The 8th Chorlton Beer and Cider Festival came through fears that the worst weather in its eight year history would keep the people of Chorlton away to end up selling more beer, cider and perry than ever before.

A full day of torrential rain meant that as the festival opened, parts of the grounds of St Clements Church were under several inches of water. A week of beer disturbing storms leading up to the festival had already meant the cellar team from Trafford& Hulme CAMRA used all their skills to get the 82 cask ales ready for serving and then volunteers from the church braved the elements to preparing the grounds for opening time.

The festival started with the judging of the North West Round of the Champion Specialty Beer Of Britain Competition with judges including John Leech MP and the appropriately named Reverend Ken Flood joining local publicans, journalists and trained beer tasters on the 9 man blind tasting panel. The 8 finalists in the competition selected by online vote of 16,000 CAMRA members across the North West included a cask conditioned Pilsner, beers made with honey, a German style Alt bier, ginger beers, cloudy wheat beers and a fruit flavoured mild.

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Chorlton's very own microbrewery is to help local churchgoers celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Church in Chorlton with an exclusive beer brewed especially for the occasion.

While the community of Chorlton can be traced back to the 9th century, until 1512 the local people had to travel four miles to St Mary's, the parish church of Manchester to attend church services. Then the prominent Barlow family took it upon themselves to establish a chapel as a centre of worship for the area. For the first time baptisms, weddings and funerals could be held in the local community.

The chapel was built near the present Chorlton Green in the half-timbered style which was popular at the time. The front of the nearby Horse & Jockey pub is in the same style and is also believed to date back to 1512. With the church and the pub linked by a shared location and history, the pub's own Bootleg Brewery has created the special beer which has been named Parish'D (D being the Roman Numeral for 500). The main celebrations of the 500th anniversary will see the modern St Clements hold a number of events around Chorlton in September, but the beer will be launched on 6th July as the 8th Chorlton Beer and Cider festival opens at St Clements Church.

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Listed below are the real ciders and perries ordered for Chorlton Beer & Cider Festival 2012 as of 24th June.

More will be added before the festival opens. We will have more ciders and perries than ever before. 

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Listed below are the cask ales ordered for Chorlton Beer & Cider Festival 2012.

There will be approximately 20% more beer available than in 2011 so we expect to maintain a good range through to Saturday evening.

Style guides and tasting notes will be available closer to the date of the festival – please check back later.

Except where indicated below, we will endeavour to have all beers available at opening, but we cannot guarantee that any particular beer will be available at any particular section.  

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