Hook Norton Twelve Days (Bottle)

Brewed by Hook Norton
Style: English Strong Ale
Banbury, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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[500ml bottle from Waitrose, Marlow] Ruby-black with a moderate and rapidly diminishing creamy head. Annoyingly prickly carbonation. Dusty mineral bitterness to the fore from the off. Behind it there’s a little chocolate, smoke, liquorice and hazelnut, and maybe some blackberries. Quite a thin texture, yet leaves your mouth rather sticky. Aftertaste is still dominated by the mineral flavour. Feels like an interesting beer has been ruined by the mineral taste and high carbonation - maybe they should try bottle-conditioning it? Would be interested to see how much better the cask version is.

Pours deep black with wispy head which disappears quickly. The aroma is burnt grains with hints of coffee and chocolate. The taste is fresh chocolate and nuts with a subtle bitterness.

Aroma of caramel, chocolate, figs, currants, dates and crap. Motor oil brown, not heady at all. It has that rough, burnt malt flavor I love oh so much. Complex, chalky feel and aftertaste. Very dense, though thick isn’t the right word.l Another winner in the English heavy traidtion.

Just got in from fronting a Christmas Quiz for the local Medical Centre (my wife volunteers me each year to organise, prepare and conduct it). I am therefore ready to have a Christmas beer: too sink slowly and review at leasure. The tall brown 500ml bottle was best before 28 Jan 2011, I opened it on 4 Dec 2010. Poured into a ’La Chouffe’ tulip and a ’Forbidden Fruit’ chalice (because I fancied seeing what it looked like in different glasses). Lovely ruby red body, dark and clear, with a full tan coloured foaming head. The smells were of roasted/toasted/burnt malts and thick semi-sweet molasses, nutty brown bread sort of thing too. The taste is all malts, drying as the mouth gets used to the flavours, the hops giving a bitter feel from the initial sip to the end of the tasting. Strangely however the beer ends up sweeter in the mouthfeel than it did when first sampled. I was expecting/hopeful of, a rich and creamy Winter Warmer, reminding me of Chritmas’s past: roaring fires, smoking jackets, cigars and my childhood. Sadly, it didn’t produce those sort of memories. An OK beer, lacked that X Factor which I hoped for.

A - dried fruit, chocolate and caramel A - brownish-red with thin head T - light sweet with strong alcohol and bitter P - mid to full and soft O - good

Reddish brown with a light tan head. Malty with a nutty taste and a hint of toffee sweetness. Slightly earthy with some spice and a long finish.

Clear dark brown with a fading head with no lacing. Gorgeous aroma of slightly earthy cocoa notes, figs, peaches, vanilla, and a nuttiness not unlike pecans. Taste is fruity and malty, with notes of toffee, raisin, some faint oak with vanilla, and toasted nuttiness with some cocoa on the back end. Smooth, and with a bigger body than its session-able ABV would predict.

Lätt brödiga, nötiga maltiga toner. Stadig kropp och en fin beska. Slutsats: Är troligen klockren till en söndagsstek..men si och så som solist..

Took this to the beer tasting but nobody wanted to try it. Big plus size pounder. Darker porter or american lager appearance. Smell is offing old sweet lager. First taste is a put off then it seems to grow on you. Choco carob malty thing. Aroma is now malty sweet. Yes, pretty high alky content. For a Christmas ale there is very little if any spices in here, just builds on its pure ingredients. Interesting to read the back label. Some detectable carbonation in there but its nearly flat. Finish is bitter malt and alky on the roof of the mouth.

Bottle. Clear dark brown with big beige head. Aroma is malt and fruit. Flavour is malt, fruit, hops, medium bitter, caramel, little chocolate and a little nutty.

Bottle (obviously). Pours dark brown. Nose/taste is heavy chocolate and black malt, nuts and light cereal grain. Lots of malt. Medium body.