The highly-anticipated Manchester Craft Beer Festival has officially unveiled its summer lineup – with dozens of breweries pouring over a hundred varieties all weekend long.
From fruity sours to triple hopped IPAs, rich stouts and aromatic pale ales, the Manchester Craft Beer Festival is promising a heady selection, to say the least.
Bringing together homegrown brewers like Pomona Island and Track with those from further afield, the event will showcase beers from roughly 50 different breweries across two days later this July.
Even better, the ticket price includes FIVE hours of unlimited beer.
Who could say no to that?
Some cracking food will also be served at the festival to soak up the beer / Image: Manchester Craft Beer Festival
There’ll be some cracking food on offer here too to soak up all that beer, ranging from delicate and innovative fine dining plates to big, fat LA-style beef burgers and dripping, saucy tacos.
Lorcan Kan of Things Palace, formerly Where The Light Gets In, will also team up with the Higher Ground team (formerly of NOMA, WTLGI, Relae etc) to produce a selection of innovative new dishes.
Meanwhile, Madre, the home of upscaled, ingredient-driven tacos in Liverpool, will partner on a menu with AngloThai – leaving us to expect some solid Asian-inspired tacos to be coming out of the kitchen here.
Liverpool’s Belzan Pasta Kitchen will be pulling up, serving their classic pasta dishes, whilst long-standing Freight Island resident Patty Queen will be there as always slinging its LA-inspired menu of burgers, shakes and fries to the boozy masses.
Elsewhere, Manchester newcomer Green Lights has collaborated with Kantina’s in-house residents Plant Grill to create the perfect plant-based burger for vegans and flexitarians. This will be served alongside their usual menu offering.
Beers will be free flowing at the festival, with all drinks included in your ticket / Image: Manchester Craft Beer Festival
Entertainment across the weekend will come from big names including funk and soul king Craig Charles, Daddy G of Massive Attack, Django Django and Bristol’s legendary Wild Bunch Sound System – all of whom will be taking to the decks to spin their top selections.
Tickets are priced at £49.50 and guarantee guests entry to a five-hour session on the Friday or Saturday.
Passes also include all of your beer, access to all areas, and a special festival beer glass to take home.
Food must be purchased separately.
Taking place at Mayfield Depot on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 July, you can grab tickets for Manchester Craft Beer Festival online here.
There’s an exciting array of food up for grabs at the upcoming event / Image: Image: Manchester Craft Beer Festival
The full list of breweries confirmed to appear at Manchester Craft Beer Festival:
Alpha Delta (Raise the Bar winner) / Attic Brew Co. (Raise the Bar Winner) / Amundsen Dessert Bar (NOR) /Barrier Brewing Co. (USA) / Beak Brewery (Raise the Bar winner) / Beatnikz Republic / Blackjack Brewery / BOXCAR / Braybrooke Beer Co. / Brew York / Brixton Brewery / Brouwerij Frontaal (NL) / Brouwerij Kees (NL) / Budvar / Bullhouse Brewery (Raise the bar winner) / Bundobust Beers / Burnt Mill / Campervan Brewery / Dark Star / DEYA / Donzoko / Duration Brewery / Equilibrium (USA) / Full Circle Brew Co. / Gipsy Hill Brewing Company / Grimm Artisanal Ales (USA) / KCBC (USA) / The Kernel / LERVIG (NOR) / Lost and Grounded / Manchester Union Brewery / Marble Brewery / Mikkeller (DEN) / Neon Raptor / Neptune Brewery / Newbarns / Newtown Park (Raise the Bar winner) / North Brewing Co. / Northern Monk Brew Co. / Pastore Brewing (Raise the Bar winner) / Polly’s Brew Co. / Pomona Island Brew Co. / Salt Beer Factory / Signature Brew / Siren Craft Brew / Stone & Wood / Thornbridge / Tiny Rebel / Track Brewing / Two Tribes Brewing / Vault City / Verdant / Vocation / Wild Beer Co. / Wiper and True / Zapato Brewing
Feature image – Manchester Craft Beer Festival.
Food & Drink
Nostalgic ready-to-drink Breezer makes UK return after a decade
Daisy Jackson
An iconic ready-to-drink favourite has launched back into the UK – oh yes, Breezer is back.
First launched in the 1990s, Breezers – then pitched as an ‘alcopop’ – were a staple on dancefloors and at barbecues right across the UK.
And now Bacardi has decided to bring these delicious, fruity, easy-drinking bottles back to British shores.
There are three new flavours to try as Breezers return to your fridges – Zesty Orange, Zingy Lime, and Crisp Watermelon.
And Breezer launched back into Manchester last night with a suitably memorable party, turning a spot in the Northern Quarter into a corner shop.
The ‘local Cornerbop’ was stacked with your usual essentials, plus shelf after shelf of these colourful glass ready-to-drink bottles.
Inside the Breezer ‘Cornerbop’ corner shop in ManchesterBreezer is back, in three new flavours
The Breezer relaunch party saw Tarsza and Rennie Peters spinning nostalgic anthems with a modern twist at a pop-up party in a corner shop.
Steve Young, business unit director for Bacardi in the UK & Ireland, said: “We know there is a lot of love for Breezer in the UK, and we are confident a new generation of consumers will fall in love with the new Breezer.
“RTDs are booming, however, the Flavoured Alcoholic Beverages category could do with a bit more excitement. By bringing back Breezer we’re definitely putting the fruity taste into FAB.”
The iconic ready-to-drink classic is back – and better than ever.
£1.8m revamp of Ancoats pub The Shamrock is FINALLY set to begin
Daisy Jackson
At long last, work to revamp The Shamrock pub in Ancoats is about to begin – and they’re calling on locals to rename the historic boozer.
The Shamrock, on Bengal Street, was taken over by Joseph Holt brewery in 2019 but has been firmly sealed shut ever since, with the pandemic halting its revamp.
But now the family-owned brewery is ready to get to work on the pub, with a £1.8m revamp kicking off very soon.
The Shamrock, which dates back to 1808, will be transformed from an Irish pub into a Joseph Holt’s venue.
Back in the turn of the 19th century, it was a popular watering hole for the Irish and Italian communities who moved to the industrial neighbourhood.
Obviously, Ancoats has gone through some pretty major changes in the years since, and is now one of the city’s trendiest and foodiest suburbs, filled with flats, bars, coffee shops and more.
It’s because of this that the Joseph Holt team felt like The Shamrock was due a new name for its new chapter, and are asking the public to help rename the pub, with a shortlist of five names drawn up.
The options on the table for when the pub reopens include The Victoria Arms (as a nod to the flats and accommodation across the road); The Fleet (the name of a former neighbouring pub); and The Linen Arms, reflecting the city’s cotton trade.
The historic Ancoats pub The Shamrock will finally undergo a £1.8m revamp. Credit: Supplied
The other choices for the public to vote on are The Spinners Rest, after the mill workers who lived in historic Ancoats; and Queen Adelaide, after another former pub around the corner on the main Ancoats Road.
Richard Kershaw, CEO of Joseph Holt, said: “As a family business with deep roots in the area, our pubs are very much at the very heart of the communities where they are located.
“With the moving forward of long-awaited refurbishment of The Shamrock – and with it a new name – we wanted our customers to feel part of the journey.
“So we brainstormed names for the pub that would respect the past and the local area while also looking to the future. Now we’re letting the people who matter most to us, our customers, decide which one to use.”
You can place your vote on the new name for The Shamrock pub HERE. One participant who picks the winning name will receive free drinks vouchers.
Georgina Pellant -
15th June 2021 
