Stockport & South Manchester Branch of CAMRA is yet again running a competition for local home brewers, to find five beers for Bar Nouveau for next year's Stockport Beer & Cider Festival.

Judging in progress - some contenders Bar Nouveau was introduced in 2015 and features brand new beers which will be launched at the festival. It's proved to be a very successful feature and we will be running it again next year (the Festival dates are 19-21 June 2025). There will be up to ten beers, the five winners of this competition plus five commercial brews, all served on a separate bar and properly cooled to ensure optimum condition.

judging in progress - some judges For the past few years we have involved local home brewers and have been delighted by the response. As in past years, each of the five winners will have their beer brewed by a different local, professional brewery. The festival will purchase two firkins of each winning beer and the rest will be sold on to the market by the brewers concerned. If you are a home brewer, this is a great chance to join in a brew day at a local brewery, and also see one of your beers out there on sale to the public.

The brewers who have kindly agreed to host the winners are:

• Steelfish, Manchester (Mild & Brown Ale)
• Marble Beers, Salford (Bitter, Pale Ale & Session IPA)
• Sureshot Brewing, Manchester (Strong Pale Ale, ESB & IPA)
• Torrside Brewing, New Mills (Stout & Porter)
• Runaway Brewery, Stockport (Speciality)

Many thanks to these brewers for supporting the competition.

NOW - THE BEERS

The five categories are quite broadly drawn so that you can use your imagination. Here's what we are looking for:

Mild & Brown Ale — This is a chance to take old beer styles and run with them. Maximum ABV 5.5%.

Bitter, Pale Ale & Session IPA — Session ales, pale ales, brown, amber or blonde - the choice is yours. Maximum ABV 5.0%.

Strong Pale Ale, ESB & IPA — While we're not style fanatics you should aim for a minimum ABV of 5.0%. Apart from that it's up to you - brown, red, black or white IPAs are all welcome. Maximum ABV 6.5%.

Stout & Porter — Again this is broadly drawn - added flavours and ingredients optional. Maximum ABV 6.5%.

Speciality — This is where you can really go to town. Saisons, bocks, rauch biers - all are welcome. Note - all beers with lactose will fall in this category. Maximum ABV 7.0%.

A FEW THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND:

First - Although the beers will be judged from bottle, they will have to work as cask beers.

Second - In previous years we have asked people to think about the hops and while that's not really an issue, please do consider commerciality. We will be buying some of each brew for the festival but the host brewers will have to sell the rest into the trade so the beers will have to be commercially viable for them.

Third - Please also note that we will be looking to ensure the entries observe the ABV limits for each category - a tiny amount of drift is OK but not huge overshoots.

Finally - The time lapse between the brewing of the beer and its need to be on sale at the Stockport Beer & Cider Festival is no more than 6 weeks, so inclusion of a maturation period of say 6 months is not possible.

How to enter

Just email your name, contact details and which categories you want to enter to: moc.tenretnitb@macots

The cut-off date for entering is 12 January 2025 (but we won't need final details of actual beers until early February).

Judging will take place in late March to early April 2025 (dates to be announced). Final arrangements for delivering your beer will be communicated to you nearer the time.

Winners Win!

Will Shaddock & Adam Pierce As we reported in a previous issues of Opening Times, this year’s competition was rather dominated by Levenshulme Homebrew Club, whose members won four out of five categories. Not only that, but three of those beers went on to win Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Beer of the Festival competition.

Mike Cunliffe & Enda Bradley They, and the host brewers, received certificates to mark their achievements. First to be presented was the Silver Award, which went to Will Shaddock and Adam Pierce, whose Imperial Dark Hemptress was brewed at Torrside. They are pictured here with Torrside’s Nick and Sarah Rothko-Wright.

Martin Parsons & George Lee + Cyril The Gold and Bronze awards were presented on the same night at an event held at Station Hop in Levenshulme, which is run by Blackjack, brewers of Gold Award winner Nice One Cyril, and also happens to be the HQ of Levenshulme Homebrew Club.

Bronze first, and this was won by Mike Cunliffe and Enda Bradley, who brewed their King of the Mild Frontier at Steelfish. They are seen alongside Steelfish’s Simon Goodier (right).

In the bottom photo, getting their Gold Award for Nice One Cyril, are Martin Parsons and George Lee (holding Cyril!) and Blackjack’s John Seath (right).