Indy Man Beer Con teams up with local brewery JW Lees to create collaboration beer

Manchester beer festival, Independent Manchester Beer Convention (IndyManBeerCon or IMBC) and 200 year old Middleton based brewer JW Lees have joined forces to produce a "beer to start conversations" ahead of this year’s festival.

Returning after a two year hiatus, the event aims to start a conversation about sustainability in beer when the industry is facing multiple challenges from climate change and inflation to water shortages and demographic shifts.

IMBC and JW Lees will explore how you might brew beer with a lower carbon footprint, which helps the brewer run a successful business, delivers a beer which the craft beer drinker loves, but which doesn’t break the bank. Beer brewed and drunk locally, with more locally sourced ingredients could be part of the answer.

In planning for this year's festival, the team behind IMBC felt it was the time to celebrate British brewers, and mark the progress made by domestic hop growers in making a beer that uses classic techniques to create something modern, exciting, and sustainable in every sense of the word.

Matt Gorecki, head of beer at the festival said: “We all love American Hops and we have for years, but we can’t ignore what people like Brookhouse are doing right here on the doorstep. They’re growing some mega stuff! When we first spoke to JW Lees and heard Michael’s story about working with the same farmers and fields as his grandfather, we just felt that we could bring together the best of both worlds.”

Over nearly 200 years, JW Lees brewery has enjoyed stable growth in the communities around the brewery and across Greater Manchester. By focusing on pubs and bars within the footprint of its own pub estate and managing deliveries of returnable containers, the business has proven to be sustainable.

Michael Lees-Jones, head brewer, added: “We are experienced in adapting as the world changes around us. To stay relevant and to keep pouring beer for the next 200 years we need to remain curious and to experiment with different ideas. We think it is great that the IMBC team are asking questions about sustainability in beer as we consider how we can be a more sustainable brewery.”

The beer, named ‘Hops are Green’, is an Extra Special Bitter. Typically, a malt forward brew using English yeast and firm but not over the top hopping, it will be finished using freshly harvested green hops from the forward thinking hop growers at Brookhouse.

Green or ‘Wet’ Hops are an ingredient with a lower carbon footprint due to their lack of time in an energy intensive kiln, where hops are usually cured to preserve and intensify their flavour. The beer is the first in a series of beers produced with sustainability in mind, with Cheltenham-based Deya Brewery picking up the baton to create the next product following the festival. Any brewery wishing to get involved can contact the IMBC team through their social media channels.

Started by Jonny Heyes, founder of Common & Co (Common, the Beagle, Nell’s Pizza, Summer Beer Thing) in 2012, the first IMBC was hosted at Victoria Baths, using just two of the rooms and hosting just under 20 breweries. Fast forward 11 years and every nook and cranny of the landmark building is used to demonstrate over 60 breweries. From the main ‘stages’ in the old swimming pools to tasting areas and snug bars in the Turkish Baths, the breweries will pour a selection of their beers to thousands of beer lovers and converts alike.

Tickets are available at www.indymanbeercon.co.uk/tickets/