Best new beers of 2012…Camden King Crimson

Posted by on Dec 12, 2012 in Beer of the Year | 2 Comments

We’re now halfway through our annual best new British beers of the year feature with this, our third pick. So far, we’ve had an IPA and a black IPA, so next in line is…a red IPA. Well, a red IPA with a difference. Our third best new British beer of 2012 (in order of release, not quality) is as far removed from the hop-forward India Pale Ales as you can get…



King Crimson (6.5%)
Camden Town Brewery, London
(keg, released July)

Back in the late spring of 2011, the Camden Town Brewery put together a hoppy red IPA. Rather than release it to the public as part of their range of keg and bottled new world beers, they instead dumped the entire lot into red wine barrels, infected them with various bugs, and left the whole lot alone for a year. Once the microbes had done their business, the result was King Crimson – a 6.5% sour.

I only ever managed to try it once, at the inaugural Edinburgh Independent Beer Festival back in July. Served at one of the best ale pubs in the city – one with a great reputation for well-kept, rotating cask beer – it sold out (on keg) inside an hour. Many people present may have tried it for the first time as a novelty – but plenty went back for seconds and thirds. On keg, it was more tart than sour (as I imagine it would be if it were bottled). Having said that, there were still hops present throughout, the last vestiges of what the underlying beer used to be.

King Crimson is proof that experimentation can pay off – and further evidence that the modern UK brewers are becoming just as bold as the headline makers across the Atlantic. Of course, deliberately soured, overly hoppy beers might not be your thing – and fair enough (we’ll have something more to your liking tomorrow). But I’ve tried more than a few sours to know what happens when they go wrong. Camden Town’s example was weighted beautifully, and was as refreshing a beer as I’ve ever had.



It wasn’t just us that caught the King Crimson bug. James at Opportunity Hops was also there that night – check out his thoughts here. We’re into the second half of our best new British beers tomorrow, and we stay in England (Scottish beers are coming, honestly) for the most underrated bitter of the year. Find out what it is tomorrow. As for Camden Town, the latest batch of King Crimson is in the fermenter as I type – so look out for it very soon. note – photo above is not King Crimson, but Camden Pale

2 Comments

  1. steve
    December 12, 2012

    so another limited edition beer then eh? 😉

  2. Richard
    December 13, 2012

    Heh, just wait Steve – you ain’t seen nothing yet 😉

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