ale virgin

[chris_cov]

Tried ale for the 1st time yesterday. Have always been a lager or guiness drinker but fancied a change and loved it :thumb: . It was called hooky norton. Anyone know any kits that resemble this drink? :

 

[dennisking]

Hook Norton is one of the oldest and best brewery's around. Don't know about kits but if you think of going AG there are recipes for the bitter and Old Hookey in the Graham Wheeler book. Just imagine, there hundreds of great tasting beers out there for you to try.

 

[matchles1]

Lots more ales to try out there, and lots of time to try them

 

[chris_cov]

lol good point. Will have to make ale my new drink for a while. Was really impressed i had a pint of coors before and the ale made the coors seem bland. lots of flavour. :drink:

 

[RobWalker]

in all honesty, a standard bitter kit is probably your best bet. Hook Norton ales tend to be on the boring side - they're fantastic, but very simple, so go for a standard bitter kit and you wont be far off!

 

[puravida]

What did you like specifically? Knowing the characteristics you enjoy in a beer is a good way to start filtering homebrew options. I like clean, refreshing, carbonated beer with lots of citrus and aromatic hops. I like Hooky Gold. I'm not a fan of thicker, treacly beers so much.
So I brew beer I know i will be light on maltiness, pale in colour, heavy on hops and then I carbonate quite aggressively.

So pick out the bits you liked in the beer and we can make you something similar. :thumb:

 

[chris_cov]

Well i asked my grandad what it was called and he says hooky gold. It was very smooth and had almost a sour taste at first but that soon went. It also had a slight perfume taste which was nice but not too strong dont know if that would be from the hops or what as its the only ale iv ever tried and not much of a beer conisseur lol. Was absoloutly lovely regardless. Sorry if thats not much help but if you can give me any advise on anything simmilar i would really appreciate it. So would my grandad because i know he would steal a few bottles from me lol. Thanks. :

 

[Slate Miner]

Ahhh! Hooky Gold, a lovely pint, definitely has a citrus taste to it, perfect ale for the summer months. :thumb:

I admit I'm biased, born and bred in Oxfordshire and know Hook Norton well. The brewery is well woth a visit, they even have a lovely old steam engine to produce most of the brewery's power.

Worth trying Hooky Bitter @3.6%, it's a classic session beer, quite hoppy and fruity. One is never enough!. :drink:

For something a little stonger try Old Hooky, a well balanced, good honest English bitter. :

 

[chris_cov]

Sake lads come on im bottling my stout tommorow and need a new project lol. My mate is asking me to do him a corona type of lager but want to make something similar to hooky gold first!! Im going my homebrew supplier in coventry market on saturday so try and reply before then. :

ps puravida how u getting on with ur leffe??? :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

Hooky Gold is made with Fuggles and Goldings hops. Standard hops really, fuggles for bittering and goldings for finishing. It also uses Willamette which are american, maybe a little difficult to get from a home brew supplier :p

 

[darrenwest1]

if you fancy a decent kit go for a 2 can wherry kit

 

[chris_cov]

Iv read a lot about the wherry kits they seem to have a lot of good feedback and very popular. Is there anyone in particular or are they all good kits.

On a side note i bottled my muntons gold stout today and had a little taste and was pleasantly suprised it wasnt too far off guinness. can anyone reccommend how long i should leave it till it will be best to drink??? :

 

[carl_saint]

You want to leave it at least 4 weeks before touching. The longer the better! Check the review for Wherry in the beer kit review section!

 

[PaulCa]

Hooky Gold is made with Fuggles and Goldings hops. Standard hops really, fuggles for bittering and goldings for finishing. It also uses Willamette which are american, maybe a little difficult to get from a home brew supplier :p

http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/ ... willamette

 

[chris_cov]

Havnt been on here for a while so sorry for late reply. Ended up getting a whoodfordes NOG kit in the end. should be ready to bottle in about a week as going to leave it a few days longer than instructed. Fingers crossed this will turn out as nice as some of the reviews iv read. :

 

[RobWalker]

Hooky Gold is made with Fuggles and Goldings hops. Standard hops really, fuggles for bittering and goldings for finishing. It also uses Willamette which are american, maybe a little difficult to get from a home brew supplier :p

http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/ ... willamette

Worcs Hop Shop do them for 2.25 100g, but I was talking more about popping into your local...unless you're doing an order online, they're probably hard to get hold of in shops.