Need help setting up a work beer tasting night

[thedeckking]

Hi Guys. I thought someone on here might be able to help. I work for a chain of shops and last year there was a night out where the store managers all went to a wine tasing session. The guy running the course hired a meeting room in a hotel and brought along a selection of around 12 wines for everyone to try. He also gave a little talk about each one. I'm trying to convince my boss that it will be a good idea to do a similar thing this year but with beer rather than wine.
So here's the brief:
1) We need someone who knows about beer, or maybe has a conection with a brewery/ small brewers.
2) He/she will need to hire a venue and plan an evening for us. Probably a Friday or Saturday.
3) There'll be 12-15 people coming with a budget of around £20-30 per person.
4) We're based around the Manchester area, so somewhere in the city would be ideal, preferable with accomodation near by too.
That's about it. Can anyone help????

[WishboneBrewery]

You have some great brewers around Manchester... I'll post this thread on Twitter.

Marble Brewery
Quantum Brewery
RedWillow Brewery (Started out as a Homebrewer on here)

thats to name a few...

[pas8280]

The Port Street Brew house is a fantastic real ale pub in town with some fantastic beers from all over the place, they also do meet the brewer evenings with top local brewers.
Perhaps you could contact them see what they could do for you.
If you google them you will see what I mean about the beers they stock which is constantly changing.
Also being in the middle if town you have plenty of choice regards accommodation
Paul

[pas8280]

Another thought would be a brewery tour, I dont think there are any breweries in town persay except Marble but there are plenty in surrounding areas. I can only give my views on ones local to me but an obvious choice would be Allgates in Wigan so 20 min train ride from Manchester Vic to Wigan Wallgate 5 min walk to the brewery. They do a decent tour of the brewery by knowledgable brewers then a couple of hours at the bar pulling your own pints, then it's a pie and peas supper at thier brewery tap The Anvil pub all for £15 a head.
You could still all be back on the last train to Manchester in plenty of time

[thedeckking]

Thanks for the help so far guys. That's given me a few leads to follow up.