During Brewery tours I’m often asked the question “Which is your oldest Beer?”. The easy answer of course is ‘Mild’ as this is shown as ‘Brew number 1, November 24th’ in the original John Harris brew records of 1856.

To further add to this, if we then look through the sources shown below we find these original brewing dates;
1859; Pale Ale,
1864; Bitter
1880; Haymaker
1903; Double Stout
1977; Old Hooky
1992; 12 Days
1993; Haymaker,
1996; Double Stout
2004; Hooky Gold
2005; Flagship.

Although our current Hooky Mild, Hooky Gold and Hooky can be seen as direct descendants of the 1850/60′s originals, the recipes will have kept in step with changing tastes over the years.

Then there is the question of the introduction dates of key ingredients. All of our brews contain Pale Ale Malt which is produced using a Barley called Maris Otter. This was first released in 1966, so none of our current brews can be older than the 1960′s. A number of our brews also contain Challenger Hops, these were first released in 1972 so again any brew containing this variety cannot be older that the 1970′s.

So there we have it, an insight into the age of our Brews.

James Tobin.

Sources/further reading:
Hook Norton Brewery records.

Oxon Brews: The Story of Commercial Brewing in Oxfordshire – Mike Brown.
A country Brewery, Hook Norton 1849-1999 – David Eddershaw.
Brewed in the Traditional Manner, The story of Hook Norton Brewery – Rob Woolley.