Hook Norton Hooky Bitter (Bottle)

Bottle: Slightly hazy, big fluffy off-white head, light-amber coloured; fruity and sweet-malty nose, distinctively underpinned by aromatic hops; moderate sweet-bitter flavour, light bodied, no surprise; lingering bitter-sweet aromatic finish. A nice, aromatic, but nevertheless thin beer............

Golden coloured with a slight white head. Aroma of floral hops and hay. Flavour was of biscuit malt with a dry finish. Not bad for a low ABV bottled beer, although the cask version is superior.

Bottled at Loch Ness, Stockholm. Cloudy reddish amber,rocky head. Caramelly nose with some paper. Medium sweet, light bodied. Some wonderful chewy doughy malt laquered by vague hay-like hops. Medium bitterness. The malt carries this beer, and that is where Hook Norton excels.

[Bottle from magic dave6] caramel colour with a small head. Very heavy, doughy malt aroma, some peach notes. thin body, more fruit on the palate. A bit of a mess to be honest.

Aroma is biscuity, some lemon coming through though dominated by malt, soem grass eventually shows up. Taste is similar and seriously malty, fruityness starts coming through as it moves on.

Bottle. Amber gold, thin short white head and moderate condition. Gentle fruity melon and hop flower in the nose with some low maltiness, soft and thin in the mouth with low caramel and a moderate fruity hoppiness, gentle hop bitterness in the finish.

Bottle, picked up at the brewery. Pours copper orange with a cap of off white. Dried fruit and kind of a sherry sweetness. Not unpleasant, but also clearly suffering from some oxidation. In spite of that, the flavors are bright and fruity, and mostly clean with a nice marmalade finish. Nice delicate palate. This tastes like a really nice bitter that got a little roughed up in pasteurizing/bottling. Hooky makes great ales, but they need their own bottling line. And they really ought to bottle condition. Much better cask.

Bottle, thought I’d rated this some time ago but as I’d picked up one amongst others from SH Jones Bicester 23-09-06 I may as well rate it here. A warm golden colour you can get hops in the aroma but not much. Taste is a bit unbalanced and not at all like the cask version bitterness seems to be a bit unchecked and ends up becoming one of the main features masking all else, some maltiness little sweetness but as already mentioned they are drowned out by the bitterness. Ok but not great