Manchester’s only city-wide beer festival returns this summer, promising a packed 10-day calendar of events designed to celebrate the best of beer and pub culture.
Now entering its third year, Manchester Beer Week will run from Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 8, featuring breweries, pubs, bars, restaurants and retailers across Greater Manchester.
Last year’s event built on the success of the festival’s inaugural run, including 102 different events at 85 venues. Highlights included a huge brewery open day – when 11 city centre breweries opened their doors to the public – an all-day showcase of beer and music at Band on the Wall, and two successful beer festivals.
A series of innovative and exciting one-off beers were also created especially for the festival, which included six unique collaborations between brewers and food producers. The results of this experiment included a langoustine and pineapple sour, a white stout infused with coffee and chocolate, and an apricot and basil IPA created using waste ingredients.
This year’s festival will see a similarly exciting range of new beers created to delight drinkers’ tastebuds, and will include a variety of tastings, talks, walking tours and beer-focused meals across its 10-day run.
“It’s incredible to see how far Manchester Beer Week has come in just two years and we are really excited about the potential this year’s festival has to continue building awareness about good beer and outstanding independent producers,” said festival organiser Connor Murphy.
“Manchester has a beer scene like no other and we absolutely guarantee that breweries and venues across the region will once more pull out all the stops to put on a series of unusual and exciting events that simply cannot be missed.
“But we also feel there is still much more work to be done to expand independent brewing’s footprint, particularly in the restaurant trade and we are keen to work with more food-led venues to showcase the power beer has to dazzle when paired with great food.”
Last year’s festival also succeeded in giving something back to the community, as £2,000 was donated to homelessness support network Street Support, and this focus on charity will feature prominently in 2018.
“Manchester Beer Week doesn’t exist in isolation and it is important to us that we acknowledge the social context within this city,” added Murphy. “Homelessness is a big problem that Manchester must get to grips with and we ant to do everything we can to support the efforts of organisations such as Street Support.”
More information on the festival can be found at www.mcrbeerweek.co.uk or by following @mcrbeerweek on Twitter.