Rattlesnakes & Hillbillies - North London Pub Explorations

A bit of a North London pub crawl, including GBG pubs, brewpubs, taprooms and the inevitable visit to Wetherspoons.
Ultimately we were headed to Alexander Palace for some rock'n'roll from Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, but here's how the pub visitations panned out beforehand...

The Duke's Head (16 Highgate Street, Highgate, N6 5JG - web)
We started the afternoon by catching the Tube to Archway, then getting the days exercise by walking up Highgate Hill.
The first pub was, judged on the fact that I'd picked it from the Good Beer Guide, a bit of a disappointment.  Seven hand pumps - every single one of the cask ales off at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon.  I'd discovered this by trying to order an Almasty beer, so plumped instead for one of the same breweries pale ales from the keg list. 
"It's just the same," said the cheery staff member as she poured it.
No, it's not.  It's colder and - most distressingly - it's £1.50 more expensive.

Some wouldn't have forgiven the lack of cask ales, but to be fair the crafty keg selection was great in the Duke's Head.
And we also enjoyed some tasty Bangladeshi street food from the pop-up kitchen that was resident at the time of our visit.

Storm Dennis was beginning to make its presence felt, a buffeting wind blowing down the High Street and the rain getting heavier.  We braced ourselves against it, heading down the road towards the Bull.

The Bull (13 North Hill, Highgate, N6 4AB - web)
It's been many-a-year since I've been here, at which point it was home of one of the first wave of new breweries in the capital - the London Brewing Company.
Since 2016 the pub has been run by Gorgeous, who've updated the brewing kit adjacent to the back garden and brew as the Gorgeous Brewery.

This is every bit the gastro-pub, with little tiles on the tables telling you that Quentin will occupy this spot at 7pm, whilst staff stop by to ask us if we'd like to see the menu.
This was a quiet and uneventful pub visit, sitting by the window supping a pint of malty 'Gunpowder', which called itself an IPA but didn't resemble one by any of my definitions.

From the Bull, we hopped on a bus for the 5 minute ride to East Finchley.
Sensible folk would settle down for the afternoon, away from the rotten weather, in The Phoenix watching Oscar winning South Korean movies. 

Proper Cinema.

But rarely being called sensible, I was instead getting wet standing opposite a pub with a stag on the roof, trying to take a picture.

The Bald Faced Stag (69 High Road, East Finchley, N2 8AB - web)
Inside it's spacious, with a dining room to one side, front bar with a varied clientele and a slightly separate rear room which was being readied for a 40th birthday bash later on. 

This is a Greene King pub - big sigh and slump of shoulders - but the Beer Guide does promise guest ales from local breweries, and so there were.
The Redemption 'Big Chief' ran out mid-pour, so I had to settle for a red ale from Wimbledon Brewery which wasn't my favourite of the day.

Another short hop on a bus took us one step closer to Alexander Palace, as we alighted in Muswell Hill.
One of the highest parts of London, it serves up some cracking views...

Probably better in sunshine.

So, where to?
Ah, that'll do...

Muswell Hillbilly Taproom (13 Avenue Mews, Muswell Hill, N10 3NP - web)
Tucked down the mews that runs behind The Broadway, this is a tiny brewery tap room.  I almost missed it, veering towards the bright lights of the neighbouring Can't Buy Me Love vintage store.

"They said they were going to do cask but no-one has ever seen any." says What Pub, quite grumpily, I thought.
We didn't see any either, but were content with the five keg lines serving up two of their own beers and three local guests.
My first pick was the 5.9% ABV 'Fortis Green Breakfast Stout'.
Musical fact of the Day: Fortis Green is the 'Green' of The Kinks' 'Village Green Preservation Society', with Ray and Dave Davies having grown up in Muswell Hill.

We went on to try an interesting sour beer and a collaboration brew with Oddly Brewery - an orange and liquorice brown stout.

Let us all gather round the mystical glowing light .

We spent longer than expected in the Muswell Hillbilly Taproom, thoroughly enjoying it.
Apart from the complicated trek to the toilet.
You had to collect a key, then head along the mews to the last, unmarked blue door at the end of the block.  I over-shot it and was half-way to Wetherspoons, ambling along aimlessly in the rain brandishing a big toilet key.
Interesting WC artwork once you do eventually find it get shown where to go by a kindly gent.

Speaking of Wetherspoons, that was the last destination of our pre-gig pub crawl.

The Mossy Well (258 Muswell Hill Broadway, Muswell Hill, N10 3SH - web)
Going right back to 1900, this building was the Express Dairy Tearoom, with a milk depot at the rear, which explains the quirky milk churn poseur tables by the bar.
It's been a 'Spoons since 2015 and this evening was stupendously busy with only a stroke of luck scoring us a table on the mezzanine level.

A pint of Salopian 'Echoes of Symmetry' along with a slightly under-cooked pizza would sustain me for the rest of the evening.

After five very varied beer stops throughout the afternoon, we made it to Alexander Palace just in time for the first support band taking the stage.
No craft ale in Ally Pally, however they try to brand the Maltsmith's IPA.

"Never mind Storm Dennis, what about Storm Frank?" bellowed Frank Carter, obviously over-the-moon to be taking to the stage in the largest venue the band have headlined to date.
It's a bit different to when he came to Oxford, squeezed into the tiny Bullingdon. 
His short festival sets are pretty raucous affairs, but given more time he took the opportunity to explore some of the slower, more heartfelt moments, particularly from 2019 album 'End of Suffering'.
Time for me to stop writing now, before I enter into the territory of failing miserably to review gigs.
A fine day out, good bit of music and wearisome journey home...Cheers!