19th June Manchester Homebrew Expo & Competition

Manchester Homebrew Expo

Manchester Homebrew Expo is coming on Sunday 19th June as part of Manchester Beer Week. Homebrewers from across the region are being invited to serve their wares direct to the public to dispel the myth that homebrew is cheap and nasty boring brown bitter, but is instead actually high quality and tasty and comes in a whole range of styles.

The Beer Nouveau Brewery Tap 75 North Western Street, Manchester will be given over to the brewers to dispense their beers in bottles, cask and keg. The doors will open on the event from noon until 5pm for members of the public who can chat with the people that have brewed the beers about them and home brewing in general.

The Beer List

The Setup

On arrival pickup your pint glass and printed beer list from the glasses bar then follow these simple steps:

• Pick the beer you want
• Drink/enjoy the beer
• Discuss the beer with the homebrewer
• On a feedback sheet rate the beer 0-10 and drop into the feedback box
• Rinse and repeat

Best in Show Competition

One of the beers will be crowned the best in show. This will be decided solely on the public feedback scores. The beer with the best average rating will earn the homebrewer bragging rights and hopefully a prize from UBREW (prize TBC).

Commercially Viable Brewing Competition

Some of the beers on the day will be eligible for the Commercially Viable Brewing Competition where entrants will be limited in what they can brew while aiming for the elusive “profit margins” on a great beer. Entrants will be given a sheet to fill in with their ingredients which will work out the cost of producing the beer commercially, and drinkers on the day will rate what they think of it. Between these two methods of judging, how much it costs to produce and how much people like it, we’ll be able to work out and announce the winner.

How limited are the ingredients? There are only 24 hops available on the spot market at the moment, and brewers will be limited to using these for the competition. They are:

• Atlas
• Bramling Cross
• Bravo
• Cascade
• Columbus
• Crystal
• Dana
• Dr Rudi
• Eureka
• First Gold
• Mittlefruh
• Hekules
• Lubelski
• Magnum
• Minstrel
• Mount Hood
• Northern Brewer
• Pacific Gem
• Pioneer
• Progress
• Sladek
• Sovereign
• Target
• Whitbred Goldings Variety (WGV)

The Commercially Viable Brewing Competition Prize

The winner of the competition will have the chance to brew their commercially viable recipe with Steve on the Beer Nouveau kit. The brewday will take place the following week and your beer will then sold at the Left Bank Beer Festival as well as other pubs and bars across Manchester. The Left Bank Beer Festival takes place between 28th July & 30th July and is being organised by the Central Manchester CAMRA Branch. They want to ensure us homebrewers are represented. So this is your chance to go commercial with one of your very own recipes.

Get Involved

If you’re a homebrewer and would like to serve your beers at the Expo, or take part in possibly the hardest brewing competition there is, then please get in touch at mancshomebrew@gmail.com. We’re looking for you to come along and serve your beers to members of the public and get first hand feedback from drinkers, they may not pick up on subtle technical faults, but they’re sure to tell you what they think!

Get brewing!