Batemans Hooker

Brewed by Batemans
Style: Bitter
Skegness, England

Serve in English pint

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Slight hoppiness in the nose. Amber coloured with poor head. Not as annoyingly cloying as I find some Batemans beers to be but there is still something that puts me off in the aftertaste.

March 2011: Hooker is brewed every spring (for the annual Six Nations Ruby Tournament) and is currently (2011) sitting at 4.1%ABV and with a new front label on the bottles and a changed font if on cask. My 500ml brown bottle was best before 31 Mar 2012 and was drank/reviewed 7 Mar 2011. Poured into a vase shaped pint, ’Old Speckled Hen’ badged. The body is a light amber, clear and showing carbonisation rushing upwards to the full snowy white foaming head. Very little aroma, some hops and yeast present if you sniff long and hard enough, otherwise not a lot of anything. The flavours are a dry tasting blend of hops and unsweetened barley malts. It isn’t bitter in taste, but certainly isn’t sweet either. The dryness seemed to increase as the tasting progressed and I thought it dry in the first mouthfull! I suppose you could call it refreshing, but I found it wanting in all aspects. Almost odourless, too dry and bland in both texture and taste. The worst beer I’ve had from Batemans. I can only assume the cask version is a whole lot better.

Cask. Frothy white fair mostly deminishing head. DArk yellow colour. Moderate malty and light hoppy aroma. Moderate bitter flavor. Average moderate bitter finish. Oily palate.

Cask @ Wetherspoon pub, Liverpool Street. Nice head with good duration. Color is golden. Aroma and taste are caramel, fruits, notes of butter, malt and hops. Medium bodied and soft carbonation. Bitter finish.

Cask by handpump at Hengler’s Circus, Glasgow (10 Mar 12) - fruity hop aroma, clear golden ale with a thin white head, lot of apple flavour, neither sweet nor bitter

Cask @ JDW Elgin 190212
Amber..clear...thin white head...dissipates to a rim around the glass
Aroma...fruity..sweet caramel..hint of apple
Taste - caramel malts...fruity..some sourness..some red apple..bit earthy bitter hops..some toffee <br/.>Palate- soft carb..medium body. Lingering biscuity bitter finish...bit of saltiness
Overall - very average bitter with some sour notes

A - honey and wheat A - gold with no head T - sweet with floral bitter P - mid O - ehhhh....

Pours amber with a rapidly fading white head and a mild to heavy carbonation. Light nose of citrus, grass and hops - but nothing mind-blowing. Dry and mild. Nothing to write home about.

Tasted this in The Esquire House, Glasgow (JDW) in March 2010. Cask, handpump dispense. Clear pale amber in colour with a thin white head. Thin aroma of yeasty bread and sulphur. Thin mouthfeel and poor lacing. Pale malt base gives digestive teabiscuit notes and this is quickly lost admist the flurry of metallic hop resins flooding the aftertaste. Astringency continues into the dry hoppy finish with tart grapefruit booming in at the end. Another poor effort to add to the portfolio.

Cask Handpump at the Penny Black JDW, Northwich 09/02/2011 Floral aroma. White head. Golden coloured and fruity with a bitter and slightly dry malt finish.

The bottle I had was 4.1% not 4.5% and was not like the commercial description above, it was amber in colour with a thin head, malty aroma and bitter caramel taste.