Matthew Curtis

@totalcurtis.bsky.social

2861 Followers 810 Following

Freelance food & drink writer and photographer • founder @pelliclemag.com • columnist at The Mill, Ferment, What’s Brewing & lots more.📍Stockport More about me and my work: www.totalales.co.uk // www.pelliclemag.com

The Rutland arms, Sheffield
The snug inside the King Billy, Nottingham
Left to right: Peter “Tandleman” Alexander, John Keeling former brewing director at Fullers Brewery, and me, at the spinners rest, Ancoats
Prime Minister Andy Burnham drinking a pint of MacMullen’s AK mild in an Essex pub. Pic: Reuters
A neon sign with the queer brewing logo and a makeshift tombstone that reads: RIP Queer Brewing 2019-2026. Died as it lived, GAY
Wildfire smoke over greater Manchester backlit orange by the setting sun, several allotment plots are in the foreground
Silos outside Simpsons malt
The lighthouse in Southwold, Suffolk
Laureate barley ripening in a field, somewhere in Suffolk.
Vittles is the winner of the guild of food writers best food publication award!
A perfect pint of pilsner Urquell, served hladinka in an oversized pint mug
A bottle of Glen Scotia 7yo peated Ruby port finish and a Kilkerran 12 YO
Hoisting a pint in Glen Fyne at FyneFest
My book, Manchesters best beer pubs and bars
Statue of Linda McCartney in the grounds of Campbeltown museum
A bottle of heavily sherried, very brown speyside whisky, a 15yo Craigalliche bottled by Cadenhead
A pint of Ossett white rat nitro in the Highland Laddie, Leeds
Gig listing at the cardigan arms Leeds from April 5th 2009 featuring brontosaurus chorus
A pint of five points XPA in Whitelocks, Leeds.
The Hare & Hounds, Shudehill, Manchester
Guild of Food Writers Food Magazine of the Year award nominees: Olive Pellicle Vittles
A glass of St. Mars du Desert Jack D’Or
Dram of whisky. Half a mild. Sitting on red beer mats on a circular wooden tale, sunlight breaking through a window gives them a Warm glow.
Myself and Navendu Mishra MP behind the bar at the crown inn, Stockport.
The brewhouse at Colbier Brew Co.
The wild swan, fetter lane
Green MP for Gorton & Denton, Hannah Spencer, and me.
Gravity Jaipur
Casks on gravity in the Cooper’s tavern, burton
Harvey’s Porter, pint of
Copies of my book, Manchesters best beer pubs and bars
Joseph Holt’s Derby Brewery, Cheetham hill, Manchester
The band, cardiacs
A poster that reads: You are cordially invited to the launch of Manchesters Best Beer, Pubs and Bars on 2. 4. 2026. From 4pm at Waterstones Deansgate and from 7pm at the legendary Café Beermoth. Meet the author, purchase signed copies, enjoy an exclusive launch beer "Man-Chester's Mild" from Stockport's Runaway Brewery. All Welcome. No RSVP Required.
Mild of jettest black
A bottle of wireworks heritage chevallier whisky from white peak distillery on my garden table
Manchesters best beer pubs and bars second edition, by Matthew Curtis
An audio clip of my latest podcast episode
A bottle of skyborry perry
An email alert telling me I’ve got a free Greggs
It’s reddish wickes, as features in the BBC’s small prophets
A pint of bass and a pickled egg in the crown inn, Stockport
A sparkler and swan neck on a beer engine
Tanks draped in bisexual lighting at steam machine brew co
A pint
A Calabrian chicken Caesar from Manchesters bada bing sandwich deli
A label approved by the TTB last month for New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale “classic recipe”. It features the original watercolour painting of a red bicycle surrounded by hops
Video: The Birth of the Thornbridge Union at Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire
Video: Masham Ale on the Burton Union at Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire.
A three minute video titled: The Burton Union, filmed at Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell Derbyshire, produced by Matthew Curtis
A still of Thornbridge’s Dominic Driscoll
Don’t form a queue at the bar What are you doing? Before you is a vast landscape painting, a Turner, a Lowry, Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère. The bar is a wide-open space, full of choice and promise, that invites you to access its entire breadth. It is there to be used as an absolute whole.
A menu of beers
A nice glass of red wine
A nice photo of a freshly poured half (left) and pint (right) of Landlord on a drip towel. One of those horrible plastic ones with the rivets.
A pint of Timothy Taylor’s landlord in a traditional English pub
Jonny Garrett and me outside the duke’s head, Highgate in 2016