By James Atkinson – editor TheShout
Dateline: Alsace, France
Hippocampus Memorable Drinks, the distributor created by the founders of Little Creatures, will soon represent London's Camden Town Brewery in the Australian market.
(pictured: Camden Town founder Jasper Cuppaidge and head brewer Rob Topham)
Camden Town's beers are currently available in Australia under a 'gentleman's agreement' with Stone & Wood. The new deal with Hippocampus will ensure consistency of supply and build on the foundation established by the Byron Bay brewer.
Camden Hells Lager will be available in bottle and can, with other beers to include the Pale Ale and India Hells Lager (IHL), a brand new 6.4 per cent ABV version of the brewer's mainstay product.
"It's unfiltered and really hoppy, made with Amarillo, Simcoe and Centennial hops," founder Jasper Cuppaidge told TheShout in London on Friday.
"We love drinking IPAs, but making an IPA probably wouldn't be right for Camden. Seeing as we're a lager specialist we wanted to do something that was closer to our remit."
Having recently returned from his second visit to Melbourne's Good Beer Week, Cuppaidge is excited about the burgeoning Australian craft beer scene and Camden's prospects under Hippocampus's management.
"We were a bit gobsmacked to be approached by them, to think that they thought our beers were good enough for them to represent," he said.
As in the UK, the Camden beers in Australia will be largely skewed towards the on-premise, with a limited amount of kegged product available.
"It'd be nice to have two or three places in every city where you can always get a pint on draught of Camden," Cuppaidge said.
He said Camden has between 300 and 400 on-premise accounts in London and also exports to Sweden and Japan.