In The Words of Marvin Gaye - “What's Goin’ On”?

Hello there! It's been a while. Since the last Webpost that is. And in a massive change from my normal behaviour, I adopted an attitude of not posting until there was something to say. So….

Firstly - and restating this is important - every penny of profit made from this (or any ISBF event) goes to a good cause.

This event was (laughably) conceived to support a local Community Centre run by a dear friend of mine. It was hosted for its first 4 years in that self same venue, St Sebastian's, a place with numerous pulls on my heart strings.

Since 2018, the event has been held at the beautiful Hemsley House and with that change of venue came a change of supported charity.

START Inspiring Minds is based within 1/4 mile of Hemsley House. It's an organisation that supports local people with issues with mental health, something with a particular resonance for the ISBF family. Over the last two years we have raised over £22k, money that - with ever increasing demands on the various funding streams - is vital in the continuation of their work.

Coronavirus put an end to any hope of #ISBF7 this year. Hence why, several months ago, we decided to try to “homebrew” a virtual event.

I love the fact that this event has been called a “DIY Beer Event” and as “Niche”. We are. A lot of people put a lot of love into this event, both the “family” that comes together every November to make it possible AND some of the loveliest beer consumers, many of who - over the last 7 years have become friends too. And wouldn't miss it. They “get” what we try and do.

It isn't perfect, it isn't bright and shiny, but we like it like that.

This is what we've (and there HAS been shared discussion - not just me running away with stuff!) kind of decided.

There will be 36 breweries. Each brewery will supply a single beer that will be a recent release, many will be first tried at this event, something that we are humbled by.

Many of those beers will be brewed especially for the event

Those 36 beers will be split into 3 packages, each to be particular to one of three “sessions” to be held on each of three evenings. From Thursday 12th November to Saturday 14th.

There'll be a special glass, a programme and the chance to buy a pretty t-shirt too (who fancies a branded face mask?)

So that - when we “launch” in late September - you'll get to see the brewery line ups for each evening. The actual beers may not be known until 2 weeks prior to the event. When we know, you'll know.

We try to keep things simple like that.

There will also be (as an addition to one of the sessions) a small - and perfectly curated - selection of Cider and Perry. Organised by our dear friends Dick Withecombe and Cath Potter, two of the UK's greatest Cider enthusiasts and Cheerleaders for #RethinkCider - there may even be a rather special event connected (keep your 👀 peeled!)

Now then. Here's a thing.

We're quite an unassuming bunch. And when this event was conceived as “Virtual”, we had no great hopes for the demand, so this is a small scale thing. Simple and small.

No virtual tours of historic breweries. No bells and whistles. No phased release of tickets. What you see on launch is all there'll be. And there won't be many tickets. But more on that later.

So far, I think we've got a Zoom event for each evening, 2 beer related with two of my personal beer heroes and one Cider. We also have various other generous offers, so I'm going to aim for two per evening.

The ones already arranged have got me personally quite excited. And I don't excite easily. More on these on the launch evening - which will done (for the first time) via Webpost and Zoom - we normally have an in the flesh party. But the times eh?

Availability. There will be 100 packages (cases) available for each session. Of those, almost 45 will be for sponsors.

So. There will be (on average) 85 individual cases / tickets available. Per session. If I've overestimated demand, then that's on me. I'll have an awful lot of beer to drink….. On second thoughts - given the breweries - that's a win for me!

There'll be some flexibility. So if you really don't like a particular beer style, it could be swapped (subject to human error). If you are Vegan and one of the beers isn't, then same thing goes.

You get the picture.

There are still hurdles to vault, but let's make this happen eh? Let's raise some wedge for START. Every little helps eh?

Back soon.

Be kind to one another.

Jim x