Bristol's original 'Laughing Lab' dies at age 16

If you wandered into the Forge Road tasting room of the fledgling Bristol Brewery, you probably met Camden, a yellow Labrador retriever with a jovial demeanor.

"The original brewery was a small place," said Mike Bristol, Camden's owner with wife Amanda. "It was just my wife and I and Camden back then."

Camden, whose likeness can be found on every bottle of Laughing Lab Scottish Ale, died last week. Like the beer, she was 16.

"There was Camden, sporting as wide a grin as the Laughing Lab I'd come to love on the label," wrote Laura Long, the company's spokeswoman, "guarding the tasting room, vetting all comers, and supervising the seating arrangements at the red picnic table. Friendly, but somehow judicious."

A stray the Bristols found in Florida, she stayed home more often after Amanda Bristol left the brewery to take care of their first child. In recent years, her age and fast-moving Tejon Street, to which the brewery relocated, kept her home even more.

"She was tough," said Mike Bristol. "She got hit by a car a couple times and got on the wrong end of the antlers of buck in the back yard. But she always ended up fine." 

Bristol will miss the little things, he said.

"You know, I guess sometimes it was more her habits," he said. "You know, things like the way she would always find the sunny spot to lay in no matter where she was or the way she would put her head on your leg when you were on on the couch."

Her beer will go on, of course, and Camden's adopted one-year-old sister, Halifax, will take over Camden's role as company greeter.

“Camden was a true original,” Mike Bristol said, “but Hallie will take on the role with enthusiasm and represent the brewery well.”

A wake was held to celebrate Camden’s life Tuesday at the brewery, 1647 S. Tejon St.  Two dollars of every pint of Laughing Lab sold today were to be donated to Safe Harbor Lab Rescue in Camden’s memory.