It’s been two very dry years, but at last the Independent Manchester Beer Convention (Indy Man Beer Con/IMBC) is coming back to Manchester.
Hailed as the city’s biggest and best celebration of craft beer, the festival will be bringing some of the world’s best breweries to Manchester’s Victoria Baths this October for a four-day knees-up.
Every year Indy Man Beer Con makes hundreds of beers available for ticket holders to sample, both from top brewers based in Manchester and across the globe, with various ticketed time slots spread across the weekend.
But thanks to various restrictions, it’s now been nearly three years since an event has been held, with two now missed due to the Covid pandemic.
In that time, the beer world has changed quite a lot. Thanks to lockdown, lots of talented brewers have split away to open up their own shops, and the general turmoil Covid has caused in hospitality has led even more in the bar world to break away and experiment with making their own beer.
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As a result, it looks like there could be some exciting new breweries tipped to exhibit at the celebrated beer festival this year.
Image: IMBC
First launched in Manchester in 2012, the festival has become somewhat of a mecca for northern beer lovers – with people travelling from far and wide to attend and sample all the different weird and wonderful beers on offer.
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This year’s focus on sustainability and environmental awareness of the impact of the brewing industry sees special, cross-Atlantic collaborative brewing and innovative approaches to recycling spent products.
How to get tickets to IMBC 2022
Taking place over four days from September 29th-October 2nd, tickets are priced between £14.50 and £19.and go on sale on Thursday 14 April via indymanbeercon.co.uk/tickets/
Early Bird tickets will be available, with both Port Street Beer House in the Northern Quarter, and The Beagle in Chorlton running pre-sale events on Wednesday 15 April between 6pm- 9pm.
To celebrate, the two venues will each be giving free treats out to those in attendance. Port Street will have slices of Nell’s NYC 22” pizza, while The Beagle will be cracking open mystery sharing bottles from past IMBC’s for some free tasters.
Feature image – IMBC
News
How will the Government’s new digital ID alternative for alcohol sales work?
Emily Sergeant
All licensed venues across England and Wales now have the choice to introduce digital proof of age for alcohol sales alongside physical.
Instead of having to hand over physical ID that contains personal information, such as names and home addresses, customers now have the choice to simply provide confirmation that they are 18 or over on their phone – helping to better protect privacy and personal safety in the process.
This means that, no matter whether you’re buying a drink at your favourite pub, heading to a festival, or enjoying a night out at a concert, you won’t need to worry if you’ve left your ID at home.
According to the Government, this new change will benefit businesses greatly too, as certified digital services are able to check that an ID is genuine and belongs to the person presenting it much easier than the alternative can, which therefore helps to reduce the risk of any fake or borrowed IDs going undetected.
Well, according to the Government, it could be as simple as a customer showing a QR code for staff to scan, or tapping their phone against a compatible reader, where staff will then receive a clear confirmation on their device that the customer has passed the age check.
This change follows a 2024 Government consultation where it was reported that 72% of respondents supported the use of digital identities for age verification when buying alcohol.
Digital Government Minister Stephanie Peacock reiterated that ‘it will remain an individual or business’ choice whether to use or adopt [digital ID]’ and that physical ID will ‘still remain a valid way’ for customers to prove their age.
“This groundbreaking change in the law will mean you do not need to carry a physical ID, nor hand over sensitive personal information such as your name or address just to prove your age, allowing everyone to feel safer on a night out,” she concluded.
Featured Image – Robin Worrall (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester to host G20 Summit in 2027 with more than a dozen world leaders descending on the city
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been confirmed as the host city for the G20 Summit next year.
It was already announced back in November last year that the G20 Summit would be coming to the UK in 2027, and plans were apparently already being discussed to host it in Manchester even before Andy Burnham became Prime Minister and Number 10 North was set up.
But now, ahead of this year’s leaders’ summit being held in Miami in December, it has been confirmed that the G20 Summit will arrive in Manchester in November 2027.
Manchester is said to have been picked to host the leaders’ summit because of its ‘cultural heritage’.
Bringing together 19 of the world’s largest economies and two major multilateral bodies – the European Union and the African union – G20 members who will be invited to attend the summit next year make up 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population as a whole.
Manchester has been confirmed to host the G20 Summit in 2027 / Credit: 10 Downing Street | Paul Kagame (Flickr)
G20 members are also some of the UK’s closest economic partners, the Government insists.
17 of the UK’s top 20 global export markets attend the summit, as do 18 of the UK’s top 20 sources of foreign direct investment.
The presidency of the G20 is currently held by the US but will pass to the UK after the leaders’ summit hosted by the president at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in December.
The 2027 summit will be held at Manchester Central, it has been confirmed, and other locations across the UK will also host other G20 events as part of the year-long presidency, but these are yet to be announced.
Georgina Pellant -
11th April 2022 
