Sometimes events come along that we just have to be involved with. They are the ones which we look at and think wow. Pick Me Up at Somerset House is one of those events.

Pick Me Up is an eleven day fair and festival of contemporary graphic art with illustrators, cartoonists, graphic novelists and graphic designers from around the world, who are setting up unique installations in Somerset House and running an inspiring programme of events. We heard about it through Jess Wilson, who’s done some great illustrations for us at the brewery, and then we were asked if we’d like to be involved and we had to say yes.

For us, it’s about endorsing and supporting great creative talent. Creativity is a big thing for us and we look at the work of the artists involved like we look at beer – the artists, galleries and collectives put on paper what we put into glass. Just flick through the work of those who’ll be there to see how exciting it all looks.

We also got to work with illustrator Phil Wrigglesworth, who has created a great rubber stamp which we’ll be inking cups with to serve our beer into.

Camden Town beer is available on draught for the duration of Pick Me Up via Fernandez & Wells. The fair runs from 22 March until 1 April and you can see more on Facebook and Twitter (#pickmeuplondon). You can watch live art, meet some of the great names of graphic art, see the emerging talent and take work home with you, all with a Hells Lager, complete with its own new artwork, in your hand.

Want to come and drink in the brewery bar? We’ll be open on Friday 23 March from 4pm-11pm.

This is just a one-off Friday as we’re still finishing the work on the bar for the official opening, which should be in the middle of April.

For this Friday we’ll have six Camden Town beers on tap (Hells Lager, Pale, Wheat, Ink, unfiltered Hells and USA Hells) plus three great guest beers – Odell IPA, SKA Modus Hoperandi and Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA. The brilliant Big Apple Hot Dogs are also back slinging their awesome sausages.

We’re running three brewery tours, all limited in number, so sign up fast. They are at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm. If you’d like to go on one then email mark@camdentownbrewery.com with the time and how many people. Tours are free, they’ll last around 30 minutes and we’ll give you beer on them (UPDATE: Tours are now fully booked).

We’re open from 4pm-11pm. Everyone is welcome. You can find directions here. Come on over for a few beers in the brewery!

Here’s the thing: we focus so much on getting the beer right that things like the website get forgotten… But now we’re on it.

Out goes the static old website and in comes something new. This is the blog, it’s the starting line. It’s basic to begin but we’re building a website around it with everything you want to know about Camden Town Brewery and all the latest news.

First: some background. The story properly starts in the 1960s. Patricia McLaughlin inherits a brewery and pub estate in her early twenties – it’s McLaughlin’s, or Mac’s, based in Rockhampton, Australia. Unable to manage the brewery she decides to sell it. One of Patricia’s children, Jasper Cuppaidge, moves to London, eventually opening a pub, the Horseshoe in Hampstead. For Patricia’s 50^th birthday Jasper recreates Mac’s beer in the cellar of the pub and continues brewing there until 2010. Then, moving up out of the cellar and into railway arches in Camden Town, the new brewery is born and we’ve been making beer here since.

Next: the cool stuff that’s happening in 2012. There’s going to be a public bar at the brewery. The building work is being finished right now. It’s going to open in April and we can’t wait – you can come over for a beer, come and buy bottles and take-away beer, have a look around the brewery and just hang out. We’re also changing the way we look – the old bottles are out and in are coming some incredible-looking new bottles (the design of the blog gives you a few teasers). And we’ve got a great list of exciting beers to come in 2012.

Now: you know where to come. You know that 2012 is going to be a great year for Camden Town Brewery. We’ll see you on the way for a beer.