The 10-day city-wide festival will run from Friday 29 June until Sunday 8 July, and feature breweries, pubs, bars, restaurants and retailers from across the entire Greater Manchester area.
Last year’s festival included 102 different events at 85 venues across the city. Highlights included a collective 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.
Innovative collaborations
A series of innovative and one-off beers were also created exclusively 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 similar range of new beers created, and will include a variety of tastings, talks, walking tours and beer-focused meals across its 10-day run.
Speaking about the return of the festival, organiser Connor Murphy said: ““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.”
“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.
Homeless charity donation
Murphy added: “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 helped to raise £2,000 for homelessness support network Street Support, and the 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,” said Murphy. “Homelessness is a big problem that Manchester must get to grips with and we want to do everything we can to support the efforts of organisations such as Street Support.”
More information about the festival can be found at www.mcrbeerweek.co.uk or by following @mcrbeerweek on Twitter.