About Us

FRESH BEER how we got here DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

  • FRESH, FRESH, FRESH

    Our founder, Jasper Cuppaidge, started Camden because he wanted beer to be better. For people to fall in love with beer again, and love it for the right reasons; the appreciation of drinking clean, crisp, fresh beer.

    So, what do we mean by better?

    We use the best possible ingredients. Brewed the right way which means, no shortcuts! Served FRESH. Served better.

HOW WE GOT HERE

IT ALL STARTED WITH A MISSED FLIGHT...

Way back when Camden was just a twinkle in his eye, our founder, Jasper Cuppaidge, missed his flight back home to Australia and ended up collecting glasses in a London pub.

...THEN MOVED ON TO MINOR THEFT

After collecting many glasses, and doing a few other jobs on the side, Jasper was driving home one evening when he spotted a ‘For Sale’ sign on a knackered old pub in a great location. He stole the sign.

THE HORSESHOE IS BORN

Jasper called the estate agent’s number on the stolen sign, bought the pub, painted it white and opened it as The Horseshoe in 2006 with the aim of serving good food, wine and beer to the people of Hampstead.

ABOUT THAT BEER

2007: The first batch of beer Jasper brewed was a birthday present for his mum, Patricia, in honour of his granddad, Laurie. Laurie McLaughlin had owned a brewery called McLaughlin’s in Rockhampton, Australia many moons ago and the cask ale Jasper brewed was based on one of his granddad’s old recipes.

THE 2ND BATCH. AND 3RD. AND 4TH.

After that first batch, Jasper decided he liked brewing. So he brewed another, and another, and another. Soon Mac’s beer (which is what he called his granddad’s brew) was constantly on tap at The Horseshoe, and so popular that Jasper started selling it to his mates who owned pubs too.

TIME TO GET A BIGGER BREWERY

PROBABLY 2009: What Jasper really wanted to make was lager. To do this, he needed a bigger brewery, one that wasn’t in the basement of a pub.

NAME PROBLEMS

AROUND THE SAME TIME: Annoyingly, another brewing company had already trademarked the name Mac’s meaning Jasper needed a new name and a brewery. Inspired by the borough in which he lived, Jasper typed ‘camdentownbrewery.com’ into the search engine. It was free. So he bought it on the spot.

A BREWERY. IN CAMDEN.

Shortly after he bought the domain name, whilst out and about wandering around Camden, Jasper spotted some Victorian railway arches being done up underneath Kentish Town West Station. They looked like the perfect place for building a brewery, so Jasper decided to rent five, even though he thought that was way more than he needed.

'HE' BECOMES 'WE'

SPRING 2010: Fast forward a year and suddenly one becomes three. Jasper buys a big, shiny brew kit, hires a brewer and persuades Joey from The Horseshoe to come join him and do a bit of everything at his new company. Camden Town officially start brewing.

HELLO TO HELLS

AUTUMN 2010: The first batch of lager comes out. We decide to call it Hells as it’s a cross between Helles and Pilsner and is brewed with malt and hops sourced from Germany. We use the same stuff to make Hells today.

  • THE ART OF BEER

    We go out of our way to make sure that every bottle & can looks as beautiful and interesting as it tastes. That means working with great illustrators and designers to keep our beers looking FRESH.

    Check out more on our seasonal designer MARTYNA MAKES here:

    TAKE A LOOK