August 7th-15th, 2015 - Cask is Important at The Duke's Head, Highgate (for London Beer City)

In the chaos that has ensued following Britain's Craft Beer Revolution, it feels as though cask beer has often played a supporting role to the rise of exceptional, flavour forward keg beer. It mustn't be forgotten though, that here in the UK, cask beer is important, like, really important. Here in Britain we can use this particular dispense method to showcase great beer like nowhere else in the world.

Highgate's The Duke's Head is renowned for a great pint of cask beer, thanks to the efforts of Tom Harrison (General Manager), Lottie Judge (Bar Manager) and their hard-working team. This was acknowledged in late 2014 when they bagged North London CAMRA's autumn 'Pub of the Season' award. For the duration of London Beer City, The Duke's Head will be hosting Cask Is Important, a showcase of cask beers from breweries that are at the cutting edge of the Craft Beer Revolution. This will encompass pale ales, bursting with zesty hop aromas to rich, dark stouts and pretty much everything in between.

This week long celebration of incredible cask beer will be co-curated by Beer Writer and self-proclaimed Craft Beer Evangelist Matt Curtis, who will be hosting several tutored tasting sessions throughout the week, in his typical enthusiastic and interactive style. Tickets to these tastings will be limited and priced at just £10 per person per session. Each session will have a slightly different twist, to keep up with the frenetic pace that London Beer City will bestow on the London beer scene.

Each session will also see the tapping of some very special beers. Matt and the team at The Duke’s Head will be collaborating with two of London’s best new breweries, Hammerton Brewery and Weird Beard Brew Co, to bring visitors to the pub beers that are both exciting and exclusive during London Beer City. Bermondsey’s Brew By Numbers, who usually only keg their beer, will be providing a very special cask and Hackney’s The Five Points will be adding a twist to one of their core beers. This week will also see the return of the mighty Beavertown who will be showcasing their Smog Rocket smoked porter in cask. In addition to these exciting and special beers The Duke’s Head will be showcasing the very best in modern cask beer from Siren Craft Brew, Magic Rock, Cloudwater, The Bristol Beer Factory, Moor, Waen, Uley and more, with eight cask beers on constant rotation all week.

The tutored tastings and special tappings will run as follows. Tickets are priced at £10, per person, per session and are on sale via Ticketsource or over the bar at The Duke’s Head.

Weds 12th August - 7pm-9pm - Cask Club: Replacing Matt’s monthly Bottle Club, especially for London Beer City is Cask Club. Ticket holders will get a third of all eight beers on Cask, including those tapped especially for this event, while Matt provides an interactive tutored tasting. SOLD OUT.

Fri 14th August – 8 ‘til Late – Cask Party: Friday night will see Matt take to the microphone and deliver a tasting session with a difference. Ticket holders will get to try eight thirds, including beers brewed exclusively for Cask is Important and party away til the early hours. The pub will have a late licence and The Duke’s Head resident DJ’s will be spinning an eclectic mix of tunes from Tamla Motown to Ska to Indie Classics and more. Tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/178061

Sat 15th August – 12pm-2pm – Saturday Matinee and Brunch: On Saturday come unwind with a very hungover Duke’s Head Team. Get a house Bloody Mary made with locally distilled Sacred Vodka and Rib Man ‘Holy Fuck’ hot sauce, a light brunch and a mellow tutored tasting of four thirds of exceptional cask beer. Matt has promised he’ll even provide a tutored tasting of the Bloody Mary. Tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/178063

If you're sick of tired, tepid, festival pints, or simply curious to remind yourself just how great cask beer can taste, then come and get the best pint of cask beer in North London and remind yourself exactly why Cask is Important. Cask lovers can rest assured that all beer will be served without a sparkler, just as nature intended. 

July 17th, 2015 - Peach Therapy Launch Party At Brewdog Shepherds Bush

Join Adrian Tierney-Jones, Jonny and Brad from The Craft Beer Channel and myself at 6pm on the 17th of July in Brewdog Shepherds Bush for the tapping of our Brewdog collaboration, Peach Therapy. Earlier this year, we four intrepid writers and videographers travelled to the Brewdog Mothership in Ellon, just outside of Aberdeen to create a beer of our choosing. The result of our collective head-cracking was a Belgian Tripel, slightly soured with a small percentage of acidulated malt before being fermented on both peaches and apricots. 

We're not simply going to tap the beer though, we're going to have a party and to celebrate the occasion Brewdog Shepherds Bush Manager, Dean Pugh, is allowing us to choose what beers grace the bars 'Forty Taps of Awesome.' We've been allocated ten taps each and I've chosen a selection of my local favourites plus some serious whalez, bro. We're incredibly excited to find out if our idea has worked, so why don't you join us on the 17th for what promises to be a night of top fun. The four of us, plus some of Brewdog's hardworking team will be there all night to answer your questions and maybe even I'll challenge you to a friendly game of beermat flipping. I warn you now, my personal best is 32.

If Facebook events are your bag then you can RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1571373059805505/

July 11th, 2015 - Bottle Club Heads To Hop Hideout, Sheffield

When I started hosting a monthly bottle club at The Duke's Head in Highgate I didn't imagine that in the months to come sought after tickets would be selling out in less than 10 minutes flat. Bottle Club has since become a highlight of my monthly calendar and I'm excited to announce that I'll to be taking the show on the road this July, when I bring the Club to Sheffield's Hop Hideout. 

The premise of Bottle Club is simple, tickets are £10 each and I spend all of your hard earned money on fantastic beer to share. At Hop Hideout I'll be curating a selection of bottles on the day from their extensive range. As well as guiding you on a tutored tasting I'll be talking about why I've selected each beer, perhaps it's a beer that's special to me or perhaps it's simply something I've wanted to try for ages.

Either way, there'll be great beer, plenty of chat and lots of audience participation, so come down and join us at Hop Hideout on the 11th of July. Tickets are just £10 each and are available either over the counter from Hop Hideout or on their website next to a giant picture of my face. I look forward to seeing you there and tasting some really good beers! 

Beavertown pit Cask Vs. Keg at The Dukes Head, Highgate

This event has now sold out 

Following on from two sold-out events, I'm continuing my residency at Highgate’s The Duke’s Head to bring you a cask vs. keg event with a difference. North London’s Beavertown Brewery has quickly established itself on the British beer scene since opening in 2011 but this reputation has been built on the back of exceptional keg and canned beers. Few now remember the brewery’s humble beginnings, where founder Logan Plant used to try and clone the legendary Bathams Bitter on a six-barrel brew kit in the kitchen of his restaurant, Duke’s Brew and Que. 

Beavertown’s modern, flavour forward beers are seldom seen on cask these days but all this is set to change at The Duke’s Head at 7.00pm on Friday the 20th of March. Three of Beavertown’s best known beers; Gamma Ray Pale Ale, Black Betty Black IPA and the highly sought after Bloody ‘Ell Blood Orange IPA will feature on both cask and keg in a no holds barred fight to the death. Only the best dispense method will emerge victorious, the other beaten and bloodied. 

On arrival you will receive a glass of Sacred ‘Hop Shot’, a 40% ‘reverse engineered beer’ from the Highgate based micro-distillery that’s sure to get you the mood for blood. Your host for the evening (that's me) will then guide you on a tutored tasting, with a half-pint of each beer from both methods of dispense being provided. Logan and the team from Beavertown will be on hand to talk about the history of each beer before you, the public, gets to vote, in secret, which dispense method you think best suits which beer. If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, current Duke’s Head kitchen residents Tiberi will be serving up a three courses of Catalonian style tapas, matched perfectly with each beer.  

This is not your typical, sit down, civilized beer event, this is war. Two dispense methods enter, only one leaves. In addition, The Duke’s Head has been granted a 3am license for this event as it’s guaranteed to be one hell of a party. There may well be other surprises in store on the night and I might wear a sparkly jacket, here's hoping I'll see you there.

Tickets are priced at £40 each and are available from Ticketsource here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/152598

Presenting: Bottle Club - At The Duke's Head, Highgate

Sign up to future Bottle Clubs - email bottleclub@thedukesheadhighgate.co.uk

On Wednesday the 4th of February a small group of beer enthusiasts gathered at The Duke's Head in Highgate Village to share a lot of very good beer. Previously I've run two sold out events at The Duke's, they were an absolute blast and there's more to come (more on this in a moment) but between the pub's Manager, Tom and myself we decided on doing something a little more intimate. 

We wanted to get together a group of people who loved beer as much as we did and to share beers that might not necessarily be available at the pub itself. We decided to keep the group to a size of ten, plus the two of us but we also wanted to create something that we could run monthly, that would stay fresh and interesting for those that choose to attend regularly. We sold ten tickets for the event at ten pounds each but the entirety of the ticket fee was to be spent on a selection of bottles curated by Tom and I. Guests were also welcome to bring bottles from their own collection, so there was certainly no fear of anyone going thirsty.

The two of us met at Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green one evening and dropped our cash on some of the best bottles they had in stock. We left with IPA, sours, stouts, gose, Belgian style quads and even a barrel-aged rauchbier. We were pretty confident with what we had in store for our guests but when they turned up with their Flanders reds, more sours and even some hallowed Westvleteren 8 we knew we were in for a great night. 

We whizzed through the beers, conversation becoming louder and more excited in time with each bottle being opened. Some even ordered pints to keep them going in between bottles, something to really gulp on between small sips of the beers being passed around. It was a genuine pleasure to try beers from Liverpool's Mad Hatter and Manchester's Chorlton Brewing Company for the very first time. I was mesmerised by the immaculate Cuvée De Ranke with its sour, lemony notes twisting my tongue and the Barrel Aged Old Rasputin from California's North Coast was up there with the best bourbon barrel-aged stouts I have ever tasted. It didn't stop there though, more bottles came out and when the bottles were empty we hit the taps for pint after pint of Beavertown Gamma Ray. Then we got into the Sacred Hop Shots, a 'reversed engineered beer' that's basically hop gin. It all went dark after that.

It was incredible - I urge you to get involved with the next one - it's going to be bigger and better. We're keeping the same sized, cosy group of ten but we're pleased to welcome special guests Fourpure Brewing Co. who will also be slinging a few of their great canned beers into the mix. This isn't going to be so much a meet the brewer as more of a sit down and get drunk with a brewer, so to speak. We're hoping to get more brewers and other special stuff like this happening as the months go on. 

Our next Bottle Club will be held on Wednesday the 4th of March and the ticket link will only be sent out to members of the mailing list. Please email bottleclub@thedukesheadhighgate.co.uk if you'd like to take part. We're making this a ticketed event in order to keep the size of the group small, if we get enough interest then we will hopefully look at a way of accommodating a larger group in the future. As this is a ticketed event we are unable to accommodate walk-ins, we just want to make sure there is enough beer to go around.

I'm also very excited to announce that The Duke's Head, myself and a very, very cool brewery have been working hard on preparing for our next event. Put Friday the 20th of March in your diaries right now because this is going to be one beer event you will not want to miss. For updates follow Duke's (@DukesHighgate) and myself (@totalcurtis) on twitter as we will be revealing more details very soon.

Here's hoping we'll see you at Bottle Club in the not too distant future!