Great Northern Beer Festival Preview
We’re still in the midst of our strong beer protest month at the moment – but we’re going to waver very slightly for the next few paragraphs. This week sees the SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival take place in Manchester, and we’ll be there on Thursday and Friday – doing some judging, and drinking some beer. With that in mind, a session-strength preview post is needed to look at some of the good – not to mention new – things on offer.
Being a SIBA festival (run in association with Greater Manchester CAMRA) the majority of beers on offer will be well below the raised duty threshold. Having said that, the comprehensive beer list does include three entries over 7.5% – Cumbrian Croglin Vampire and Hardknott Queboid (both 8.0%), and Stringers Mutiny (9.3%) – we’ve sampled the Hardknott beer before, but will definitely try the other two if they appear during our time there.
We frequently bang on about festivals being a great chance to try something new – and this one does that in spades, being far from our tartan-decked homelands in the frozen north.* Having our hop-honed noses close to the grapevine (hopvine, surely) breweries such as Hawkshead, York, Daleside, Marble, Coniston and Dent have all featured on our BeerCasts at one time or another. But in a festival setting such as this, each will be bringing several of their range to try – e.g. Hawkshead NZPA (6.0%) and Coniston Infinity IPA (6.0%) – two must-try beers.
For me – and it may be the bloggerati gene talking here – it’s always the ultra-rare that jump off the beer list. Things from producers I’ve never heard of. In the same way as visitors from far afield to the Scottish Real Ale Festival head straight for something like Tin Pot Mango Pot (something even I’ve yet to experience), I’ll be after the likes of Hopstar Smokey Joe’s Black Beer (4%) and Milltown Slubber’s Gold (4.2%). Producers who bring only one beer – such as Old Bear Great Bear (3.9%) – are also compulsory in my book.
Other things I’m looking forward to include the beers from RedWillow and Offbeat breweries. The former have been winning rave reviews since ex-homebrewer Toby McKenzie took that brave step into production last year. The chipotle-infused Smokless (5.7%) sounds fantastic, as does his big IPA Ageless (7.2%). Offbeat were also founded in 2010, by Michelle Kelsall – who previously produced the wonderful Windie Goat beers in Ayrshire. Now re-branded in Crewe, hopefully they are just as good.
So plenty of things to look forward to – the festival takes place at the Ramada Picadilly in Manchester. Doors open at 4pm on Thursday the 27th, running until 10:30pm. It then opens 12pm-10:30pm Friday and Saturday. Entry is £3, which includes a £1 deposit on a tasting glass. We’ll be there on Thursday helping out with the SIBA judging, then all day Friday – including a special appearance with my bitter-loving father. Check back for reports on what happened just into the start of November. If you see me, come and say hi. Cheers!
*Even if I was born 35 miles from Manchester. As my dear old Nanna used to say – “Are you a Scotchman yet, Richie?”
