BrewDog Camden NW1

London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Camden Town and Primrose Hill

BrewDog Camden, London NW1

Bar, specialist (BrewDog)
113 Bayham Street NW1 0AG
T (020) 7284 0453 W www.brewdog.com/bars/camden f BrewDog-Bar-Camden tw BrewDogCamden
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun).
Cask beers None, Other beers 16-26 keg (BrewDog, imports), 140 bottles
Food Gourmet burgers, pizzas, cheese and meat boards, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Tastings, Meet the Brewer events, beer launches.

At the end of a year that’s seen the launch of a number of new London beer specialists, the delayed opening in mid-December 2011 of controversy courting Aberdeenshire brewery BrewDog’s fourth pub, and its first outside Scotland, was arguably one of the most eagerly anticipated among the capital’s beer connoisseurs. Heralded by brewery founders Martin Dickie and James Watt posing on a tank outside the former Laurel Tree pub in Camden Town’s Bayham Street, the first announcement of being open for business went out over Twitter and rapidly attracted a crowd. When I visited quite late on the first night of official ordinary trading after all the launches, the place was packed with a largely youthful crowd, including a good few brewers and competitor licensees who’d come to see what all the fuss was about.

The old pub has been slickly and stylishly done out. A single moderately sized bar upstairs has remnants of old pub pillars visible but is otherwise new bare brick, walls clad in gym-style wooden parquet tiles and bar top and drinking shelves made of slabs of grey stone — which might just be a suggestion of “granite” Aberdeen, the brewery’s nearest city. Downstairs there’s a more loungey space with its own bar, used for tutored tastings. Staff seem knowledgeable, enthusiastic, friendly and welcoming — these last qualities perhaps contrary to expectation given BrewDog’s cultivatedly pugnacious image and the bar’s location in one of London’s most painfully trendy haunts. Even more surprisingly, prices are remarkably keen — gourmet burgers devised by TV’s MasterChef winner Tim Anderson are no more than £7.

BrewDog's Martin Dickie (left) and James Watt getting tanked up in Camden Town. Pic: BrewDog.

But inevitably most people are here for the beer, and if they’re not they’ll still be encouraged to try it. There’s a small stock of wines and a few carefully chosen and unusual spirits, but customers who ask for these are prompted to consider trying a beer first. The choice is impressive, starting with up to 26 keg lines, although only 17 were in use when I called. BrewDog beers are understandably well represented, with 5AM Saint, Hardcore and Punk IPA always on, and numerous guests and specials, on my visit ranging from tasty 2.8% reduced duty beer Blitz! to 18.2% Tokyo*, taking in the latest in the Abstrakt series and a Christmas porter. Other draught options come from US and global craft brewers — Evil Twin, Lagunitas, Mikkeller, Port or Stone, for example: a collaboration between BrewDog and Port/Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur was on last week. “Tasting floats” of four third pint measures are available for experimenters. The rarities will multiply if plans to install an experimental picobrewery on site come to fruition.

The bottled range pursues a similar theme, with BrewDog’s own beers, including rare specials, lining up alongside US, Scandinavian and Japanese entries. Alesmith, Baird, Ballast Point, Bear Republic, Cigar City, Green Flash, Hitachino Nest, Nøgne-Ø and Southern Tier are names to set beer geeks’ mouths watering, though there’s a notable absence of the handful of British brewers in the same general class — the only nod to Thornbridge is the version of their stout produced by Epic in New Zealand — or of the German and Belgian stalwarts usually spotted on bottled beer lists. Even the “lambic” comes from Mikkeller. It’s a brave and interesting list, testament to the BrewDog team’s close connections to international craft brewing.

It has to be said — the deliberate absence of cask beer leaves a notable gap in an otherwise impressive offer. BrewDog themselves brew some excellent cask beer and I’ve no doubt the staff here would conscientiously ensure it was served at its best. Far from underlining its position on the cutting edge, the lack of cask makes BrewDog seem parochial, persisting in the not overchallenging task of noising up a tiny handful of CAMRA purists while the new, young drinkers frequenting London’s beer bars happilly drink cask alongside craft keg, and US brewers that BrewDog idolise, like Stone, are ramping up their cask production. Charming assistant manager Lucy is clearly primed for the question, and sidesteps it by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with cask, but we prefer our beers this way,” before adding rather intriguingly, “That’s not to say we won’t ever have cask beer.” If they do, I will unhesitatingly recommend BrewDog Camden as one of the very best beer bars in London.

Overground Camden Road Underground Camden Town Cycling LCN+ 6 6A, Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway