Hooked on the Future
It’s a sight I never tire of seeing. The first glimpse of the Hook Norton brewhouse is always stunning.
Driving
through the quiet Oxfordshire village from which the brewery takes its
name, you’d never know that such a major producer was so close at hand.
Then, trundle up the narrow lane, crest the top of the rise and there it stands, a majestic reminder of what brewing used to be like in Victorian times, puffing out clouds of steam and filling the air with the breakfast cereal aromas of a mash in full swing.
Hook Norton is perhaps the UK’s best preserved tower brewery, a brilliant example of the canniness of Victorian engineers who knew how to make the most of limited energy supplies.
Their principle was simple: hoist all the raw ingredients to the top of the brewhouse and then let gravity run its course, the brew dropping down level by level from mash tun to copper to fermenting vessel and then on into casks when complete.
In Fine Shape
For a brewery that is now more than 100 years old, Hook Norton is in remarkably fine shape, better even than when I saw it last, seven years ago.
Much work (and finance) has been channelled into refurbishment and upkeep, but not just to preserve the structure as an historic specimen.
This is a fully-functioning beer production centre that takes the best original features of the brewery and combines them with modern equipment and the latest working practices to turn out enough fine beer each week to keep its estate of 45 pubs and an extensive free trade very happy.
James Clarke is the young head of the brewery. It’s his family’s business, with James the great-great grandson of founder John Harris. He took over the managing director’s role from his late father, David, in 2004, and the company is in good hands.
James has grown up with the business and used to be head brewer before taking over the managerial reins that he is soon to share with newly appointed joint MD Adrian Staley.
His control means that, despite its history and heritage, Hook Norton is not a stuffy company. It’s very much part of the community and its beers are among the most interesting of any produced by a British regional brewer.
There can be few more satisfying quaffing beers than Hook Norton Best. At just 3.4% ABV, it’s a beer that delivers far more than its strength would suggest, packing lots of taste and body into every pint.
Further up the scale, the company’s best-known ale is Old Hooky, a good, chunky pint in the best bitter tradition, filled with biscuity crystal malt flavour.
Darker Dimensions
Joining these stalwarts is Hooky Gold, a zeitgeist beer, easy on the eye and laced with citrus notes. 303 AD (for St George’s Day) and Haymaker (in summer) are two more golden offerings, part of the established range of seasonal ales.
There are also darker dimensions, in the form of the chocolaty mild, Hooky Dark, the winter beer Twelve Days and the luscious Double Stout, so named because it contains both brown and black malts.
The last is a beer from the Hooky brewing archives, one that was phased out in 1917 but brought back in 1996. It’s also available in bottle-conditioned format, an area of production that James is moving steadily towards.
The
company has long produced some very good filtered bottled beers (plenty
of awards testify to the quality) but James has been so impressed with
the freshness the bottle conditioning route has provided for the Double
Stout that the two latest bottled beers he’s commissioned are both
packaged this way.
Copper Ale is a 5%, robust bitter, with rich malt profile and, to me, notes of orange cream.
Flagship is the company’s India pale ale, 5.5% in strength and loaded with tangy hops that bring suggestions of orange marmalade. Both are excellent examples of the bottle conditioning technique.
The bottled side of the business means that you can sample Hook Norton beers many miles from the idyllic brewery, but it’s well worth a visit to this part of north Oxfordshire to settle into one of the company’s attractive country pubs or have a good nose around the brewery’s visitor centre (pictured above), where intriguing relics of the brewery’s past and local rural life are on display.
Tours always finish up with a tutored tasting of some of the company’s beers.
But all that is a bonus. The magical first sight of the brewery is worth the journey in itself.
Driving
through the quiet Oxfordshire village from which the brewery takes its
name, you’d never know that such a major producer was so close at hand. Then, trundle up the narrow lane, crest the top of the rise and there it stands, a majestic reminder of what brewing used to be like in Victorian times, puffing out clouds of steam and filling the air with the breakfast cereal aromas of a mash in full swing.
Hook Norton is perhaps the UK’s best preserved tower brewery, a brilliant example of the canniness of Victorian engineers who knew how to make the most of limited energy supplies.
Their principle was simple: hoist all the raw ingredients to the top of the brewhouse and then let gravity run its course, the brew dropping down level by level from mash tun to copper to fermenting vessel and then on into casks when complete.
In Fine Shape
For a brewery that is now more than 100 years old, Hook Norton is in remarkably fine shape, better even than when I saw it last, seven years ago.
Much work (and finance) has been channelled into refurbishment and upkeep, but not just to preserve the structure as an historic specimen.
This is a fully-functioning beer production centre that takes the best original features of the brewery and combines them with modern equipment and the latest working practices to turn out enough fine beer each week to keep its estate of 45 pubs and an extensive free trade very happy.
James Clarke is the young head of the brewery. It’s his family’s business, with James the great-great grandson of founder John Harris. He took over the managing director’s role from his late father, David, in 2004, and the company is in good hands.
James has grown up with the business and used to be head brewer before taking over the managerial reins that he is soon to share with newly appointed joint MD Adrian Staley.
His control means that, despite its history and heritage, Hook Norton is not a stuffy company. It’s very much part of the community and its beers are among the most interesting of any produced by a British regional brewer.
There can be few more satisfying quaffing beers than Hook Norton Best. At just 3.4% ABV, it’s a beer that delivers far more than its strength would suggest, packing lots of taste and body into every pint.
Further up the scale, the company’s best-known ale is Old Hooky, a good, chunky pint in the best bitter tradition, filled with biscuity crystal malt flavour.
Darker Dimensions
Joining these stalwarts is Hooky Gold, a zeitgeist beer, easy on the eye and laced with citrus notes. 303 AD (for St George’s Day) and Haymaker (in summer) are two more golden offerings, part of the established range of seasonal ales.
There are also darker dimensions, in the form of the chocolaty mild, Hooky Dark, the winter beer Twelve Days and the luscious Double Stout, so named because it contains both brown and black malts.
The last is a beer from the Hooky brewing archives, one that was phased out in 1917 but brought back in 1996. It’s also available in bottle-conditioned format, an area of production that James is moving steadily towards.
The
company has long produced some very good filtered bottled beers (plenty
of awards testify to the quality) but James has been so impressed with
the freshness the bottle conditioning route has provided for the Double
Stout that the two latest bottled beers he’s commissioned are both
packaged this way. Copper Ale is a 5%, robust bitter, with rich malt profile and, to me, notes of orange cream.
Flagship is the company’s India pale ale, 5.5% in strength and loaded with tangy hops that bring suggestions of orange marmalade. Both are excellent examples of the bottle conditioning technique.
The bottled side of the business means that you can sample Hook Norton beers many miles from the idyllic brewery, but it’s well worth a visit to this part of north Oxfordshire to settle into one of the company’s attractive country pubs or have a good nose around the brewery’s visitor centre (pictured above), where intriguing relics of the brewery’s past and local rural life are on display.
Tours always finish up with a tutored tasting of some of the company’s beers.
But all that is a bonus. The magical first sight of the brewery is worth the journey in itself.
