The annual Chorlton Beer & Cider Festival returns from 3 to 5 July, marking two decades of fundraising. Back in 2005, St Clement’s Church on Edge Lane was in desperate need of modernisation to improve safety and accessibility as a Grade II-listed building. The small beer festival they organised, featuring just 25 beers, mostly from local breweries, would lay the foundations for an event that has gone on to welcome over 40,000 visitors over the intervening 20 years.
This year, organisers have gone back through the archives to find the breweries who supplied that first festival. Sadly, some are no longer trading, but seven breweries who are still making beer have been invited back to supply the event – with five of them even supplying the same beers. Both the beers that Rochdale’s Pictish Brewing Company supplied in 2005, Alchemist Ale and Brewers’ Gold, will be flowing again at the festival, alongside True Grit from Millstone of Mossley; Wobbly Bob from Heywood’s Phoenix Brewery; Landslide from North Wales’ Facer’s Brewery and even Chimera IPA from Downton in Wiltshire.
The festival has helped see St Clement’s buildings totally transformed into an accessible community hub that offers three community spaces available for hire, hosting over 30 regular weekly classes and groups, and providing space for Chorlton and Didsbury Foodbank and Face to Face Community Counselling.
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