of the other beers on offer. I also splashed out a large amount of money on a hot dog, as the beer was taking effect having started supping at 11.30. Its fair to say that I lose track at this point of the order of ales tried, but I did reliably tick my programme, so the others I tried were :
Lovibonds 69 IPA (keg) 6.9%
Arbor Indy Girl (Keg) 9%
Rooie Dop Back to Black (Keg) 8.6%
Burning Sky Aurora (Cask) 5.5%
Northern Monk New World Pale (cask)
Kernel Pale Ale Columbus (Keg) 4.8%
Alechemy Monumental - 1 yr aged Octomore (Keg) 11.5%
As you can see i tried a lot of kegs, but mainly the kegs were serving the stronger beers on offer. I think overall there may have been more kegs but as I said already, there were no bad beers that I tried. The issue of serving beers in 3rds came up at previous festivals but to be honest I never really noticed. That said, it was never mentioned to me, which is a bit slack, and it did mean that the beers were on the whole very expensive - not so bad for the kegs but not good value for the cask offerings.
Overall however this was my first and a very enjoyable beer festival in an exemplary setting which sold some cracking beers. The atmosphere was good, the food smelled amazing and once again, I must mention that I didn't try a bad beer from the 12 or so I had. Here, potentially, are some photos I took as well.
Lets hope the beer quality at the last two festivals I have attended recently can be matched at Kelham Island in a fortnight...
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
last week I was very chuffed to be invited to the Indy Man Beer Con as a member of the press. I know! Me? I just write a blog now and again. However, these uncertainties did not prevent me from accepting the tickets....
Having never been before I made sure I got there as quickly as I could and stayed as late as I could on my ticket. Here is what I found.
The festival is held in a stunning location, the Victoria Baths on Hathersage Road in Chorlton On Medlock. You may have seen this venue on the Restoration programme on that there telly a while ago. Sufice to say, as a lover of ornate architecture and tiling, I was as excited about seeing the venue as tasting the beer!
A short taxi ride deposited me outside and straight away there were tiles. Many, many, many tiles. There was also a room with beers and food and people in it. This made me feel surprisingly thirsty all of a sudden and I had the Burning Sky Saison L'autumne on keg, using my white beer tokens, marking the beer off on the programme with my Camden pencil. Assumedly they aren't copyright claiming that....
I sat down briefly to assess the beers on offer and concluded that there must be other rooms. There was. I headed next to the Green Room, awash with fabulous green tile work and two bars, one selling overseas beers at a higher cost, and one with two handumps and keg fonts from the Port Street Beer House. I had the Indy Man Brewhouse Pale and a half on cask and it was bloody excellent. I was, now, officially a very happy punter.
Off next to the Turkish Baths which is where Beavertown were hanging out. Here I had their Qyelle, a dry hopped saison on keg. This was an interesting and very enjoyable beer, but I wanted a good ole fashioned cask ale next so headed through more magnificent tiling and stairways to room 1, where I had a Squawk Bean Brothers coffee porter at 7.0%, which in line with all the beer so fat, and indeed thereafter, was excellent.
I moved onto the other rooms for a while, went outside to look at the Brewdog bar, and up above room 3 where there were old doors awaiting fixing and brilliant sunlight through the glass roof. I then got sat in room 2 with an American Couple and tried some beers with them, including Against The Grain Citra Ass Down, a 6.7% keg beer, Hawkshead Green Juniper and hemp double IPA at 7% and Wiper and True Triptych Pale ale on cask at 4.9%. I also chatted with the brewer for a while, which to be fair, everyone else seemed to be doing.
I soon met up with Jules and Will from Hop Hideout off license in Sheffield and we started making our way round and through some of the other beers on offer. I also splashed out a large amount of money on a hot dog, as the beer was taking effect having started supping at 11.30. Its fair to say that I lose track at this point of the order of ales tried, but I did reliably tick my programme, so the others I tried were :
Lovibonds 69 IPA (keg) 6.9%
Arbor Indy Girl (Keg) 9%
Rooie Dop Back to Black (Keg) 8.6%
Burning Sky Aurora (Cask) 5.5%
Northern Monk New World Pale (cask)
Kernel Pale Ale Columbus (Keg) 4.8%
Alechemy Monumental - 1 yr aged Octomore (Keg) 11.5%
As you can see i tried a lot of kegs, but mainly the kegs were serving the stronger beers on offer. I think overall there may have been more kegs but as I said already, there were no bad beers that I tried. The issue of serving beers in 3rds came up at previous festivals but to be honest I never really noticed. That said, it was never mentioned to me, which is a bit slack, and it did mean that the beers were on the whole very expensive - not so bad for the kegs but not good value for the cask offerings.
Overall however this was my first and a very enjoyable beer festival in an exemplary setting which sold some cracking beers. The atmosphere was good, the food smelled amazing and once again, I must mention that I didn't try a bad beer from the 12 or so I had. Here, potentially, are some photos I took as well.
Lets hope the beer quality at the last two festivals I have attended recently can be matched at Kelham Island in a fortnight...
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
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