Camden Pale Ale Review

The background

Camden pale ale, where do I even start with this beer? It’s a funny one, In one way it’s everything a pale ale ‘is’ but in another way it’s also incredibly tasteless and incredibly just ‘blah’.

Camden PA is a 4% Pilsner which almost pushes it into the session bracket but it’s not marketed that way so hey what do I know (ps. It’s definitely a session) It’s really incredibly pale gold, like insanely pale gold, almost like staring straight through gold coloured waterfall.

The smell

Ah the smell, well there is literally none. By none I mean it is actually odorless, bare in mind I was drinking this out of a can so getting a big old concentrated sniff was pretty easy and still nothing. This is really odd considering the hops that that are included-:  Perle, citra and simcoe so we have some pretty big hitters in there! Most notably simcoe which seems to be the new kid on the block and brewers are chucking it at everything. Simoce is an American hop (I’ve almost definitely covered it before) but it’s the Hop that kicks off a lot of IPA styles as it’s the hop that gives a beer that really grounded earthy raw smell and taste (used in right quantities) yet somehow in this beer they’ve taken one of the most incredible taste provoking hops and effectively watered it down into a dull mess, should be punishable really. Perle is a bizarre hop that generally isn’t found in a lot of beers and I actually feel a little sad that my first experience of perle was with this beer as I can only imagine the actual taste of it could be something quite special and unique. It’s a floral hop which is spicy and gives a bit of a tangy taste which is what it makes it interesting, coupled with some good quality hops it could be a real big hitter, even a single hop brew would be interesting, maybe not nice but definitely unique. Last but not least there is citra a bog standard hop found in a lot of beers, usually found more in sessions and sassions but IPA dabble with it as well as given away by the name it’s what gives beer the fruity flavour that really distinguishes usually session ales, gives it a kind of cider taste. Pretty standard but nice and has it’s place nonetheless.

The pour

Now this is relatively hard to comment on as It was can based so not a whole lot of pouring actually happened and I wasn’t offered a glass to enjoy my beverage so a can it is, disgraceful I know. But what I can touch upon is the new ‘softer’ type aluminium can which beer is now served in. ‘Tinnies’ used to be the standard within the beer industry, nice, easy, convenient to produce and drink from until the new age beer drinker came about and realised how unbelievably stale it made beer taste so glass bottles were the way forward into making people continue to drink beer for a good few years until the can was redesigned, with this new softer aluminium they’ve effectively scaled down the aluminium content meaning tinnies don’t taste as metal,stale and sour. Low and behold tinnies are back in the market.

The taste

Obviously the interesting part for someone who doesn’t care about hops, but as you can probably guess from the rest of this review it’s not going to be pretty. The hops, the appearance, the colour all pointed towards a good beer coming other end and it’s just not sadly, it’s just insanely boring. It’s not horrible, spit it out, follow with a chaser disgusting but I wouldn’t actively go to a bar and say yes a Camden pale ale is the one for me. It has all the ingredients of a great beer just put together shoddily in poor quantities, what appears to be the main issue to me is they’ve tried to please too many people with this beer. It’s neither here nor there, it neither tastes like a pilsner or an IPA. It’s sad because Pilsner is an incredibly good rich beer style but generally it’s produced in Germany, Prague or Belgium and it should probably be left to them as they do an incredible job of it like Pikeland Pils.

Conclusion

Is this a beer to actively purchase? Not at all.

Is this a beer that is refreshing, different and unique? Nope.

BUT

Is this a beer that you could get a hoppy flavour? No actually not.

Would I drink this beer instead of other beers? Nope definitely not.

All in all it’s not good, it’s really not good, but as mentioned it’s not repulsive, I wouldn’t spit it out, But dear me I wouldn’t order it again. 1/5

Would recommend for:

• Someone that likes pretty colours? It's a nice colour...
• Probably no one in all honesty, it's bland and I can think of numerous different beers to recommend before this one. 

But hey, this a beer journey and it's another one to chalk of the list, I continue to stumble about in the search for good beer.