BrewDog Camden, Camden Town, NW1

Official pages of BrewDog Camden - www.brewdog.com

Brewdog opens daily at noon and closes at 23:30 Monday to Thursday, Midnight Friday and Saturday and 22:30 on Sunday. This isn’t the best location tucked from the main drag and a scribbled note on the wall by the door asks customers to keep the noise down when leaving as “our neighbours can get violent”, I’m sure they can! This isn’t a very big venue, but thankfully it wasn’t very busy during my Wednesday lunchtime visit last week. Some of the seating was reserved for a group who came in just after me, but I grabbed a table by the window to sup on my pint of 4.9% 77 lager. To be honest I wasn’t that impressed with it and thought it expensive at £4 a pint. There is an extensive list of other beers that I did not try up on the chalkboard and the bar supports eight draught dispensing posts. There was some low background music playing and some board games are available. Burgers, pizzas and bar snacks are available and apparently Masterchef winner Tim Anderson designed the menu. As it was lunchtime I decided to have the £5 cheeseburger which was nothing to write home about. Take away is available in 2.2 litre growlers that cost £6 before the beer is put in. T shirts, Hoodies and glasses are available to purchase from this company that tries to distance itself from commercial breweries. As a bar this place is good with a range of beers not found anywhere else in the area, but I prefer a good old solid boozer. I doubt that I will return.

It seems necessary to set out a few caveats before I start: I am agnostic on the cask v keg debate; I think that Brewdog make some fine beers, as well as some that are average and a few that are ridiculous; their 'look-at-me' marketing is somewhat tiresome. And why am I telling you this? Because it's Brewdog and they tend to polarise opinion. So, what do we find in the new Camden Town bar? Well, it's not a big place, that's for sure. There is a room downsatirs, but that wasn't in use when I popped in. The main room has a raised table with about half-a-dozen seats, with smaller tables round the perimiter. The bar is typical Brewdog: two banks of black taps. Unfortunately, these give no indication as to what's on offer - if you want to know what's available, you'll need to refer to the blackboard suspended above the bar, which is all very well but, from time to time, it's necessary to update the board... Fridges contain a range of bottles, primarily from the U.S. The food offering is (surprisingly for the brewery and locality) not vegetarian friendly. The adjacent table didn't seem impressed by the range, although quality was not a problem. To the draft beer then and, yes, it's all Brewdog and all keg. They draw on the full range, so there's some interesting stuff but it is, as already noted, much too cold. Not only that, but the pint glasses are unlined and the standard pour appears to be seriously adrift of a full measure. Halfs are a better deal as these are clearly lined and, furthermore, warm up rather quicker. The Christmas (or Winter) Porter was a better option by the half than 5 a.m. Saint by the pint. Given the brewery's advocacy of two-thirds of a pint measures, it is surprising that these do not seem to be available: only the traditional pint & half-pint are offered as far as I could tell. In summary then: is it worth a visit? Well yes, if only to make up your own mind. Overall, though, I'm inclined to opt for the greater range offered by the likes of Craft & Cask, as well as the fact that these offer a good range of cask ales as well.

A popular, busy and trendy bar by those marketing and publicity experts at Brewdog and they'd certainly drummed up a lot of interest in this place which we vivsited shortly after it opened. Inside it's a fairly basic and small space feeling much more like a bar than a traditional boozer. It's square with a granite topped bar running across the length of the left hand wall. In the middle is a rectangular tall table surrounded by tall stools and there are small tables and stools around the edges. There's also a downstairs room which was being used for a beer and food matching session on our visit. Upstairs there are 8 keg dispensers with, we were told, a further 8 downstairs and the range of beers on offer, both kegged and bottled is incredibly wide and varied much of it, but not all, from Brewdog. All the beers served on draught and under 6% were charged at £3.95 and those over 6% were only sold in halves at £2.95. A number of very strong beers are served in 35ml measures from the bottle including Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismark, both at over 35%. We tried Punk IPA, 5am Saint and a wasabi stout all of which were very cold and the barman advised us to warm the stout in our hands to bring out the wasabi and horseradish flavours. They were also very fizzy, especially the Punk IPA which brought on a sustained bout of belching. An interesting place to visit and sample some of the, very clever, extremes of the Brewdog brewing range but is perhaps less suited to a session as although the keg dispensed beers are very good, for me cask is still preferable.

Official pages of BrewDog Camden - www.brewdog.com