The small but perfectly formed Boutique Bar Show is coming back to Manchester Town Hall on April 3rd.
The North’s best bar trade show is rolling back into Manchester next month, bringing with it some cracking competitions, speakers and, of course, brands. You can register for your free ticket by clicking here, and listed below are some of the things you can expect to see at the show.
Competition Stage
- 10:30am – 12:30pm – Gin Mare Mediterranean Inspiration Competition
The North of England’s finest bartenders will compete for the ultimate Ibiza trip to battle it out to be the UK’s finest and ultimately take on the rest of the world to take the top title. Someone from the Manchester heat will be on a plane to Ibiza in September so get your entry in here.
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm – Purity Vodka Competition
With this year marking the Diamond Jubilee, Purity vodka invite you to create the ultimate Jubilee Martini. Keep the essence of Purity Vodka as pure as possible and you could be in with a chance of winning a trip to the distillery, a feature on BarLifeUK and bragging rights with the Queen. To enter, send your cocktail to editorial@barlifeuk.com
- 3:30pm – 5:30pm – Inter-city Tiki Speed Competition
Who is the Quickest in the North? Which city will take this year’s crown to laud over the others for the next 12 months? Teams from Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Chester and Nottingham will fight it out in a 6 drink, relay, speed round to make some of the most famous rum drinks using some of the finest rums on the market. It will be loud, it will be messy and it will be quick.
Seminar Room
- 9:30am – 11:30am – Blend Your Own Rum with Banks 5 Island Rum
This invite-only event is a unique opportunity to blend your own rum using the 4 navy rum rums found in Banks 5 Island Rum. James Triffo from Banks will be joined by Mal Evans to talk you through the blending process in general with a specific look at the Banks methodology before giving you the tools, and most importantly the rum, to blend your own. Once blended the rum will be laid down for a month before James and BarLifeUK return to Manchester to open up and run a tasting session. To apply for a ticket to this invite only event email simon@barlifeuk.com.
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm – Jake Burger and Portobello Gin present The Ginstitute.
Join Jake for a whirlwind history of gin, followed by a deconstructed tasting of Portobello and its 9 distilled botanicals. The session will end with a quiz, the winner of which will be invited to visit the Ginstitute as Portobello Gin’s guest, where they will be able to blend their own bottle of gin.
- 1:30pm – 2:30pm –Barrel Aging Cocktails with Audrey Fort from G’Vine and Giuseppe Gallo from Martini
Over the last two years the Barrel Aging Cocktails trend has swept the bartending world from San Francisco to Tokyo and back again. Over the last 18 months G’Vine have been aging a series of gin cocktails and scientifically studying the aging process and the effects this has on the cocktails in the barrels.
Following sold out talks at Tales of the Cocktail and Bar Convent Berlin, Audrey will be bringing her latest creations and the research gathered from them to a UK show for the first time. She will be joined by Giuseppe who will be looking at the practical application of this trend and how best bars can benefit from it. To top it all off you will be able to try some of their greatest creations at the same time.
- 3:00pm – 4:00pm – 30 Cocktails That Changed The World (Bought to you by Buffalo Trace)
Join award-winning drinks historians Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller as they explore the history of mixed drinks and cocktails as it developed over five major periods from the 1500s through 2000s.
In their notoriously tongue-in-cheek style, these cocktail detectives unearth the mixing techniques, drink styles, appearance of new ingredients, tools, and service ware that were born:
- before the birth of the cocktail
- during the cocktail’s infancy
- during the American Golden Age of the cocktail
- during the European Golden Age of the cocktail
- and from the 1940s through today
This session will stimulate your creative juices and inspire you to explore the cocktail’s remarkable history in a new light in the bar and at home. (You’ll even bring home a few new recipes!)