Now this was a real treat to find on the shelf in the supermarket today, it has to be around 30 years since I last tasted this fine ale; although I did drink a lot of that week in Oxfordshire. We were on holiday on a canal boat heading from Oxford to Banbury and Hook Norton owned most of the pubs by the canal.
Cannot recommend such trips highly enough, you potter along at 2mph until lunchtime when you stop at a pub for a few before carrying on until late afternoon when you tie up at a pub for the night!
What I did not know was that the brewery are still using a 25hp steam engine purchased in 1899 as part of the brewing process – purchased for the sum of £175 that makes it a really great investment in the company's future by the family that started and still owns the business.
Old Hooky is a classic English ale and tastes just as fine out of the bottle as it did from the tap, slightly sweet tasting with a wonderful balance between the taste of the malt and hops used to produce it. It comes in at a healthy 4.6% abv and having finished this one I was left wanting more, an excellent beer from a fine family owned brewery and well worth your support if you can find it.
I am amazed that we managed to down 3 or 4 of a lunchtime and never once crashed the barge – still we were a lot younger then and drinking a lot more on a daily basis than nowadays.
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