The Independent Manchester Beer Convention 5-6th Oct

The Independent Manchester Beer Convention (IMBC) will happen for the first time at the beginning of October in celebration of beer, food, beery discussions and beery good times. 

After the Leeds International Beer festival which happened a few weeks ago, this has much of the same essence (beer - kegged & cask) & a whole lot more in the form of practical demos & talks with head brewers. Interesting to see that both festivals are organised by completely different groups - but both have sprung up as a response to the demand from consumers & brewers to have a platform for quality beer (no matter what it's stored in). 

A quick rundown of key pointers taken from their site includes these features over the 2 days:

- Over 30 keg lines, hosted by the brewers themselves.
- 30 cask lines curated by Port Street Beer House and others.
- The Portable Street Beer House presenting craft beers from here there and everywhere.
- A beer and food pairing dinner*
- pop up tastings
- mini food pairings
- talks and seminars.
- Some live music and the like.
- Coffee/Tea provided by North Tea Power and Has Bean.
- Food stalls

*meal included in the IMBC Max ticket 

The people behind IMBC come from Manchester's Northern Quarter beer aficionado bars - Common and Port Street Beer House.

Beer List

I caught up with Jonathan Heyes, one of the festival organisers, to grab a bit more insight in advance of the event:

Where did the original idea for the Independent Manchester Beer Convention (IMBC) come from?

Mainly because the beer scene in this country is changing at a pace, with more innovation and a changing demographic. Beer festivals haven't really changed to reflect this so it was something we thought we'd address.

Q: How long did it take you to find the venue for IMBC (the Victoria Baths) & is there something specific which drew you to using the Victorian pool?

A: Not very long, we looked at quite a few different venues but just really fell in love with the Baths, the event has evolved to make best use of the venue which I think is going to make it really special.

Q: There's a number of special collaborations going on to produce beers for the festival - can you just give us a brief synopsis of the  brews...

First Chop / IMBC collaboration - A classic brown ale with extra hops

Collaboration with Ilkley Brewery - a Belgian Wit Beer with a twist

Quantum Brewing Co. and North Tea Power - tea & beer?

A: We approached each of our featured breweries and asked them to create either a special one off brew for the festival or a new treatment for an existing beer, such as special dry hopping or additions or dispense method. We've also commissioned a few special beers which we have collaborated on directly with the brewers such as a blood orange tea pale ale, a hibiscus wit and special brown ale. We wanted there to be an element of experimentation to the festival generally.

Q: I really like the idea of your festival in that it takes the essence of all the bits of other festivals you've enjoyed & moulds them together in one event. What looks especially interesting are the talks & discussions organised over the 2 days which includes 'What the HELL is craft beer?' & Toby Mackenzie's (Red Willow Brewery) practical demonstration on how different yeast strains affect the beer. Which event are you most looking forward to & why?

A: I think they're all going to be really distinctive events, I'm particularly looking forward to the "What the HELL is craft beer discussion"; I'm going to be compering so it should be fun. Toby from Red Willow was just tweeting the other day about his yeast experiments so that sound like it could a really interesting one, Summer Wine Brewery are really experimental and they have a guy making some beer cocktails. And then Kjetil from Nøgne-Ø in Norway will be filling us in on the history of his brewery and doing some exclusive tastings.

Q: Beer & food pairing is another element which seems high on your agenda - with mini food pairing events going on throughout the festival & a special evening 3 course beer and food matched meal provided by Michelin listed restaurant Aumbry available. What's your favourite beer & food pairing & why?

A: Hard to say, we did want to steer clear of a lot of your bog standard food and beer pairings such as cheese, chocolate, curry etc. I think the pairings we've come up with are great, a really exciting one is the grapefruit posset with celery granita, it's basically made to go with big juicy hops.

Q: Now I've got to ask, you've got kegged & cask beer sitting side by side at your beer festival featuring some outstanding UK brewers now at the forefront of this kegged beer explosion. Many years ago UK ale drinkers wouldn't go near or even think about a kegged beer - what's changed & what's your take on this?

A: Well keg beer is still contentious for many traditional ale drinkers; it's still too cold, too fizzy. However it's quite widely accepted that some beers just work better on keg than cask, and vice versa so why not showcase beers in their best format? Also there is real diversity in the UK, some brewers choosing to brew solely for keg, some solely cask we wanted to celebrate this diversity.

Q: There seems to be a current influence from the US craft beer scene on a number of UK brewers at the moment (like heavy hopping). Many of these are at the IMBC - Camden Town, Kernel & Thornbridge. I'd probably say it's more like a mutual adoration really. Would you agree & what's happened in the last few years for this transatlantic collaboration to occur?

A: I think there are a lot of UK brewers who've been really inspired by the boldness and the freedom US craft brewers seem to have, producing big, flavourful beers and being very, well, American about it. I think brewers in this country have felt a bit shackled by tradition for a long time, not feeling the market was really interested in buying big bold beers, well over recent year the growth in imported US beer sales has proved that to be wrong and a lot of small UK brewers have decided they want a bit of that action. I think it's really important to maintain our British brewing tradition and I think cask ale will always have a place on the bar, but I think it's really exciting to see people building on that tradition and using it as launch pad to go wild and experiment.