#ISBF5 : Thursday 29th November to 1st December - So Here We Are
These things take time. And frequently (as Rabbie Burns is famously quoted as saying) “The best laid plans o mice an men aft gang agley. And oh BOY do they go agley!
From deciding/desiring to “go again” to getting here has taken about 8 months and it has certainly been an interesting journey – to put it mildly.
We’re almost at the stage where I hand this monster over, but for now, I’ll talk in the 1st person. This is me. Jim.
Once we’d secured Hemsley House (and I can’t WAIT for you to see it!) I wanted this to be a bit different. It had to be different. More space. More people = more beer. Over 25% more beer.
But we’ll come to that later.
It’s truly humbling to see and feel all the love for this event. It kind of means that we’ve got it to where we/I always wanted it to be. Good beer, good people and good music. All coming together. The three things that I care about most. Despite the new surroundings, this isn’t a fancy bash. It Isn’t – nor will it ever become – “up itself”. That would be most “un Northern”. And I/we are products of this environment, these twin cities of Salford & Manchester. And we don’t take ourselves too seriously up here.
And we love where we’re from. It’s in our blood. All of us involved. This wee family that comes together each year. I love these people.
So. Enough mawkishness. What’s going to happen next week.
Well. We open on Thursday 29th at 6pm for a start. That’s a quiet one. And all about the beer. With a little background music in the Rink Suite (#EvilKegFilth room). The cask room (Worsley Suite) will remain free of tunes. As will The Walker Suite (aka The Green Room)
Friday lunchtime the same. 11:30 opening. Good beer, good tunes. Same format.
Friday evening, will see Zacc Rogers play two sets in The Rink Suite. Go have a watch /listen on You Tube. He’s bloody good! Sets probably 7:30 & 8:30 ish. But that’s up to the artists! We’ll also have a presentation from Ryan of new Preston brewery Chain House. We’re proud to give them their first Mancunia exposure and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of their beers in the coming year.
Saturday Lunch will see 2 presentations/chats.
Firstly – at approx 12:45 – Former National Champion Home Brewer, Andy Parker, he now of Elusive Brewing, will be talking matters Home Brewing. Man knows his stuff.
Shortly afterwards we will have an MTB style thing with exciting new Yorkshire venture SALT Brewing (They’ve got theprettiest of set ups!)
All meetings will be in The Walker Suite.
Saturday evening, live music again with the ace voice of Elly Grice and the Guitar Merlin that is George Fell (anyone who watched him last year, knows)
The beers will be at a range of prices generally (with certain limited exceptions) in the following price ranges…
Cask :
Up to 3.5% - £3 a pint
3.6 – 4.5 £3.30
4.6 – 5.5 £3.60
5.6 – 6.0 £3.90
6.0 – 6.9 £4.20
7.0 – 7.9 £4.80
8.0 – 8.9 £5.10
9.0 – 9.9 £5.40
10 and above £6.00
Beers 7% and above only served in ½ Pt and 1/3 Pt measures. With some exclusively in 1/3 Pt measures.
Keg
3.0 – 3.9 £3.90
4.0 – 4.9 £4.50
5.0 - 5.9 £5.10
6.0 - 6.9 £5.70
7.0 - 7.9 £6.30
8.0 - 8.9 £6.90
9.0 – 9.9 £7.50
10 & above £9.00
Again, Beers 7% and above only served in ½ Pt and 1/3 Pt measures. With some exclusively in 1/3 Pt measures.
These aren’t “rip off” prices. I don’t do that. And please remember, ALL profits go to charity.
The prettiest beer festival T-shirts ever will be on sale at £17.50 in grey and red. They’re gorgeous. And I thank my Design Genius, webmaster and all round good (H)egg Andy for the beautiful look.
The food – once again – will be of the wholesome type. Think hotpots / Chillis etc.
Big thanks to the following – without whom this wouldn’t be happening….
Team Black Jack. Without whom the beer wouldn’t be here. Utter stars
Malcolm Bastow of Five Towns. Ditto for Yorkshire. And for other reasons only he knows and I’m not telling.
Lee & Sam at All Flow Dispense. 5 years of installing bars in the face of my chaos. Cheers fellas.
Dave & Jen at The Northern Type – For sponsoring our glassware.
Bailey & Jules at GRUB – for so much. And the sound system!
OK. What you really want to see is what’s below. So. Fill your boots. It’s taken 8 months to get this lot together, with lots of changes since the initial brewery list was published. Hope you enjoy it.
Please NB. The aim is to source beers new to Manchester. This isn’t ALWAYS possible. Some can and DO slip through the net, for certain I’m no Untappd or Ratebeer hound – as anybody who knows me knows all too well. But it IS the aim. To give you 94 beers new to the area. And it’d bloody hard work.
So don’t shoot me if I’ve missed one or two!
Read responsibly.
See you next week.
Jim & The ISBF Family
Cask
Brewery Beer Style ABV
Abbeydale Raspberry and peanut butter BA Imperial Stout 10
Bad Seed Super Sobremesa (Coffee & Almond) Stout 8.5
Beatnikz I Session San Diego Session Pale 4.2
Beer Nouveau Tarragon The Dragon Stout 8.4
Black Jack Deck of Cards US Brown Ale 5.6
Blackedge Nelson Sauvin Session Pale 3.8
Blue Bee Archimedes Principle Pale Ale 4.2
Brass Castle Funkshine Bretted IPA 5.7
Brew York Amber Gambler (Wood cask aged) US Amber 4.7
Cheshire Brewhouse Crush Collision Session Pale 4
De Ranke XX Bitter Belgian Blond 6
Distant Hills White Peach Milkshake Session IPA 4.2
Elusive x North Riding Mochachino US Red Ale 5.8
Five Towns Candidate Breakfast Stout 9
Five Towns Sweet Thing Melon Pale 5.5
Five Towns x Rivington Sweet Thing (Reprise) Imperial Fruited
Milkshake IPA 9
Neptune Atlantic Ridge US Brown Ale 5.5
Night Jar Turbo Tuk Tuk Thai IPA 5.2
North Riding x Elusive India Porter Porter 6.7
Pictish Caradoc's Thirst Table Beer 2.9
Pomona Island Best Ever Death Metal
Band Out of Salford Mandarin Pale 5.5
Rammy Craft Little Wonder Session Pale 3.6
Redwillow Tearless v4 (Cryo Hop) Table Beer 3
Revolutions Phantasmagoria Oatmeal Pumpkin
Brown Ale 4.5
Runaway x GRUB Pineapple Upside Down Cake Cake! 5.5
SALT Brewing Jute Session IPA 4
Thirst Class Dandelion & Burdock Pale Special Pale 4.8
Tigertops Honey Bear Honey Pale
(Orval Yeast) 4
Torrside v Runaway Social Distortion Pale Ale 5.6
Turning Point Yellow Matter Custard Vanilla Wheat
Pale 6
Vocation Imperial Russian Stout Imperial Stout 10.6
Wigan Brewhouse All American 5 Hop Session Ale 4
Wilde Child Enfant Terrible Milkshake
Table Pale 3.1
Wishbone The Black Imp Imperial Stout 8.7
#EvilKegFilth
Brewery Beer Style ABV
6th Day Brewing Land of Make Believe Mandarin Champale 5.50
8 Arch Dainty NE Pale 4.80
Abbeydale Table Bretted Saison Dry Hopped Saison 3.60
Almasty Dank NE IPA 6.00
Ampersand Lemon Voyage Lemon Verbena
Brut IPA 6.00
Beer Ink Maude The Merrier Canadian Breakfast
Stout 8.80
Bexar County Thin Line Between Green Tea, Mango and
Genius & Insanity II Sriracha Pale 6.60
Bexar County (c) Getting The Band Back
Together Mini Porter 3.10
Big Fish Brew Co Division 1 NEIPA 6.70
Black Lodge Origami Unicorn DDH Pale 5.00
Bone Machine Día de Muertos Mexican Stout 7.40
Boutillers Jam Sandwich Pale Pale Ale 4.60
Brew By Numbers tbc Cranberry Wit 5.50
Brick Blackcurrant & Sumac Sour 3.60
Buxton Cherry Sour Fruited Berliner Weisse 3.50
Chain House Brew Co Shorts in October Hazy Pale Ale 5.00
Cloudwater "Cherry and Sea Salt" Imperial Stout 11.00
Cwrw Ial Lager Lager 5.00
Double Barreled Raspberry & Beetroot Gose 5.00
Elusive Bless The Rains Coffee Hazelnut Porter 7.00
Elusive x North Riding India Porter Porter 6.70
Fierce 6pm Sinner Amber DIPA W/Lime 8.50
Hawkshead Autumn Equinox Blackberry Sour 3.30
Kernel Dry Stout Centennial Stout 4.40
Korupted Brew Co Beaucoup de Baies
Fourrees Saison 5.80
LHG Otherlands Cascadian Black 6.60
Liquid Light Electric Machine IPA 6.50
Little Earth Dandelion de Garde 8.40
Loka Polly Chinook / Mosaic (ONLY KEG!)DIPA 8.60
Lost & Grounded Take Me To The Top IPA 6.80
Macc Brew Co We All Hail Hail Yuzu & Sorachi Pale 5.00
Magic Rock Dairyfreak (Hazelnut) Milk Ice Porter 5.20
Mallinsons Lager Lager 5.00
Marble Decadence 2018 Imperial Stout 10.50
Marble x
Wander Beyond Found Your Marbles Fruit Blended Impy 11.00
Mills Picture Pot Blended Sour 6.30
Neon Raptor Endangered Oak Bourbon
Vanilla Porter 6.60
Neptune x Tom's Tap Farmhouse IPA Farmhouse IPA 7.20
Northern Alchemy Cola Sour Sour 4.00
Northern Monk tbc DIPA 9.00
Pilot Brut IPA Brut IPA 6.00
Rivington Stock Ale Stock Ale 7.70
Runaway (c) Coffee & Chocolate White Stout 6.50
Six Degrees North Snowy Belgian Winter ale 7.50
Squawk Fusca Chocolate Vanilla Stout 9.00
Staggeringly Good Ekuanodon Vermont DIPA 7.40
Thirst Class x
Tickety Brew Plum & Licorice Stout Stout 6.20
Thornbridge Mint Choc Chip Lucaria Ice Cream Porter 4.50
Three Blind Mice Bretted Gooseberry Saison 5.20
Tom's Tap Imperial Brown
Breakfast Stout Imperial Brown Stout 6.00
Torrside Destination Unknown Double Ruby IPA 9.50
Track Hedgerow Sour
(collab w/Garage Brewing) Sour 5.50
Twisted Barrel Behold A Pale Horse DH Belgian Tripel 9.00
Verdant #6 DIPA 8.00
Vibrant Forest Luciferin Black Imperial Lime
Gose 7.40
Watts & Co Paddington Pale Ale Lime Marmalade Pale 4.30
Weird Beard JD Barrel Aged Sadako Imperial Stout 9.50
Wild Weather Strawberry Daiquiri Pale 5.00
Wilderness Equinox Saison Mixed Culture Saison (Burgundy BA Blended with fresh Saison) 5.20
Wylam Pigs Ear - Art & Beer Pale Ale 5.00
Please note. There WILL be a small, select & local Gin Bar and there WILL be ciders. I just don’t know quite what yet!
Some of those beasties are UNIQUE to us. Some you may never see in Manchester again. All (or near as) will be new to Manchester.
And they’re all for you. Enjoy.
See you next week!
Jim