The drinks industry has been trying to force a shandy onto the populous for some time. Camden’s attempt comes in the form of Lager Top. Now your traditional shandy is a 50-50 of lager and lemonade, but this lager tips the scales at 3.4%. Whatever lager it was just have been a monster at the start as it has basically the same base ABV as Carlsberg. Granted Carlsberg may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Lager Top is a curious attempt to enter this market from Camden. Truth be told, shandy’s have always struggled in the UK market. Even when Low and No Alcohol beers are on the rise. A good Shandy or Radler (take your pick) is rarely seen on tap. In fact aside from stacks of crates in supermarkets it doesn’t really move at all. There have been loads of attempts. Fosters Radler has been attempted in the UK for a dozen years. Never really taken off.
The Upshot
Camden Lager Top is, at best, a curious tasting thing. At worst, I was brought up to say nothing if I could t say something nice. The lemon taste, for what token gesture it is some what detectable. I’m a positive person and am upbeat about a lot of things. Also, I’ll drink Windowlene if it’s the only thing going. Camden Lager Top is not my favourite by any stretch.
I believe one of the great things about the Perfect Draft machine is that you should try as many of the offerings as possible. I can now state unequivocally I have tried this.
2* Try it if the price is right.
