Hook Norton Double Stout

Hook Norton Double Stout [baron rating 5/5] - 4.8% black ale,smoky choc smell,dark roasted choc & banana taste,slight sweet smoky finish Baron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Hook Norton for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Hook Norton A Shining Light

Hook Norton A Shining Light [baron rating 4/5] - 4.5% copper ale,floral citrus smell,slight spicy biscuit taste,stoned fruit bitter finish Baron Orm

Thank you to Hook Norton for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Hook Norton Twelve Days

Hook Norton Twelve Days [baron rating 5/5] - 5.5% dark ruby ale,choc mild boozy smell,rich smooth burnt fruit taste,bitter burnt choc finish Baron Orm

To see how it stood up to xmas food matching, watch the Christmas Special video.

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Hook Norton for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Christmas Beers with The Ormskirk Baron

We did our Christmas Special last night, a taste-off of eight different Christmas-themed ales with a range of Christmas food - turkey, vintage cheddar cheese & mince pies.

We tried:

• Batemans Rosey Nosey [baron rating 3/5]
• Fyne Holly Daze [baron rating 4/5]
• Hook Norton Twelve Days [baron rating 5/5]
• Humpty Dumpty Christmas Crack [baron rating 5/5]
• Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale [baron rating 5/5]
• Wold Top 5 Wold Rings [baron rating 5/5]
• Wold Top Merry Christmas [baron rating 4/5]
• Wychwood Bah Humbug [baron rating 2/5]

Find out which Christmas ale we think you should be drinking with your Christmas dinner...

Part 1



Part 2




...Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale - perfect on it's own of with food

We hope you enjoyed watching it, we had a blast filming it!

Thank you to all the breweries who sent beers through for inclusion in this Christmas Special:

• Fyne Ales
• Hook Norton
• Humpty Dumpty
• Shepherd Neame
• Wold Top

Hook Norton Flagship

Hook Norton Flagship [baron rating 5/5] - 5.5% amber ale,spicy smell,full-bodied tangy spicy marmalade taste, lasting sugary spicy finish Baron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Hook Norton for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Christmas Beers with The Ormskirk Baron (teaser)

We are going to do a 'Christmas Beers' audio special at the beginning of December, running though a range of xmas-themed ales giving them 'baron ratings'.

As a warm-up we thought we would do a little video detailing some of the beers in the line-up, please let us know what you thought of the video, we had a lot of fun doing it!

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Hook Norton ales very soon!

Hook Norton recently announced that they had released a new beer, a bottle-conditioned IPA called 'Flagship'.  They were kind enough to send a bottle through for a 'baron rating' along with some others in their range that I've not tried before:

Hook Norton Brewery

• A Shining Light - 4.5% pale ale

• Double Stout - 4.8% smooth & full bodied

• Flagship - 5.5% bottle conditioned IPA

• Twelve Days - 5.5% deliciously dark & strong

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Hook Norton beers soon, and a big thank you to @HookyBrewery from  Hook Norton for sending these through to me!

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Waitrose October ale & beer offers - part 2 (13th October - 3rd November 2010)

Waitrose have an amazing second batch of ale offers for October, their PR staff informed me ahead of time what this month's offers are:

Beer Showcase - Buy 2 for £3 on the following beers:

• Adnams Bitter [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.75

• Adnams Broadside [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.89

• Adnams Gunhil [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.83

• Adnams Lighthouse [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.73

• Bath Barnstormer [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.91

• Bath Dark Hare normally £1.84

• Bath GEM normally £1.99

• Bath Wild Hare normally £1.95

• Black Sheep Black Sheep Ale [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.85

• Black Sheep Golden Sheep [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.89

• Black Sheep Yorkshire Square Ale [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.94

• Brains Dark normally £1.85

• Brains Reverend James normally £1.81

• Brains SA Gold normally £1.89

• Brakspear Bitter [baron rating 5/5] normally £1.92

• Brakspear Oxford Gold [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.91

• Brakspear Triple [baron rating 2/5] normally £2.12

• Courage Directors [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.79

• Duchy Originals Old Ruby Ale normally £1.99

• Fuller's 1845 normally £2.36

• Fuller's Bengal Lancer [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.99

• Fuller's Chiswick Bitter [baron rating coming soon] normally £1.80

• Fuller's Discovery [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.85

• Fuller's ESB [baron rating 5/5] normally £1.95

• Fuller's Golden Pride normally £2.59

• Fuller's London Pride [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.80

• Fuller's London Porter [baron rating coming soon] normally £2.05

• Fuller's Organic Honey Dew normally £1.92

• Greene King Abbot Ale [baron rating 5/5] normally £1.79

• Greene King IPA [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.73

• Greene King IPA Export Strength [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.93

• Greene King Ruddles County [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.69

• Greene King Suffolk Springer normally £2.14

• Greene King Very Special IPA [baron rating coming soon] normally £1.99

• Hook Norton Hooky Bitter [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.94

• Hook Norton Double Stout normally £1.99

• Hook Norton Hooky Gold [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.94

• Hook Norton Haymaker [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.94

• Hook Norton Old Hooky [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.89

• Hook Norton Twelve Days normally £1.94

• Innis & Gunn Original [baron rating 1/5] normally £1.79 - £1.50

• Innis & Gunn Rum Cask [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.99 - £1.50

• Jenning's Cumberland Ale [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.96

• Jenning's Snecklifter [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.96

• Marston's Pedigree [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.81

• Morland Old Speckled Hen [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.82

• Ringwood Fortyniner normally £1.92

• Ringwood Old Thumper [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.93

• Scottish & Newcastle Newcastle Brown Ale [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.91

• Shepherd Neame Bishops Finger [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.81

• Shepherd Neame Spitfire [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.84

• Skinners Bitter Betty Stogs normally £1.85

• Skinners Bitter Cornish Knocker normally £1.85

• Skinners Bitter Heligan Honey normally £1.85

• St Austell Admirals Ale normally £2.04 - £1.50

• St Austell Tribute [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.85 £1.50

• St. Peter's Fruit beer - Grapefruit normally £1.94

• St. Peter's Golden Ale normally £1.84

• St. Peter's India Pale Ale [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.99

• St. Peter's Mild normally £1.62

• St. Peter's Old Style Porter normally £1.85

• St. Peter's Organic Best Bitter [baron rating 2/5] normally £1.85

• St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale normally £1.85

• Thwaites Double Century [baron rating 5/5] normally £1.99

• Thwaites Flying Shuttle normally £2.12

• Thwaites Lancaster Bomber [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.95

• Thwaites Thoroughbred Gold [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.72

• Thwaites Very Nutty Black [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.79

• Thwaites Wainwright [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.85

• Wells Bombardier [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.78

• Wychwood Hobgoblin [baron rating 4/5] normally £1.84

• Young's London Gold [baron rating 3/5] normally £1.91

An excellent selection of offers, I can't even imagine which ones I'm going to stock up on yet!

Hook Norton Haymaker

Hook Norton Haymaker [baron rating 3/5] - 4.2% copper ale,herbal dark chocolate smell,sweet malt taste & sweet spicy bitter finishBaron Orm

Hook Norton Old Hooky for 99p a bottle in B&M Bargains

B&M Bargains in Ormskirk has 500ml bottles of Hook Norton Old Hooky [baron rating 4/5] for 99p (best before end of March 2011)

Hook Norton Hooky Gold

Hook Norton Hooky Gold [baron rating 4/5] - 4.2% gold ale,caramel citrus aroma,crisp sweet spicy citrus fruit taste,grapefruit bitter finish Baron Orm

My visit to The Inn Beer Shop (Southport)

I found out about The Inn Beer Shop in Southport a few months back when searching around for decent bottled ale shops close to Ormskirk.  Last weekend I finally managed to get a chance to get down there and check it out.  The shop is run by Peter Bardsley (brother of Paul who runs the impressive Southport Brewery) who kindly posed for the photo below.

Bottled ales fully line one side of the shop with cafe-style seating at the front and pub-style seating at the back (you can drink your select bottle in the shop for just 50p more).  They also have a cask pump which was serving Southport Brewery's Sandgrounder - I had a cheeky half whilst browsing the shelves of ale.  They have an impressive selection of German & Belgium beers as well as stocking a good selection of local (Southport, George Wright, Moorhouse's amongst others) & national ales. There were some old regulars such as Hobgoblin & Black Sheep but plenty more that I'd not heard of to ensure that each trip would be worthwhile.

They also had a very impressive range of stouts and porters filling a lot of the shelves - I can only imagine that seasonality plays an important part in Peter's stocking decisions, something I personally liked very much - this will add further interest to future visits.

I was particularly drawn to the over-sized bottles (550ml) of Samuel Smith's ales, and so I picked out two of these from the shop's selection, as well as a few others:

The Inn Beer Shop can be found near the roundabout right at the north end of Lord Street, Southport, see The Inn Beer Shop (Southport) on a map for more directions.

Re-rating of Hook Norton Old Hooky

I rated Hook Norton Old Hooky back in November but after re-rating it tonight I'm upgrading it to a [baron rating 4/5] - tasty & drinkable!

Hook Norton Hooky Bitter

Hook Norton Hooky Bitter [baron rating 4/5] - this 3.6% ale has a crisp,hoppy smell, a bitter,refreshing,clean taste & a very bitter finish

Hook Norton Old Hooky

Hook Norton Old Hooky [baron rating 4/5] - 4.6% amber ale,sweet fruity smell,balanced malty fruity caramel taste,slightly sweet finish Baron Orm

Hook Norton ales on offer in Ocado (until 1st Dec)

For any Hook Norton fans - Ocado have six of their ales on a 'buy 5, save 20%' offer - Ocado Hook Norton offer. Not sure if it's a good deal but it's a good selection!