A BITTER row is brewing over the rights to the name of a lager.

The popular Camden Town Brewery, which has been a roaring success since opening in railway arches in Kentish Town in 2010, is battling with beer-makers in Norfolk to copyright their drink, “Hells Lager”.

The brewery found out that Redwell Brewery in Norwich was using the same name and asked them to stop. Both companies want to keep their name, and both have been applying for trademark rights in recent week.

“Hells Lager is everything to us. It’s the reason we started a brewery and – we believe – a unique product with a unique name,” said Camden Town Brewery in a statement. It claimed that when they found out that 

another beer maker was selling Hells Lager, they contacted them by phone asking them to stop using the name. 

“They dismissed our suggestion and have ignored our offer to meet face to face to discuss a mutually satisfying resolution,” the statement added.

Redwell Brewery has written an open letter on its own website, suggesting that it was actually concerns over the future of a contract with Waitrose that had spurred the Camden brewers into action, rather than issues with quality or taste. 

The letter said: “We feel that Camden Town Brewery are taking a large brewery’s bully boy tactics and applying them against us… They are using Waitrose and their size to try to stop us putting a German light lager into the market place.”

Variations of “hells, helles or hell” are generic terms for a style of light German beer, according to the letter, and Camden have previously been prevented from registering Hells as a trademark by other European brewers because of this. Redwell brewers feared a copyright would leave the public with no choice. 

Patrick Fisher, the joint owner of Redwell, claimed his company was only trying to copyright their badge, which was green compared to Camden’s red, but Camden were attempting to copyright the actual brand of Hells Lager. 

He said that they had not wanted the feud to go public, adding: “There was an initial conversation, but suddenly the conversation stopped on their side and we were contacted by their lawyers.” 

When contacted by the New Journal, Camden Town Brewery declined to comment further but its website said it took “no pleasure” in moving towards legal proceedings.

The company said: “We believe we should stand up for and defend our beer, our brewery, our brand, and everything we have built.”