Beer Compurgation

How one picture shows how far Beer Events have come within my own beer corner in eleven years.  Whilst recently clearing out some stuff my mother happened upon the above newspaper cutting from Thursday 8th September 2005. As with all such memorabilia it shows a frozen moment in time and one that instantly spawned the words of this post.  What we are looking at is an image from the 14th annual Saddleworth Beer Festival as reported on by the Oldham Advertiser. To shed further light on the information already given the top row (left to right) consists of my father, my brother and long-time friend Wes. The bottom row (left to right) holds my adoptive-Uncle Simon, real Uncle David and Aunt Marie. Here are my family in the local paper enjoying a beer festival eleven years ago.  A further caveat is that this was one of three consecutive years that my family group, with a few additions on top of this in other years, made the main picture to coincide with this occasion’s arti

Loyalty is often blind. I still remember the moment I was stood in Beermoth beer shop (in the centre of Manchester) and picked up bottles of Pale Ale and Dubbel from a brewery I'd not previously seen. Those spiral tickets around the bottle were eye-catching to me. “They are a new brewery from Stockport,” I was told and I had no reason to believe otherwise. But further inspection after the beers were drunk revealed a Waterloo Court address on the label – an address all too familiar to me. It isn't in Stockport at all. It's an address in the famous Manchester suburban town of Stalybridge . Not only is Stalybridge the town I was born and raised in. Not only is it a town home to my much loved favourite pub that has given me so much . But it is home to the railway arches come industrial units of Waterloo Court where I was once given a stable job after months of unemployed and self-employed torture and uncertainty. That business moved on from the four ra

On Sunday morning, the social media network was awash with personnel describing their morning spent, sat in wellington boots, short-shorts and oversized sunglasses, constantly refreshing their screens in the hope of sealing a metaphorical golden ticket. Some announced their success later on; others were to spend the rest of their weekend lamenting missing out. These kids and their FOMO. Whilst the mad rush for Glastonbury tickets was beginning, I was pushing my better half’s cat off my chest, cricking my neck due to a night asleep on the sofa and searching for coffee amongst any memory of the previous night. The alacrity for “Glasto” tickets is alien to me. Overpriced. Overhyped. Oversubscribed. With similar events existing instead with more accessible tickets. I poured coffee and was joined for a morning brew with a discerning scowl. As I pondered what drunken nonsense may have slipped from my mouth the previous evening to put me in trouble, I had to consider whet

Snap from IMBC 2012 - when my picture taking was particularly poor The nights roll in and the wind turns colder to remind us that it is time for the most important beer event month on the calendar. Its time to willingly spend your weekend inside a grade-II listed bath house. The Independent Manchester Beer Convention enters its fifth year and continues its proud march to establish itself as the beer event's Glastonbury. Tickets are scarce and people are willing to travel.  As I've been every year I consider myself to be Indy Man's most valued patron (not yet verified by the organisers.) It seems everyone I know and love on social media has a ticket or has at least fought for one, so I have drawn up a quick guide in the form of a 'Dos and Don'ts' list for first time attendees and returning visitors alike. Follow this simple guide to make your Indy Man Beer Con 2016 the highlight of your year.  DO - eat a hearty breakfast in Manchester.  Don