There’s great news if you’re fond of a tipple – the city-wide Manchester Beer Week is back. The multi-venue festival raises a glass to the cream of Manchester’s brewing talent, with 10,000 visitors expected at over 70 venues for special tastings, talks, walks and beer-matched meals. Here are three highlights we’re raising a toast for.
1. MBW Preview Night
Start your Beer Week with a Preview Night (Wed 21 Jun, Rain Bar, 6pm, £5), your first chance to sample two brews created especially for the festival. Look out for the ‘breakfast’ pale ale, made by Blackjack Brewery working with the Co-op, which uses oatmeal, lactose and a fruit compote to create a hint of porridge. The other guest booze will be a cask beer by brewers JW Lees and Cloudwater, both of whom will join Runaway Brewery for a panel debate about the precarious future of cask.
2. Food And Beer: The Next Generation
Hyping up the indie scene will be a food and drinks fair at Runaway Brewery – formerly home to the Grub Food Fair. Food And Beer: TNG (Sun 25 Jun, Runaway Brewery, 12pm, FREE) is a collaborative effort with twelve rising brewery stars unveiling six unique beers. They comprise waste fruit used in a grapefruit IPA, a chocolate salted caramel stout with vegan ice cream float, a New England-style IPA, a seaside-dappled langoustine and pineapple gose, a white oatmeal stout conditioned over coffee beans, and, to mix it up, a dry-hopped cider.
3. MBW Closing Party
It’s not just booze, booze, booze at Manchester Beer Week. They’re ending the week with a music-filled Closing Party (Sun 2 Jul – Mon 3 Jul, Band on the Wall & The Smithfield Tavern, 2pm, FREE) split across two venues. At Band on the Wall, there’ll be music from Lancashire psychedelic rockers Good Foxy alongside the glitchy Hunrosa, Bolton electro-poppers Pyramids and indie newcomers La Mode. Meanwhile, things get acoustic at the neighbouring Smithfield Tavern with intimate solo sets from Jo Rose, Melanie Kate Lancaster prodigy Molly Warburton. Expect especially installed beers too from Blackjack, Cloudwater, First Chop, Marble, Runaway, Shindigger, Squawk and Track among others. Booking advised.
Fri 23 Jun – Sun 2 Jul, various venues and times, www.mcrbeerweek.co.uk
- Words:
- Wire Editor
- Published on:
- Mon 26 Jun 2017
