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New brews and new friends at #CBCF26

For our 20th festival, we’ve gone all out to revamp our beer range including welcoming twenty breweries who we’ve never poured before – ranging from Manchester microbreweries Big Trip and Coleys to craft beer heavyweights Deya & The Kernel.

RedWillow Toby @ Runaway Brewery

We’ve also got ourselves out on the road to make some new beers for you.

In early June, our Geordie John joined Rob from malt supplier Loughran Brewers Select at Poynton’s Neighbourhood Brew Co to make Saints, a beer celebrating the 50th anniversary of St Clement’s daughter church St Barnabas.

Loughran Rob was also on hand when our Mark joined Blackjack Beers at Neptune Brewery to brew Copal, an American Amber.

That was on the same day that John went to Stockport to brew the festival’s first ever collab lager – a cask lager – with RedWillow’s Toby and Runaway Brewery – find Mash Hopped Live Lager on the J P & Brimlow Church Bar.

The local pubs have also joined in with Alex from The Beer House joining John at Tom’s Tap & Brewhouse in Crewe to make hazy pale It’s Up To You, The Chorlton Tap brewing Four Banks at Salford’s Marble Beers and The Hillary Step team heading to Bakewell to brew Step Into The Light Wheat Pale at Thornbridge Brewery.

We sent the Chorlton Homebrewers group into Manchester city centre to have a go on the newly commissioned kit at Steelfish Brewing Co’s new Temperance Street brewery and tap room. There they brewed a new pale ale with Steelfish’s Ali – himself a former homebrewer. The resulting beer, a pale ale named Timothy Tiler will be available on the J P & Brimlow Church Cask Bar.

Rounding off our brewing adventures, our co-organiser Caz headed up to Rochdale to visit festival favourites Pictish Brewing Co, who have featured at the festival since 2005, to make Fenella’s Night Out named after the witchy nemesis of Chorlton The Happiness Dragon.

Not to miss out, the Reverend Ken did his own collaboration at Timperley’s Stubborn Mule Distilling  to make our very own festival gin Old Clem’s Temptation using blackberries from the Rectory garden, along with applies and a blend of herbs and spices. As well as being to enjoy Old Clem’s Temptation on the Vicar’s Gin Bar, we’ll also have bottles on sale to drink at home or give as gifts.

New breweries to #CBCF26

  • Amity
  • Anspach & Hobday
  • Balance Brewing & Blending
  • Bang The Elephant
  • Big Trip
  • Black Iris
  • Burton Bridge
  • Colbier
  • Coleys
  • Full Circle
  • Heritage Brewing Co
  • Kernel
  • Logan Beck
  • Neighbourhood
  • Radio City Beer Works
  • Silent
  • Skipton
  • Tartarus
  • Vault City
  • Weekend Project
  • Wilde Child

What is Indie Beer?

Independent beer is made by real people who truly care about the quality and flavour of the beer they are producing. By choosing independent beer you’re not only getting a great tasting pint, but supporting local businesses, protecting pubs, and making a more sustainable choice.

Here at Chorlton Beer & Cider Festival, we’ve been supporting and promoting independent brewers since 2005.

The INDIE BEER campaign was launched in 2024 by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) with the support of CAMRA. It seeks to highlight and champion which beers and brewers are genuinely independent – brewed in the UK by a company that is UK based, UK owned and not be under the control of or connected with any other brewery.

Sadly, many beers appearing on bars around the county which are marketed to appear as small independent ‘craft’ breweries aren’t independent at all either having been bought, or in some cases, simply invented by one of the handful of global beer companies who dominate the beer market in the UK with around 80% of the beer sold in pubs coming from just six global companies.

The campaign toolkit includes a brewery checker tool which allows people to quickly check any brewery to find out if it is genuinely independent or owned by a global beer company such as Heineken, Budweiser, Asahi or Molson Coors. Find the checker at indiebeer.uk

Is your beer independent?

Here’s just a few beers which you’ll see on the bars of your local giving the impression that you’re getting a choice of independent brewers when you’re really just getting more from the same global giants.

  • Bass – owned by Molson Coors, made by Carlsberg
  • Beavertown – owned by Heineken
  • Brixton – owned by Heineken
  • Camden – owned by AB InBev
  • Dark Star – owned by Asahi
  • Fullers – owned by Asahi
  • Madrí Excepcional – made by Molson Coors in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire
  • Meantime – owned by Asahi
  • Sharps – owned by Molson Coors
  • Shipyard – made under license by Carlsberg

Fifty for festival twenty

The 20th Chorlton Beer & Cider Festival 2026 will feature 136 beers in cask, keg, can and bottle from 50 different breweries.
With just under three weeks to go, we’re pleased to confirm the full list of breweries for #CBCF26.

  • Amity (Greengates, West Yorkshire)
  • Anspach & Hobday (London, Greater London)
  • Balance (Manchester, Greater Manchester)
  • Bang The Elephant (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
  • Bank Top (Bolton, Greater Manchester)
  • Big Trip (Manchester, Greater Manchester)
  • Brulo (Edinburgh)
  • Black Iris (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
  • BlackJack (Collyhurst, Manchester, Greater Manchester)
  • Brewsmith (Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester)
  • Brightside (Radcliffe, Greater Manchester)
  • Burton Bridge (Burton upon Trent, Derbyshire)
  • Cloudwater (Ancoats, Manchester, Greater Manchester)
  • Colbier (Liverpool, Merseyside)
  • Coleys (Salford, Greater Manchester)
  • Deya (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire)
  • Dunham Massey (Dunham Massey, Greater Manchester)
  • Elusive (Finchampstead, Berkshire)
  • Fell (Flookburgh, Cumbria)
  • Five Towns (Wakefield, West Yorkshire)
  • Full Circle (Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear)
  • Heritage Brewing Co (Burton upon Trent, Derbyshire)
  • Kiuchi Brewery (Naka, Japan)
  • Jump Ship Brewing (Pathhead, Midlothian)
  • Kernel (Bermondsey, Greater London)
  • Kirkstall Brewery (Leeds, West Yorkshire)
  • Logan Beck (Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria)
  • Lost Cause (Castleford, West Yorkshire)
  • Marble (Salford, Greater Manchester)
  • Neighbourhood (Poynton, East Cheshire)
  • Neptune (Liverpool, Merseyside)
  • Nirvana (London)
  • Pictish (Rochdale, Greater Manchester)
  • Radio City Beer Works (Chelmsford, Essex)
  • RedWillow (Macclesfield, Cheshire East)
  • Runaway (Stockport, Greater Manchester)
  • Shindigger (Lower Peover, Cheshire)
  • Silent (Buxton, Derbyshire)
  • Skipton (Skipton, North Yorkshire)
  • Steelfish (Ardwick, Greater Manchester)
  • Stubborn Mule (Timperley, Greater Manchester)
  • Tartarus (Leeds, West Yorkshire)
  • Thornbridge (Bakewell, Derbyshire)
  • Torrside (New Mills, Derbyshire)
  • Track (Ancoats, Manchester, Greater Manchester)
  • Tun (Chorlton (brewed Cockerham, Lancashire), )
  • Vault City (Edinburgh, Edinburgh)
  • Verdant (Falmouth, Cornwall)
  • Weekend Project (Lower Peover, Cheshire)
  • Wilde Child (Leeds, West Yorkshire)