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
This sounds great. Would've loved to have come but am out of the country!
ReplyDeleteI do think this is a little geared towards keg though as that's what beavertown are experts at and these beers suit the dispense. Still, great beers either way.
It may seem that way Neil but the whole concept for this event was to approach a brewery that concentrate on keg beer and give them a challenge of presenting their beers in Cask. When Duke's Brew and Que first opened there was always Beavertown on cask which sadly dwindled although it looks like it's making a comeback. I had Smog Rocket on cask recently and it was GLORIUS - I'm excited to see what qualities cask conditioning will bring out in these beers, especially Gamma Ray! Hopefully it will demonstrate how relevant and great cask conditioned beer still is, even for new wave breweries.
DeleteYeah I totally get that, and sounds great. But this is my point really: "approach a brewery that concentrate on keg beer and give them a challenge of presenting their beers in Cask" - you could have done it the other way round. Approach a brewery which concentrate on cask and challenge them to present beers on keg. Also, beers such as porter, which as you mention are generally better on cask.
ReplyDeleteI think Gamma will be great on cask but not sure about black betty, I could see the roasted elements coming out more on cask and it veering more towards hoppy porter, whereas on keg it will taste black IPA as the hops are pronounced and the malt subdued. It's a question of what youre after from the beer.
Have fun mate!
I could of - but how many cask only breweries have the correct equipment to produce kegged beer? I'd wager it's few to none.
DeleteI'm excited to find out which ones work and how cask presentation changes them, I'll be providing a full report of course!
Yes, it's worth remembering that Beavertown started off in the cask game. Indeed in the early days all i drank was cask Neck Oil. However, things have moved on and a lot of people will never have had their stuff on cask. Sounds a good night that I would have loved to attend but sadly it clashes with an event closer to home.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame Tyson, I'll be sure to write a post about how it went and how the beers tasted!
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ReplyDelete