Camden Hells Lager (Waitrose @CamdenBrewery) [By @SpectreUK]

This blood red labelled lager was Camden Hells Lager by Camden Town Brewery, in Ye Olde London town. The label stated that lager had first been brewed by Amazonian tribes over two hundred years ago, and before that the Amazonians had drunk a weird tea made from tree sap, flowers and dried spices. How much of that is true I’m uncertain, but I liked the spooky sense of humour of the label, and the name Camden Hells lager made me think of a time in the 19th century when Jack The Ripper was hunting his next victim through the fog shrouded streets of ye olde London town. As you can see from the recreated photo with Cinabar’s arm as an example (don’t worry I sewed it back on afterwards) what his workbench would have looked like in the 1800s, once Jack The Ripper had finished chopping up his latest prey. I’m sure afterwards he’d likely have a bottle of his favourite lager, of which I sure would have been Camden Hells.

There was a strong bitter smell from the hops on opening the bottle, with an afterthought of malt in the odour. It was quite a fizzy lager as it tried to jump out of the bottle like an unwilling victim trying to escape a psychopath’s clutches. There was a definite lager taste to it, like Pilsner lager (hence the malt listed below I’d expect), but the hops took me away from that initial flavour adding an extra bitter edge. This brew was not like a run of the mill lager from the local “Offy” as it had a finer bitter edge from the hops that added a noticeable detail, like the brewer had taken their time to add an extra loving twang to their lager. So I could taste the mix of the malt and hops to begin with, followed by the smoothness of the malt with an added bitter twist of the knife. The bitterness of the hops and smooth malt travelled into the aftertaste, giving a fine full bodied quality lager. I thought this lager was very nice indeed, and would definitely have it again. Not even reserving it for a dark stormy night!

Useful information on the bottle:
4.6% volume alcohol
330ml bottle
Malt = Pilsner
Hops = Perle & Hallertauer Tradition
Ingredients – Water, malt, hops and yeast.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

By Spectre